Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Loved the passion here ….. and hope it all works out that way. My fear is he is putting in hours and hours shooting practice now like he’s never had to before, and certainly did not do like Kobe would have done to f****** fix it like he didn’t do in his 2 seasons with the Lakers. He can clean up most of the rest of his game with the still next level skills in multiple areas he has. If he shoots decently with all the other cleaned up it will be great for them and not the same self satisfied with his rep player we had. Then again maybe no amount of practice improves him. I just find that hard to believe if there’s finally the realization and emotion and dedication to … say …. his (many?) extra hours finally practicing on shooting the ball?

 

Here, he was the #3 guy with a huge drop off in talent 4-15. Now he’s what, the #6 guy? With the guys 7-10 still being decent. You can bench him for better players no problem.

I don’t think Clips actually wanted to do this though. Reported before he signed that he was deciding between Bulls and Heat. PG probably put in a last second call to make it happen.

 

what's weird to me is that wasn't reggie jackson PG's guy? i thought they were best pals, and that was why reggie initially joined after being bought out. would be strange that he had the pull to bring in russ--who just finished demolishing two years of basketball for us--but couldn't get them to keep reggie from being traded for plumlee, whom some thought might just get bought out if not traded.

i don't know. i just know i'm going to be be pissed if russ plays team defense and/or shoots the ball well for the clippers. you can't pin that stuff on anyone but him--that's not the circumstance. he could have chosen to pay attention to defense here. and he could have taken better shots, too. that's not strategy. nobody was in his ear, supporting the tim duncan bankshot attempts early in the clock.

 

I think Russ will largely be the same guy we got. Especially if the rumors of him wanting to be a part of a "big three" are true. He only really knows how to play his game. The late game mistakes will wear on Lue and Kawhi pretty quickly the same way it did our guys.

 

Not sure it'll wear on Kawhi. You have to be on the court to be bothered, not watching from above in the team's box while injured.

 

Fair point.

 

maaaannn, if russ is in there to end games, i'd sit his defender right in kawhi's midrange sweetspot and tell him not to move unless he has to cover his big on a drive.

 

Wow a bleeding heart Plaschke article on Presidents’ Day that echoes what most here saw with the failed Russ experiment.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2023-02-20/clippers-russell-westbrook-lakers-mistake

If there’s a pay wall let me know, I can copy paste it.

 

plaschke doing his schtick again, but this was something i hadn't seen:

and this is something i HAD seen:

again, if this was rob, he'd be getting skewered for lying to us or something.

 

I'm in the SF Bay Area right now and last night on the local Eyewitless News (Go Warriors!) sports report, the reporter, Larry Biel, sounded off on 2 NBA items:

1.) The selfishness of KD and all the other stars who demand to be traded to a better team, even though they haven't played 2 full seasons yet with their contract on the team they wanna be traded from; KD idiotically said what he and Kyrie did is "good for the game" and the proof is social media clicks; and:

2.) The Clippers have to be out of their mind adding Brick, and Biel sounded like all of us, running the litany of Russ's downsides. Didn't expect that from the Curry News Is All We Want to Hear guy up here.

 

they're going to have to be very creative and, imo, very lucky to have russ work with their starting lineup. if they commit to not playing one of their centers with the second unit and just spreading the floor, maybe that can work. but starting him and zubac...we'll see, i guess.

 

It's like they don't own a TV, have access to the internet, or share an arena with the Lakers.

 

This one's for you @Slick2021

 

Lol..I hope you keep that same energy when the Clippers keep kicking our a**. Now WITH Westbrook

 

responding to affirm the implication of prior post. bold strategy, cotton.