Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

We're not winning a ring with Russ on any roster.

It just isn't happening.

If he's back next season, (most likely) we'll fall short too.

 

"it is better to remain silent and be thought a player who understands the needs of his team than to talk and remove all doubt"

-Mark Twain

 

yeah, he harped on people expecting big stats, but that's not what we need. didn't see the word defense anywhere, and that's on the reporters, too. he (and the team) needs to be held accountable for being bad defensively, many times amounting to a simple lack of focus and/or effort.

 

Didn't expect Joel Embiid to be beefing with KAT over Westbrook lol:

link

 

Westbrook will make key mistakes down the strech whether he has a good game or not .

Playoffs games are won on details and a team just can't recover from the type of mistakes Westbrook commits .

It's who he is

 

That's actually from over two years ago. I don't know why that bootleg website is bringing up old beef and acting like it has anything to do with Westbrook.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/31/joel-embiid-continues-fight-py-karl-anthony-towns-instagram-11015908/

 

I find it ridiculous when when Austin Reaves said some of the OGs/Vets got on him for Defense. (Melo has actually been putting in effort)

But hell no man and Westbrook is one of the MAIN culprits. That entitled veteran stardom defense right there, yeah there some quarters or games he actually might contest shooters and run up on them but that wasn't the story for most of the season.

The bad defense, the turn overs from simple passes to bricking and countlessly getting blocked by the rim. After Houston, Washington and now us cats out the bag.

 

Exactly. You have to look at the whole picture. You can’t just look at a stretch of games or just one aspect of his offense. The guy is making the most out of any other player in the game and thus, the high expectations are warranted. All the evidence has been provided that he has not, through the season so far, done enough to make us a good team. Just take a look at the record.

 

i hope you're right, but watching this team sleepwalk through games and play zero defense and fail at rebounding doesn't give me much hope

 

I don’t find the cherry-picking point fair. If someone is on a new team, playing a new role, there is a grace period given for adjustment. Russ was bad for the first 15 odd games. The next 20 he has been playing like the best third option in the league.

In statistics you look at trends. Playing bad at the beginning half of the season and then playing good for the next segment means you average out to the league average PG advanced metrics that Pioneer commented on.

But if you view it in the context of changing shot selection, lowering turnovers and improving efficiency - and looked at the advanced stays over the last 20 games than Russ would be a lot better than league average. If he continues this trend by seasons end all the metrics will reflect that by taking the noise out of his poor form to start the year.

 

This is what I’m seeing, a player sacrificing usage to be the third wheel. A player taking better shots, protecting the ball better, attacking the rim relentlessly. Doing a lot of things to make us a better team.

But for some reason, there seems to be a real division between what I’m seeing and expecting from a third wheel over the last 20 games and what everyone else is seeing and expecting.

 

What’s the excuse for him not caring at all about trying to play decent defense? The dude literally hovers around the paint, nowhere near his man, in order to grab the board.

 

sure. or the 30-game sample extrapolates better than the 10-game sample, as is generally the case.

i was all for writing stuff off for the first 10-15 games of the season. and we have plenty of excuses. but us being a contender after this start would be fully unprecedented. as would westbrook grading out as an allstar level contributor over the full season given where he stands today.

 

i'm expecting a serious effort on defense. and i'm seeing almost none of it.

westbrook himself is bringing up the big counting stats on offense. all i want is for him to guard people and look like he's involved on that end. he should have plenty of energy for it.

 

Zero effort again tonight on defense, camping out by the paint, nowhere near his man, in order to pad his stats. Absolutely inexcusable and pathetic.

 

Much better % and offensive efficiency... excluding the head scratcher of a missed dunk.

D wasn't there, but that goes for the entire team, pinpointing Russ on that tonight is scapegoating him. Stan/AB/Bron did a little work on that end, but nothing to write home about.

Russ had some crucial rebounds late, including the one on Bron's Curry 3. Then as I said in both the Bron and Optimism threads, their 2 man game in the final minutes got us the win. The went to the well 3x and got water from it all 3x.

 

He had to contribute tonight right? triple double

 

Russ defensive rating was one of the better ones on the team tonight. I don’t think that quantifies good defence as I thought he was average mostly on D tonight - especially on man D. But he did rotate well enough.

I thought Lebron was particularly bad on defence tonight and he had the worst drtg of our team. But that’s nothing new.