Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Depends on who they're playing and who's guarding him.

Take last night for instance: you're telling me Cole Anthony or any of the Magic players can guard Russ one-on-one? They simply didn't have the personnel.

To be more specific, I like to see the stats on elite teams vs. bad teams and how his finishing stacks up.

Teams who are generally more athletic and can throw bigger wings against him, he struggles with.

Do you honestly think Russ struggles against the likes of Harrison Barnes 4 years ago?

He hasn't fallen off a cliff and he has still showed flashes of being very capable in getting to his spots.

I just see the lack of finishing and lack of certain limitations he has when bigger wings on him have shown a slight diminish in his athletic prowess given what I used to see @ his peak.

That's all.

 

Does x -> y in this case? He's playing with Lebron so other teams aren't focusing on him so he should be having easier time getting to the hoop then in the past so no I don't percent chance at the rim tells you much about his athleticism.

His inability to finish at the rim is a much better predictor and I also think you look at his pace adjusted steals (scouts have used steals as a good correlate with athleticism for years). His steals per 100 possessions has nosedived. In his prime he was at 3.0 per game and overall 2.5 a game. He's only at 1.5 now by far his career low. (He used to be regularly in top 5 or 10 in steal% now he's 81st! - just a huge nosedive)

 

^^^ or declining lack of effort or interest on defense? Isn’t that one of our biggest problems with how he plays? Where is this “bulldog” on D that he was “allegedly” in OKC a couple of years ago?

I just don’t see how athleticism can be blamed primarily when he gets up there so often no matter who we’re playing to be able to just “lay” it in. The easiest shots in basketball unless you get the clear dunk which in his position at his size does take a lot more of it and we of course notice the drop off. They are point blank and somehow he’s been forgetting how to soften them up / put the proper angle and spin if needed. But like @svtzr said he is leading the league in getting right there and often it is in traffic and he still has the tricks and acceleration and strength and hops to do those. Leaving dunks out of it.

 

basically he's a pretty bad shooter this year

:Vogelshocked:

 

He’s a pretty bad EVERYTHING this year.

 

Well a few things things;

His mid range from the left side of the floor is almost at 50% - which is a super important shot for him.

The majority of his above the key 3's where he is shooting terribly happened in the first half of the season. He has cut back on this drastically and they don't hurt us anymore.

He was finishing at 65% in the paint for the first 30ish games. Since then he has been shooting below 40% there, if he could go back to where he was, he would be putting up an additional 10 points over the last 15 games.

Lastly, he has been pretty great from the corners threes (relative for Westbrook).

The huge frustration I have with Westbrook is, if he is finishing well at the rim, shooting well from the corner and hitting his mid range shot - he should be a far better fit alongside the remainder of his game. His finishing at the rim has been really disappointing.

 

Yeah, but apparently, it's just lack of focus and concentration...

LOL. Right @LTLakerFan ?

Messing with ya.

 

Yer such a kidder!

 

Well apparently no one gives a bleep today but I thought Russ played well again 2nd game in a row …. glad we had him out there. We are so “out rostered” by Miami size and skill wise even with Lowry and Herro out.

 

Yeah, he played okay versus a good team missing some depth.

I guess 2 good games in a row by Russ standards is a start.

 

Great game by Russ, that benching for a missed defensive assignment seems to have drawn a line that we won’t accept bad effort in the 4th on that end.

 

Why is it just an ok game?

 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZC_objNoJD/

 

So happy he got his stats up in a loss.

 

Reaves has come back to looking not so great (last 2 games) and in the 3rd quarter like 2 minutes after he went in Vogel yanked him back out after that bad telegraphed pass to LeBron that Butler picked off.

 

Oh bull crap. For f*** sake give credit when it’s due. He was playing hard and not selfishly. Turn overs still down. Taking charges and doing numerous good things. How do you call that stat chasing? Never mind don’t care just a bad take.

 

Credit for putting up numbers in a blowout loss?
How well did he defend tonight?
You guys can be happy about losing, not me.
It’s your opinion that I have to be excited about hallow stats. It’s mine that I don’t.

 

He also scored on multiple drives in the clutch and had 2-3 assists in the fourth when we made our run. He was a big part of us making a run. All good for some people who don’t give credit where it’s due.

 

I think this is the Russ the FO and Lebron were hoping for at the least. Really can't complain outside of the reckless TO off the jumpball but in this game it's acceptable for all the positives he brought

Problem remains that his lack of shooting creates spacing issues which means you have to run specific type of players/sets around him and the lack of assets is one reason the Lakers were down in the first place. Still hopefully he can produce like this once AD comes back: only chance that this team has in making a run