Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Sure.

We have the elite passer and we've basically have DJ out of the rotation.

Dwight plays sparingly.

There's way to optimize him.

 

Too easy to adjust for: you put a big wing or a forward on Westbrook and then Lebron has no advantage on any switch. Lakers did this earlier in the year and teams adjusted using Vogels technique

For example, Denver put Aaron Gordon not on Lebron but Westbrook. I just don't think people understand how awful Westbrook is in halfcourt (this version who isn't explosive any longer: I mean he looked more athletic with a supposed torn quad I guess 2 years ago?). This allows a great athlete and good defender in Gordon to play the passing lanes as he will camp in the lane and allow Russ to shoot. When Russ tried to attack Gordon 1v1, Gordon basically was grinning the whole time. It was the wolf looking at little red riding hood s*** eating look

If you put him in dunker spot, all sorts of badness happens then too. AD is then taken out of the lob spot and Russ is not a guy like Bruce Brown who races back. Russ in that spot take away a wing who normally is responsible to contain.

The hope at least in the regular season was his full court ability but he's older and not as explosive

 

i suppose, but if gordon's on him, there's a mouse somewhere--plus iso lebron should be pretty concerning (though maybe that's an equally large issue). i guess currently, that mouse plays avery bradley, so no biggie.

 

Russ and AD were starting to get some chemistry on the P&R action, before AD went down. AD had one of the highest shots at the rim pct in the NBA. I think we will see more of that as he ramps up. My question is how does Lebron play off of those two guys during that action. The one thing we haven't seen much at all so far, is Russ,AD and Bron on the court together period. I keep pointing out that they have only played 3 consecutive games together all season. Now that we have all three available, I look forward to seeing what plans the staff has to maximize them. I imagine that we are going to see some sets and plays, that we haven't seen being run much thus far, moving forward. All critism aside, I agree with Kenny Smith. It's impossible to judge the Lakers trio fairly, without seeing them actually play together.

 

This doesn't work in the Lakers favor: you have Gordon (or Bridges, or Wiggins) playing free safety as they will be assigned to give Russ the 3 point shot. So this makes the counter of posting up the mouse in the house incredibly difficult fi a shot blocker is in there as well or if you run the PnR the driving lane will be congested.

Russ's problem is two fold: everyone wants him to shoot 3's and he doesn't have the athleticism on 1v1 to blow by bigger wings. In the regular season should be ok as more open court: slowed down pace and I just don't know

 

We shall see moving forward. From what I've seen so far this season, is that Westbrook still has the ability to blow by most people guarding him, the problem is nobody is usually rolling to the basket with him. Our guys are mostly fanning out to the three point line when he drives, and he hasn't always delivered at the rim on his own. You look back at Russ in OKC and even Washington last season, the bigs have feasted off of Russ driving to the cup ,if they roll to the basket with him. That is the only way DJ has been useful this season, and AD was using it to his advantage too IMO. I'm not sure the back off Westbrook thing is going to work like some think in the playoffs, because if you give him too much open space, he can still attack off the dribble with a head of steam, and teams are going to still rotate to him, with leaves a shooter on the wing with a good look.

 

isn't russ's specialty assists to three point shooters? or am i confusing him with someone else?

 

I think there was some stat that somebody came up with, that said Russ had the highest pct of assists on wide open three point shots or something like that. I guess the inference was that he creates a lot of open jumpers by his drives to the basket, but Lebron does that too. I'd like to see more of Lebron taking his threes off of that, instead of just launching random 30 footers.

 

https://lakersnation.com/lakers-new...rook-to-continue-to-attack-basket/2022/01/25/

 

Not sure what game you watched but Russ didn’t have any real trouble with Gordon.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...eamID=1610612747&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

Watch the shot attempts. In fact he had 3-4 gimme layups he missed and shot 7/15 from the field in 25 mins. 1/2 from three, 1/4 from his mid range and 5/9 from the paint. He should have converted a few of those times where he bullied Gordon out of the way at the rim.

And Gordon is a good defender so if he didn’t struggle against him, there might be a handful of other guys who are more athletic to guard him.

 

He went 2-5 against Gordon with one of the made shots a a mid range pull up (teams are very happy him taking that) and another one that WB got away with an offensive foul and missed. The bigger problem with this sort of analysis is obviously it only includes shot attempts! A good defender prevents shots as well and when you include that you get this wonderful highlight where I don't think anyone thinks Russ has an advantage

 

Gordon did well there keeping his hand on the ball so Russ couldn’t go up for a shot, but he also bumped him off two to three times before that.

He went 2/5 against him, with another shot he should of converted right at the rim. He also got off 15 shots in 24 mins, so I don’t see the issue in preventing shots? And I’ve said the whole time, the mid range shot is a shot Westbrook must take to open the game up for himself. He is hitting them at 49% from his spot either side of the key.

If the opposing teams best idea is to put their best wing defender to slow down Russ, just make space for Lebron on the weaker wing. I don’t accept the idea that you can’t make an offence work, there are many ways.

 

I just see a guy in multiple possession trying to bully ball a guy who is bigger/stronger then him and looks surprised when he doesn't get a call go his way or he can't finish either. Sounds more like the story of the season for Russ rather then some magic idea that Russ has this great advantage.

Weren't we supposed to get the MVP caliber Russ by this time of the month? Right now getting 15 points on 14 shots and a bunch of bad TO's is considered peak Russ

 

It’s easy to change the goal posts isn’t it? You said Russ got dominated by a grinning Gordon, but he didn’t. He actually had fine success against him. And Gordon is about as big and athletic as a wing defender you’re going to get.

Now you’re bringing up 15 points on 14 shots like that’s some important metric? So if he gets 2 extra fouls called against him that the refs swallowed their whistles for and scores 20 points on 14 shots that’s somehow so much better? What about the previous game where he scored 24 on 15 shots?

So if he sucks in the half court what about in the playoffs against us on a torn quad when he scored 30, 24 and 25 on 50% shooting? As a third wheel, you think that won’t help us win a few games when you got Lebron and AD next to him?

Like it or not, our best chances of any success in the playoffs come in getting the most we can out of Westbrook as a third wheel. I refuse to assume that after playing no games together that Russ, Lebron and AD can’t make it work.

 

(Both posts) ... Has to be this season. But let's so many here keep b******g about it and hating that he's here. To what point does that do any good now?

 

It is tiring. You don’t have to like the guy, but don’t actively cheer against the lakers just to see him fail and be vindicated that he is the worst thing since sliced bread.

 

Not really changing goal posts (I probably should have made a different post to make this clear and no I don't agree with you that he didn't have significant trouble with Gordon as again a video of shot attempts only shows those possessions): I just think it's funny that a good game for him is what we got against the Nets.

I think the Lakers with AD/Lebron are championship material w/ or w/o Russ. The Lakers will be fine now that they have competent wings but it will be as usual maximizing the Big 2, the lakers will need to bench him for finishing lineups. I'll gladly take the Russ hater label if that means that they should approach the season going forward as having a Big 2 and not a Big 3.

 

I thought Miami was a good game for him, Brooklyn was an ok one. But when you put together 3 games where you are finishing at the rim after going through a terrible 10 game stretch of not being able to do that. I think it’s fair to say, you know it’s nice to see Russ being a positive on the court. Doesn’t mean anyone here is calling him a saviour or peak Russ or MVP anything.

We have our bed and we have to make the most of it when we lay in it. I for one have no intention of booting away the season and working towards next year. There is no guarantee for Lebron or AD being MVP caliber players moving forward.