Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

I’m fairly conflicted in all of this.

On one hand, Russ should and could of adjusted more, put more effort in defensively, and finished better at the rim.

On the other hand, you’ve traded for an all time floor raiser, why didn’t you give him and AD the keys for 3 quarters and then let Lebron bring it home. Instead Lebron neutered him to get his stats.

To me there is no doubt that Russ did make sacrifices on shot amount, usage, bringing the ball up, setting plays, he just pouted and then didn’t try on defence, didn’t get himself involved in sets and generally said f it and took some bad shots.

But I saw a lot of the same things with Lebron, so not great from the leaders on this team.

 

Russ still handled the ball more than everyone on this team so the notion Lebron "neutered him is false". Especially since he had plenty of time to dominate it further with LeBron missing 20+ games.

The truth is, he's just not a good player anymore.

 

Let's go!

I'll be elated if he's gone.

Absolutely elated.

Can't stand the guy.

 

This is really a nail in the coffin of the team not letting Russ be Russ argument: the problem is he sucked not that he wasn't given a chance

 

Advanced stats? Ha!

Russ is MVP level.

Did you see him last year in Washington?

Everybody is at fault for the reason Russ sucks a**

Amirite?

 

Exactly, all of the data says he sucks. On ball...Off ball.. Defensively..

Eye test says the same thing. Just a complete anchor to the team.

 

With all due respect but BS that brogdon isn't a perimiter threat you prolly haven't watched or seen much of him this packages is 3x better then old injured Hayward/ who? Rozier hasn't lived up. His contract since leaving C's to topmit off 2 EX c bags

 

i agree that russ/AD pick and roll should have been plan a with lebron picking stuff apart off that. but weren't there some stats early in the year (when all three were playing) that indicated we actually ran that quite a bit, relatively speaking? like only less than trae/capela? feel like we discussed that, as i was surprised.

anyway, i just can't sweep his moping and lack of effort under the rug. both he and lebron failed as leaders, imo. and i know folks want AD there, but that's not AD. further, with two older hofers on the roster, there's not room for another voice/model, imo.

i was a russ supporter before he came here. he changed my mind with his selfishness. all the answers to reporters wherein he cites his stats and such...just awful. really want him out.

i like rozier more than brogdon simply because a) he's basically the exact player that has excelled next to lebron despite lebron's insistence that others work better, and b) he tends to be available more often.

also, rozier has been better overall since leaving boston. that's the espn bias showing up. nobody watches charlotte.

 

That's cute with all the advanced stats. He also played the most minutes despite being unfairly benched a whole bunch of fourth quarters and asked to play for a coach with no offensive creativity and no awareness of playing lineups or sets that have cohesion.

Lebron brought Russ here because he/AD needed help after not getting it done earlier. So you bring in the guy and not even help him out to adjusting to the team? Lebron's the one that went to Russ and brought im overe here. The guy who is obsessed with chasing and forming superteams is the one who got Russ outta WAS and down to the Lakers.

I'm with Russ on this one, I give a larger share of this blame pie to Lebron and Vogel.

Russ didn't help himself with this play on the court and his attitude but he ain't wrong here either.

The Westbrick name calling situation and how the team handled it was appalling. Yes Russ needed to toughen up and ignore that noise as playing for the Lakers, that kinda stuff is part of the package but man no one on the Lakers leadership group stuck up for him.

He was the only one that was available all year, he's the only one who disciplined himself to stay healthy and play out there. Heck he had a very strong last 2 months to finish the year too.

I have no doubt he's gonna have a fantastic year next year. He is imperfect and has flaws that can be exploited. He has poor IQ and is a stubborn guy. BUT WE KNEW THIS ALREADY ABOUT HIM AND STILL GOT HIM HERE.

But he brought a ton of good things to the court that we didn't value and utilize more in order to win games.

 

unfairly benched? players with lesser names would have been fully benched.

 

He got unfairly benched for some of the games IMO. Of course we turned to Lebron-ball during those times, which doesn't work and doesn't utilize players well unless they're catch and shoot types.

 

yeah, i just feel like he got a ton of rope here. if anything, vogel probably should have gone down via conflict with russ rather than capitulation.

 

Especially since reports say he convinced Lebron and AD that he would adapt his game and do anything to fit in. He essentially lied to them.

https://theathletic.com/3243084/202...tes-on-nick-nurse-russell-westbrook-and-more/

 

For everyone bringing up his ball dominance metric % (not even sure what that is as there is a new advanced stat monthly) from what I gather it’s relative to the players he is playing with. So who were we going to get to initiate plays when we were missing Lebron, AD and Nunn? You want Monk or Melo just iso-ing all the time? Or THT prior to the trade deadline that was a deer in the headlights?

If we look at some basic stats and not random advanced stuff wannabe Twitter coaches use, his usage was down to his lowest since his second season, as were his shot attempts. His shot selection is overblown, he took the least amount of threes he has in the last 10 years - 3.4 a game, less than he did in Houston.

We just didn’t utilise Russ in an effective way at all. He is a play maker that can be effective attacking the basket and in post ups or as a secondary attacker when the defence collapses on the initial action.

Also the impact his defence hurt us is overstated. The PG position is the least valuable defensively - there is only really a handful of guys that make an impact from PG and it’s mainly Jrue, Caruso and Lonzo. Our defence struggled because we had no C and no wings that could help. Trade for Myles Turner and get Nunn healthy or another 3&D SG and watch us be a top 10 defence again with AD and those guys.

 

how does this happen when the defense isn't attending to him off-ball, though? who's collapsing the defense (and also able to defend on the other end)? it's not current lebron or AD. and you can only post him if everybody else can shoot, which we don't have because AD isn't really a shooter.

i just haven't seen a credible offense suggested given our personnel at the top. again, best i could come up with was AD/russ pick and roll with lebron on the weak side. money says lebron hates that idea.

curious as to what that means, as i've seen it bandied about. defense matters at all positions, and guys who don't move and pay attention hurt you. that's russ. yes, individual pg defenders basically get screened half the time, but what happens after that matters, too. russ simply didn't play on that end except to ball hawk, and he's gotten less apt at that. so many clips of him just watching action on that end. lebron, too, tbh. again, you can't win this way.

 

Man those exit interview answers annoy me so much... dude doesn't get it. Lack of selfawareness.

 

Watching clips of PG's around the league will just affirm the fact, that most of these point guards in the NBA are doing the exact same stuff Westbrook was doing on defense. Watching the action after getting screened. I still say he was at a disadvantage against the bigger players if he got caught in the paint on a switch. That's understandable, but he didn't get picked on one on one as much as Avery and others by opposing perimeter players.

Those blown layups and FT's were bigger issues than his defense to me. He did curb the wild recklessly turning the ball over stuff as the season progressed.