Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Russell Westbrook is not getting traded. I mean it should be obvious by now.

 

from what i recall lakers dont pay attention to advanced stats, so i doubt ham or his staff care bout these metrics

 

Vogel either...a lot of coaches don't but fans love them.

 

it's all posturing. he'll move if we get a good offer. there just hasn't been a good offer.

 

A lot of teams have internal advanced stats that fans aren’t privy to either. Lots of things on defence and playmaking in particular that basic stats like Raptor and LEBRON don’t take into consideration. I mean they have a whole host of cameras and machine learning algorithms that spit out things down to heat maps of players, how close they are to who they are defending st all times, gravity etc etc

I always found it interesting how advanced stats didn’t favour Kobe. But I’m not sure there’s 5 players 1990 to present anyone takes over him anyway no matter how much they dislike him.

As for Russ, Morey is known as the leader of the advanced stats push NBA wise and he seemed to think that Russ gave them a bigger chance of winning than Chris Paul did. And that’s according to their internal stats. And I highly doubt Twitter posters know more than front offices and the huge access to data sets they have.

 

i like "advanced stats" more than box score stats, but yeah, the real value is in the level of data acquisition that teams have versus most of your analysts. you can subscribe to some databases (like cranjis must) that give you some of what svtzr is talking about, but i imagine teams have in-house stuff that's even better.

now, do we...i don't know.

i'm also a bit less rosy about the nba having fantastic analytics, and morey is actually a great example of someone who has trotted them out and then sort of went against them when he felt like it. i mean, the league isn't even a decade past thinking john hollinger was an analytical genius. seriously, that was an embarrassing period for everyone, and i have a hard time believing nba front offices went from thinking arbitrary weighting systems applied with 7th grade math were alchemy to being on the cutting edge of analyzing the complex sets of data that are possible with the kind of tracking we have at our disposal.

edit: the above paragraph is echoing weezy's response. i don't think morey's a genius. i know danny ainge isn't (his "brain-typing" bs was an absolute pseudoscientific joke, for example).

i could really nerd out on all this stuff, as complicated measurement and analysis is part of my job.

anyway, the russ problem is that we're only better with him on the floor a) without lebron and b) against second units.

 

You are comparing apples to robots. It’s common practice to have bigs who can’t shoot free throws to save their lives sitting during crunch time. A point guard who can’t shoot is useless, unless he’s ELITE on defense, passes like Jason Kidd, and can rebound, while not having to camp in the lane, leaving his man completely wide open.

 

Don’t let the pretty false narratives get in the way of the facts.

 

What? It's quite simple. There are players that for various reasons start games, but do not finish them. That fact alone, which was the premise of your post, doesn't warrant getting rid of them.

Having said that -- dumping Russ is a priority and a holiday-to-be.

 

Okay great. Our player who doesn’t finish games is currently “helping” us to an awesome 11-16 record. He’s not the only problem, but according to his shooting percentages, + - numbers, and poor defense, he’s one of em.

 

Good pacing and energy from Russ, especially in the 2nd half. Even had success with his midrange game tonight.

 

such a roller coaster ride from possession to possession.

i'd like to see how this was stated...that last part concerns me.

i've been open to keeping russ, but if he's making digs about his role, he's gotta go, imo. we basically gain nothing if he walks in FA. either he becomes part of the team as a bench player, or he needs to be re-homed.

 

Russ is going to complain non matter what his situation is. Not once did he ever take responsibility for his own actions or performance, instead always scapegoating something or someone.

Dude is an extreme cancer and imo has been babied/yes manned his entire existence. I knew he was being a douche at post game interviews his whole career but the one with the reporter last year with his performance I lost all respect for him as just not as a player but as a man.


smdh for getting made at a reporter doing his job and not owning up. I was glad he had spurts of good games, so that we can sucker any team into trading for him.

our bubble chip should have an *? All his triple doubles should have an *

 

It was actually one of his best post games the media guys were sayin. He was joking with them, engaged, not on his phone, not standoffish, gave actual responses. Rare.

 

yeah, that's better than it could have been, for sure. thanks for the clip.

 

Yup.
Unfortunately, every other GM knows he’s fools gold on the court.
I will be shocked if someone actually takes him in a trade. I’m throwing a party the day he no longer gets the privilege of being a Laker.

 

This was about the perfect game from Russ and the coach. Used his athleticism and pace to speed up the game and attack mismatches/second units.
Then sit him with 5 minutes to end the game so the Lakers could close with spacing.

I think he's very good in this role and I can't believe I'm defending this dude who I want off the team as soon as possible but he deserves credit in how well he is planning. Is he every going to be happy about it? The dude was the MVP of the entire league - even if he's grouchy about it I don't see any evidence that he's not trying to do what the team want him to. Yes he makes stupid a** decisions but overall he seems to making up for it

The real issue is not him directly anymore
1) Ham and the coaching staff have a hard time benching him in the 4th when he's playing well as they think the good times will roll and not understand when the other team puts in their closing lineups with their better defenders they will neuter him by slowing the pace down and either putting big on him or sagging off him. There is just no way for the Lakers to beat these defenses consistently

2) The FO: he has value to his team but his contract will allow the Lakers if the choose to (I personally think it's absolutely stupid the way AD and Lebron are playing and the other players they have found not to) to bring in multiple players. They may not bring exactly what Russ bring but things like shooting/size/defense can be brought in and Russ's main asset of playmaking simply isn't as important with Lebron and Reaves' growth now

 

Wow that clip above looks like Lake Powell when it was close to full. Now it and Lake Mead are down to 1/3 capacity and in real danger of being too low to run the turbines for power and then becoming dead pools within a couple years if the drought doesn't let up. Fortunately for now a great start to the Sierra and Rockies snowpacks and hopefully it continues. Top of Mammoth around 11 feet deep already. A huge snowpack could help the lakes a lot.

 

here for the content!