Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

It's on top of my "need to know" things. I'm dying for an interview from Rob or Jeanie after they leave and can talk about it

My only guess is really that fear of health issues with AD/LeBron and that they wouldn't play as much the 3 of them. That's pretty stupid, but I don't expect to be anything smart

 

lebron and AD brokered the deal, and there wasn't really much to be done about it.

now why did lebron and AD, after beating russ in this fashion, think it would work for them? i have no idea.

the only thing i thought was that we were going to try to commit to defense and try to run at every opportunity. but...we definitely didn't commit to defense.

 

Oh yes, I was looking from their perspective, but I don't think they'll ever admit it. I get LeBron was looking to sign an extension soon and wanted some reassurance to extend his legacy, having an ever-available Russ would do wonders.
But I, most of the time, see LeBron has a guy with a lot of BBIQ. After 18 years in the league, and for some years being able to pick and choose his teams and always prioritizing shooters, how could he think this was ever going to work?

It really baffles me, he literally screwed his last years

 

You can’t have a five man unit “committed to defense” when Russ is a part of it. He doesn’t bother with defense.

 

He can be engaged against another star player as a man a mano type of thing. It's just his off ball defense is atrocious

 

This still doesn’t remove him from the liability category.

 

the consistent theme from lebron since he got here has been that he wanted someone else to handle the ball that he trusted. i think that's how russ got to the top of the list. i think he felt like him and shooters wasn't going to be a winning formula anymore. but going full opposite is sort of like what we did his first year here.

yeah, if i was forced to start him, i'd try to put him on the other team's highest usage perimeter player and tell him to try to fight through screens. best chance. he's so bad off the ball. so bad.

 

But he DOES NOT fight through screens. He literally just stops because he DOES NOT CARE. I have seen it over and over and over again.

 

An official punt on the evening.

Curious to see what Ham cooks up tonight.

 

So we have Schroder, Pat, Lonnie, Troy and Bryant.
With Jones, Christie, Nunn and Gabriel right?

Oh boy, that's gonna be ugly.

 

Ahahah that one would be so awesome, a guy can dream

 

He pretty much has to be traded right? If not we let that $47 million go to waste. If we look to re-sign him, we still have to re-sign Reaves, Walker and James/Davis' salaries will increase. We pretty much will be in the same sport of willing out our roster with vet minimums. His salary is the only option for the team to acquire assets who we'd have under control so I don't see how he doesn't get moved by the deadline. All of these reports have to be smoke screens for leverage.

 

Lol..you know a couple of funny things about this particular picture is...

1. It also showed Lebron giving his lackadaisical defensive effort, that he gave at times for periods of games, even in the bubble.
2. I believe that Russ actually hit that shot, and that was one of his best shooting games of the series.
3. If Westbrook hadn't went 0-3 in the last game, he and Lebron shot around the same percentage from 3 in that series.

Somehow this picture became the example of how Russ cost Houston that series though. No..that silly a** idea of starting 5 guys , all 6'7 and under against us, is what cost them that series. They were dead in the water before that series ever began.

 

I know you're a massive Russ Stan but no.. that was the scheme. Russ shot 25 percent from 3 for the season and 25% from three for the series. There was no reason for Lebron to close out on Russ to abandon the shooter in the corner. Lebron also played very solid defense in the bubble. He had a dbpm of 3.1 and a defensive rating of 106. Check the below.



His defense has fallen off the last two years but in the bubble he was good.

btw.. That pic is from game 2. Russ went 4-15 in that game and was 1-7 from three for 10 points. So no, it wasn't one of his better shooting games

EDIT: Russ missed that shot btw. Lebron stayed home on PJ tucker in the corner. 7:15 of the below video

 

Meh...miss me with that Russ Stan jazz man.

Now I was an absolutely, an unabashed Kareem Abdul Jabbar Stan tho..that's why I became a Lakers fan. I'm a Native New Yorker, but I've lived in Houston since the 80's, so I know a thing or two about the Rockets. My brother is a Rockets fan..had season tickets for years. Just because I push back on some of these narratives about this dude, doesn’t make me some damn Stan...anyway..

Back on topic, it was the next game, game 3, that he went 13-24 from the field and 2-4 from 3..against the same scheme. And if you watched that series, how we played Westbrook, is not why we won. They were too small period, we smashed the two best small ball teams in the playoffs that year in the bubble, Portland and Houston, with size and length. Portland was supposedly the best 8th seed of all time according to Charles Barkley.

This dude has never been a shooter..he's 40% fg 30%3pt for his entire career, yet everyone keeps harping about his shooting for some reason. Westbrook balled out in Houston IMO, his triple doubles went down, only 8 , but he shot the highest FG of his career here and I believe had his 3rd highest ppg. It's more to the game than 3pt shooting.

Lebron was great all around in the bubble, and he still took some plays off on D. He's famous for reading opposing teams shot charts, and conceding some shots to guys that he feels can't shoot.

 

Westbrook was a liability for Houston in the playoffs. They were +3.8 points with him off the court and -4.6 points with him on the court. He plays zero defense and hurts his team in the half court on offense. He was a huge reason the Lakers were able to get the back door sweep.