Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Remember this too folks. We lost to Washington twice last season.The Washington Wizards. Once in February..Russ had 32 pts 9 assists and 14 rebs. With TWO turnovers. They beat us again in April. Russ had 18 pts 18 rebs and 14 assists with TWO turnovers.

Notice those dates...this guy turns it up between Christmas and MLK day during the normal season, after about 20 -25 games period. The Wizards started out 5 and 17. Watch...again, there is a reason our big 2 wanted him over Buddy Hield.

 

I guess I'll wait until 2022 until Russ gets it together...

 

The Finals aren't until 2022 either.

 

Yeah, I think we all know that..

 

The s****y play on defense, the god awful turnovers and the awful decision making with many of the shots he takes and when in the shot clock ….. are on him. Nothing to do in my opinion with being on a new team. So what’s his deal if you’ve been following him this closely for years. Why does he continue making stupid plays and stupid mistakes for the whole first half of any season? Honest question. As opposed to at least taking care of the ball while feeling out his new team, and playing respectable defense. He has to his credit cut back on jacking up so many 3s every game.

 

To be honest I don't think he hoops much in the off-season. That's my take, he looks like he uses the season to get into game ready mode. To be fair to him, perhaps new teammates and new cities have something to do with it too, over the last few years. The guy is kind of like a shrew, he goes 100 miles an hr in a 50 zone. Once he dials it down to 70 he's electric. He'll never go the speed limit. Sticking with that analogy, he's around 93 right now. Lol..I like to trash talk a lil bit, but I see him out there doing dumb stuff too. Even when he is playing well, he has a tendency to revert back to erratic and wild mode for a minute. I think Bron and AD will balance some of it out as we go through the season.

 

It seems evident to me what LeBron and AD need to do is not balance out his bad play but hold him accountable. Stop turning the ball over and playing us out of games. And playing crappy defense. I can’t imagine LeBron not having a heart to heart with the guy, knowing what a basketball mind he has and watching Russ just do basic inexcusable (because he keeps doing it) stupid stuff.

He did have all those photo ops showing himself working all summer aledgedly.

 

I'm not worried at all, we've only played 11 games. Russ hasnt played us out of anything IMO. He isn't the sole culprit in the losses. The balance comes from LeBron and AD playing more with him. I don't get with the idea, that Russ is going to be some loose cannon running wild all season. He's erratic and a bit wild early in the season, he turns it up as the season goes along. For whatever reason, that's him. We knew it when we traded for him. I think we'll be just fine soon.

 

Still, it was a big talked about theme when AD arrived that everyone from stars to role players was going to be held accountable. That was and is good. It better still be happening in film sessions and in practice and not just rubbing the top of Russ’s head telling him it’s cool you just be you and we know it’ll get better. Some of the things are unbelievably dumb. Those need to be negatively reinforced out the sooner the better.

 

I can't argue that what you are saying isn't sound. I just have a different perspective on the situation. I expected some growing pains with this new team, I didn't expect this many guys to be missing this early though. Russ has been highly respected in every locker room, and by every franchise he's played for. You don't hear former teammates or executives bad mouthing this guy. This tells me that he isn't some kind of locker room knucklehead. I also fully believe, that Lebron and AD are the best teammates he's ever had. I don't believe he came here to do his own thing regardless. What I mean by him being who he is, there are going to be some moments of erratic play, especially early in the season. I can live with that, because he always improves as the season goes along. I expect that to happen here too.

 

He is just too bad on the 4Q. I'm scared everytime he has the ball, I sense a stupid play coming. So many bad decisions, it's painful

If we want to have success, we are gonna have to have the balls to sit him in crunch time. He can still be a massive weapon to carry on the game and play hard 30min. But coming clutch time, I want Lebron or Rondo with the ball in their hands with shooters and AD. Russ is a walking turnover with bad defense.

But I can't state enough that he can really play a role for us. He is like Howard. Need to understand that to play winning basketball, he needs to do less. Less is more.

Make him run the team during 2Q and a half with a fast basketball, tiring the opponent and take him out in the 4Q with a rested LeBron taking the show. It can be hard to teams to fight that

Don't think Vogel and Lebron will have the balls

 

I approve of this message and agree with its conclusion about “balls”.

 

I need evidence he's going to do better; it seems there's this "narrative" that's he's a slow starter.

Where is the evidence? Point to the last 3-4 years of his career and specifically give me stats that point to a much better player? Any analytics?

And I'm just talking offensively.

I'm not disputing the guys who have proclaimed this, but it would be nice to gather some evidence to validate the claims he's a better second half player.

Either way, I'm hoping he improves.

 

Years backward with last year on top:


Houston (capella trade confuses this one: how much of this westbrook vs Houston completely selling out for him?)

 

TY very much!!

 

On quick view: last 2 years look like there is a definite second half surge
Houston is an odd one though as they' dumped Capella and sold out with him as the big on offense.

The other 2 years hard to say: he had a poor start in 4 years ago but the other months look about the same. 3 years ago decent start bad month 3. Don't know much about those years as I didn't watch or follow OKC

 

All good.

Gives me hope for a better second half...

 

We don't win without Russ today, but boy, we are in a wild rollercoaster with no end in sight! I don't know whatever possessed him to make those clutch crunch time shots in the last two minutes.

:RW Barfbag:

 

Mr I want the last second shot shooting from deep Russ