Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

He had more good than bad tonight. He was the superstar we hoped we got.

Westbrook with pace in the fastbreak is still absolutely effective as a scorer and a playmaker. We need shooters and slashers like Monk to play alongside him. In the halfcourt he is pedestrian.

The problem is simple: Both he and Lebron really need the ball a lot. Hopefully they can figure it out

 

Watching Russ is like playing Russian roulette with 5 bullets in a 6-shooter.

Couple HUGE buckets to close out the 4th and the drawn charge.

Another triple double in the books.

Props for staying connected to Robinson and Herro defensively in the 4th and OT. Uncharacteristically engaged against those two for extended periods.

 

I don’t think my heart can take a full season of Westbrook.

 

For me, if he just stops jumping in the air with no passing lane or nobody to pass too, I may survive the season. I can’t wait for LeBron to get back so I don’t have to stress soooooooooo much in crunch time.
His good did outweigh the bad though.

 

Yeah man- is it really too much too ask to NOT have one of our worst long distance shooters take a bad distance shot at the end of regulation???? I just don’t get it. Frank needs to do better.

 

That's why he is here

 

Ouch

 

Turnovers and all this was a good effort from Russ and his best game for us. I do think he will get the turnovers under control and will benefit from LeBron being able to run the show down the stretch.

 

How does his skills not translate into wins, when his teams have made the playoffs 11 times? I don't get that statement. Also does 8 turnovers cancel out 14 assists? I always ask that question when people bring up how many turnovers Lebron may have in a game, where he also had double digit assists. Are turnovers more impactful, than assists in a game? Just curious what people think on the subject.

 

i'd say a turnover is worth about -2 assists on average (though i'm sure someone's actually calculated it out). just think about how many of each generally occur in a game. turnovers are doubly bad because not only are they a wasted possession on offense, they often turn into much easier buckets for the opposition going the other way.

chris paul's career a/to ratio is 9.4/2.4, nearly 4-1!

russ is 8.6/4.1, which isn't that bad, but it's quite different.

anyway, individual counting stats aren't that useful, imo. it's how things happen.

the "westbrook's a loser" stuff is obviously overplayed, but the complaints about his lackadaisical defense and questionable decision-making are both valid and span his entire career.

anyway, to return to the point, yes, 8 turnovers can get close to negating 14 assists, especially if a few of them are live ball turnovers that lead to buckets.

 

Then it would really depend on if the turnover lead to points scored wouldn't it?An assist is actually a scored basket, but a turnover is a lost possession where you might haved scored. This is just a basketball question in general. Some stats seem to be valued over others, like rebounding gets undervalued in today's game IMO. It gets a lot less attention than points scored or three point percentage.

Back to Russ ...there is a narrative surrounding him, but I don't see where it was ever proven that his issues alone, caused his team to lose a playoff series specifically. It also depends on the other guys, Paul's numbers are great for a PG but he's only been to one Finals too.

 

Good game.

Let us see a stretch of games where he's efficient.

I doubt that will happen, though.

 

There's some positive.

 

We need to see more of positive video clips about his defense. They’re so rarely seen in the wild. Would be a very hopeful trend. Kid seems reasonably athletic to be a good defender.

 

One things for sure.. he isn't shy about putting in effort. He's definitely showing signs. He's crazy quick to the rim still, even in the 4th he was blowing by people. I really was hoping he'd nail that game winner to end the 4th it would have really helped his confidence.

 

If he was any more confident he’d be doing pull up 30’ heat checks at the start of games. Not necessarily a good thing, but yeah the guy never appears tired or not capable of pedal to the metal.

 

If Russ wants to chuck bad shots, he needs to balance it out by attacking the rim too. He's averaging a career low 4.6 free throw attempts a game. You can live with the bad shots if at least some of the forays into the paint draws free throws.

That shot at the end of regulation was horrible and apparently Russ has a history of taking that exact same shot.