Is the Olympics helping or hurting Russell Westbrook?
Carmelo has taken twice the amount of bad shots as Westbrook for the Olympic team while playing zero defense at least Westbrook is causing havoc on defense. He has been there best on ball defender this summer and while he may never average 10 assits in a season he is still a top 5 PG. I am sick of people ripping this kid for no apparent reason other than thinking that Durant should get 35 shots a game.
Melo had some good games against some suspect competition but I just don't like the way the ball stops moving when he gets it. He is always looking for his shot first which is what makes him a great scorer but ask the Knicks how successful they were just standing around watching him try to score one on one. Melo is and will remain to be one of the games best scorers but I maintain that he will never win a title due to his "I will get mine" offensive game.
He stepped into the role that Wade has in 08. He comes in as a guard off the bench, guards the other teams best guard and plays ridiculous high energy defense. I really is a toss up between him and Iggy as to who has been the best defender for team USA this summer.
So what if he is shooting alot. 1. USA has been blowing out most of the teams so in a game where we are up by 30 plus it really doesn't matter what types of shots we put up by then. 2. He is attacking the rim. Westbrook has nicely mixed driving to the hoop and shooting keeping both at around 50% of his attempts. 3. When you play defense the way he has been playing, creating turnovers and shutting people down you deserve a little freedom on offense. It has been said a few times that Coach K stresses defense and that aslong as a player is tuned in on the defensive end he will leave the player alone of the offensive end.
I honestly couldn't disagree with you more.
as mentioned his d has been fantastic but he does take alot of bad shots i said last year b for the season okc would have been better off trading him for a pass first pg when i heard the rondo for rw trade rumors last year i was hopin okc would pull the trigger on that deal rondo would b amazing along side kd
I disagree he had a career year this past season avg 24 pts on 46%, that's good numbers. I don't always like his pull up jumpers early in the clock, but you have to take the good with the bad I guess. Also at this point like Chewy said, US has been blowing teams out the water so nobody thinks much of it. Westbrook isn't a prototypical pg, but he's great how he is now.
Idk if he should change his style because he's a 2 time all star, his team just made the finals after WCF in 2011, and you never know, he may not be as good a player for it.
I'm not saying that... Taking a low percentage shot in the beginning of the shot clock need to change... It's simply a bad shot without any ball rotation... He can change that without having to change his game... What he did in the Finals was actually how he should play, outside of game 5... It's more than just numbers, it's where and WHEN the attempts were taken... OKC lost not because of Westbrook, but because of how great LBJ was and KD being a victim on defense...
There's a YouTube video that breaksdown his game...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0_CeUzud_g&feature=plcp
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Jeez... This guy picked Russell Westbrook's mistakes a part lol.
He's right though.
I see what you're saying in this thread. It's really common sense... You can be a scoring/attacking point guard who also makes good decisions and takes good shots. I mean, look at Tony Parker and Derrick Rose.
Westbrook has to improve his shot selection and decision making, plus just move the ball more... I mean, make the extra pass. I haven't seen much improvement (shot selection/moving the ball wise) with Team USA either... He still pretty much takes bad shots.
I've become a fan of Westbrook though and hope he improves this and figures it out.
I never said he's out shooting ANYONE... I'm saying he's taking bad shots... Another thing, I'm not saying he suppose to out assist anyone either... What I am saying is he need to move the ball more as this seems to be his biggest problem at the PG position... I would think him being up by 30 he would be more incline to pass the rock, but this simply is not the case... It doesn't matter if they are up by 30 or up by 5, he is STILL taking those shots...
Y'all aren't reading the whole post... I asked if this Olmpics is helping or hurting his game??? If he needs to be a more assisting guard for the OKC to progress, how can this help him???
FYI, D. Wade didn't get his points that way... Secondly, the success of the Thunder was more on KD, Harden, and Ibaka improvement as players... I just don't see how someone's shooting percentage and assist totals dip and he the reason they won... He also averaged more turnovers too... Taking those bad shots is a problem, I really don't care what you done on the defensive end... That's just a stupid thing to say... You have All-Stars and Superstars on your team, rotate the damn ball at least one time...
Look, if your gonna critisize him for taking as many shots as he does on the Thunder, than your ignoring the fact that the Thunder NEED him to score. Other than Durant and Harden, who scores for the Thunder? No really, who scores? You aren't going to throw the ball in the post to Perkins, Ibaka has a nice jumper but your not going to design a play for him, he'll get whatever he can when Durant, Harden, and Westbrook Drive the lane, and same goes for Nick Collison. Sefeolosha is a defensive specialist, and Fisher is more washed up than a used bar of soap. Who else is supposed to score? I'm sick and tired of people beating up on him, he's a top 10-15 player in the league, he's only going to get better, he's not a bad guy, he's not a cancer, he's just a really good player who needs to learn some fine points of the game. And he is a very good POINT GUARD. The Thunder used him off the ball a bit more this past season, hence his assists went down from 8 to 5.5, but he's still a top 5 pg and if the Thunder ever come to a point where Durant can primarily play the 4, Harden the 3 and they can find a legit PG(Eric Maynor might be that guy that comes in, doesn't need to do a whole lot, just set everyone up, and hits open threes) then Westbrook would be absolutly amazing off the ball. I hope Westbrook continues to play his way and comtineus to improve. Sky is the limit for this kid, when he comes in and averages 26(probably closer to 23-24, but I'm really high on him) a game next season everone is going to shut up and pretend that they never said anything bad about him.
while i agree with mostly everything you said, its not all a bed of roses when it comes to westbrook.
he does need to look just a tad bit more for durant and his teammates without loosing the needed aggressiveness from him. because i think he can get his 24 points and still manage to get 7 assist per game
I don't think the point of the thread was to complain about Westbrook shooting too much.
It's his shot selection and his decision making. I mean, it's really not new... Just restating it. Everyone knows it by now.
You can be aggressive, attack, look to score, etc and take good shots/make decisions at the same time.
when competing with the best players in the world for a couple of months in the summer has hurt anyone's game. Barring injury, and maybe a little fatigue, every player on Team USA will be better next year.
Playing with and against World Class players and receiving World Class coaching. How could that hurt you, unless you discover you aren't as good as you thought and lose confidence. That is obviously not the problem here.
He is not playing the lead guard spot with Team USA, and that has affected how he plays. He is not always looking for other guys shots, but his own. It is a more natural spot for him.
This summer should open his eyes as to KD's abilities on drive-and-kick opportunities, but may hurt his opinion of Harden's scoring abilities. OKC often has Harden playing lead guard in the fourth quarter, so it may not affect Westbrook that much anyway.
Westbrook is the kind of player he is and you live and die by how he plays. That is his game. The thing that makes he good and unstoppable at time makes him sometimes look bad. I am sure they knew what they were getting and are happy with the results. Everyone is looking to turn any talented player into this mythical basketball player that does not exist. Jordan used to take some questionable shots but no one focused on that. They focused on the shots he made and his magical dunks. I think when newbies critisize Westbrook who is still young. Please go watch young Jordan.
I couldn't stand Russell's play prior to the Finals and in that Lakers series. Even though he was hot, it came off a lot of poor shot attempts and 0 ball movement... I felt in the Finals he took what the defense gave him and only looked to take over when Durant was out (remember KD was in foul trouble that whole series).
Having the opportunity to play in the Olympics I thought I would see Russell learning from some of the best PG's in the game CP3 and Deron, but it's not looking that way... I understand that his role on the team is to play the 2. Jesus Christ does he have to take a ridiculous shot everytime he touches the ball? The is a team full of stars and shot takers, does he really need to be that selfish?? I know I'm not the only one who notices him coming down and pulling up without passing the ball once this summer... It's as if I'm watching the OKC Thunder... It kills me everytime he does this because it's too high in the shot clock, a bad shot, and doesn't force the defense to move... This is him at his worst, unless he's hot then everyone is ok with it, not me... I think if he actually hits that shot it's hurting to his team in the future because he's more incline to take it... There's a reason his shot percentage dropped this year and this is why... I hope this doesn't carry on into next season, but the way it's looking if he does it with superstars around him why not do it with OKC??? smh...