[ChrispyParticipant]

 Okay.  A Few Drunken Thoughts from South of the Border…

The early results from the NBA season are interesting. Chief among them is the play of Russell Westbrook. The man has 6 consecutive triple doubles and has single handedly pushed his team to a very respectable 14-8 record. That said, it os him against the world right now, and he is shockingly careless with the ball. He is averaging around 6 turnovers a game, while carrying a massively one-headed burden on offense in the form of volume scoring and pure attack-mode driving. So, two questions for my esteemed friends here on the forum (this does NOT include you, Hype, since Aussies were harmed in the formation of this post). 

Question 1- Is this level of stat stuffing sustainable for the rest of the season

more importantly

Question 2- WIll this level of me against the world basketball continue to translate to wins for OKC?

I am of the mind that Westbrook may indeed average a triple double, bu that in the 2nd half of the year this will burn him down, decreasing his shooting % and possibly (gulp) drive his TO’s even higher, while the loss column finally overtakes the wins and OKC misses the playoff. I may well be wrong, but hey, right now this is my opinion…

 

 

 

 

 

[jerb2011Participant]

 This is not simple stat stuffing, I watch every game. I see the team’s play with him on the court and off. They are a fish out of water when he is off the court, especially with Cameron Payne still hurt. Also, like today’s game, Russell will usually have 5-8 points at the half, with 7-8 rebounds and assists each. He finishes with 30+ though. He tries to defer his scoring to the second half, unless they need a  bucket. In the second half he takes over, but he really is doing it the right way. His decison-making isn’t always the best, but it has improved this year out of necessity. He leads the league in potential assists/game with about 29/game. The turnovers are more from the result of double teams, triple teams, and hard hedges closing off the passing lanes and clogging the paint. The Thunder are not a great 3 point shooting team this year, and that works in the defense’s favor. Clog the paint and swat at Russell when he attacks. That being said, he is willing the team to wins.

To answer your questions though, Russell is probably the only player who can play this way for a full season.

Second, that mentality has always been his mentality.

 

 

 

[ChrispyParticipant]

 and I could have used a better phrase than stat-stuffing, as I didn’t mean to imply that he is number hunting, just that he is posting monster numbers. Poor choice of (drunken) words. Sitting on a bar in a beach (see what I did there?) in Mexico with 50 cent beers isn’t always the best way to make words match intent! Cheers!

[binetParticipant]

Honestly at this point it seems that he should maintain that pace. At least the triple doubles. Eventually he might score less because teammates get better or opposing teams start to triple team him.

He could very well get injured though… His injury history is not that conforting and it’s not like he is careful at all (what makes him great arguably).

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