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Russell Westbrook

The only other person that even resembles a weapon/shooter on that team is Oladipo....He's 5 for 26 in 2 games, 1 of 13 from 3. LOL! Kanter plays no defense, so his scoring is useless. At one point tonight, they were up 13. Westbrook went to take a rest and it shrank to 3 in less than 2 minutes. Everytime Westbrook tried to get others involved, shots clanged off the rim left and right. I could care less, I'm not a Thunder fan - but he has ZERO help. NONE.
 
Cardsstink said:
The only other person that even resembles a weapon/shooter on that team is Oladipo....He's 5 for 26 in 2 games, 1 of 13 from 3. LOL! Kanter plays no defense, so his scoring is useless. At one point tonight, they were up 13. Westbrook went to take a rest and it shrank to 3 in less than 2 minutes. Everytime Westbrook tried to get others involved, shots clanged off the rim left and right. I could care less, I'm not a Thunder fan - but he has ZERO help. NONE.
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Watch other NBA games.. players like Malcolm brogdon are contributors because they are given a chance to be apart of their TEAM.. Westbrook is good but he has players similar to brogdon but they never produce because they aren't allowed to make a play.
 
No one wins 45 NBA games with "zero help." That's absurd. He doesn't trust his teammates. His performance does add a few wins to the Thunders total, I'll certainly grant that.
But that and elevating your teammates, making those around you better, are 2 different things. He doesn't do so. The truly great ones did.
 
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KA4Prez said:
The biggest downfall of Westbrook is that he will be remembered for running Kevin Durant off.
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Sort of.

It ties into his biggest issue- insecurity. He can't handle the idea that anyone might be considered better than him. He has a constant chip on his shoulder, which has an upside (the insane level of effort) and a downside (the often horrible decision making and shot selection).

Michael Jordan in his third season went for 37.1 ppg while taking 27.8 shots per game. His team went 40-42. He wisely decided that he didn't like that, and never again was he such a one-man show. He developed enough ego security, probably based in large part on his popularity, to not worry as much about putting up the biggest numbers he possibly could. Westbrook, OTOH, has always seemed to aspire to have the type of individual season that Jordan had in 86-87 (Or Kobe had the year after Shaq left), pretty much heedless of what that might mean for his team.

The guys who get EVERYTHING in their NBA careers- meaning individual and team greatness- almost invariably sacrifice at least a little bit of their individual brilliance in order to create more team cohesiveness. Westbrook has shown almost no inclination to do that. And yeah, that's a big part of why he no longer has Kevin Durant as a teammate, and it will be a huge part of his legacy.
 
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Yep, and Durant probably wins a few rings in Golden State and goes to the hall of fame. There will always be the questions of "what could have been" with Russ in OKC.
 
Lol.,.ok let me ask it another way. What, exactly, is he "chicken" of?
 
oh look a clown who called westbrook a 'choke artist' is agreeing with mental giant 3rex. you nitwits are the same people who ripped lebron for leaving cleveland

durant leaving okc for a team with 3 top 10ish players that had just come back from 3-1 to beat them is one of the biggest bitch moves of all time
 
JohnnyGentle said:
oh look a clown who called westbrook a 'choke artist' is agreeing with mental giant 3rex. you nitwits are the same people who ripped lebron for leaving cleveland

durant leaving okc for a team with 3 top 10ish players that had just come back from 3-1 to beat them is one of the biggest bitch moves of all time
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A) you're a moron...proven in threads across the board.

2) I never said anything about Lebron leaving Cleveland. Couldn't have cared less.

C) see "A"
 
meanwhile you provide brilliant insight such as hearing on the radio that westbrook is the worst defensive PG in the league
 
says the idiot whose only contribution to a thread about RUSSELL WESTBROOK is that Kevin Durant is a blankety blank.
...and can't even follow that scintillating analysis with even a little solid reasoning to back it up.
 
KA4Prez said:
How does he not make players better?

The dude is carrying a team to the playoffs.

Not just the playoffs either, comfortably in the playoffs.

I'd love to hear about Oscar Robertson's post-season success...
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I'm guessing this is a rhetorical remark.

I'm not going to read through 4 pages of this thread, but probably someone else has already responded.

Oscar Robertson was arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.

The primary reason he didn't win titles with the Cincinnati Royals was because of the dominant Boston Celtics. I think they won 11 NBA titles in 13 years.

Though he was past his prime, as soon as Oscar was traded to the Bucks, the Bucks won the NBA championship.
 
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JohnnyGentle said:
oh look a clown who called westbrook a 'choke artist' is agreeing with mental giant 3rex. you nitwits are the same people who ripped lebron for leaving cleveland

durant leaving okc for a team with 3 top 10ish players that had just come back from 3-1 to beat them is one of the biggest bitch moves of all time
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Fortunately for KD, "Bitch" moves (as you say) are forgotten easily and not recorded in the history books.

Unfortunately for RW, titles actually are....and it looks like he will be watching somebody else playing for one, yet again. Even as early as next week it seems...

But hey, at least he's loyal. Lmao.

And btw...I could give an ish about Lebron.
 
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mktmaker said:
I'm guessing this is a rhetorical remark.

I'm not going to read through 4 pages of this thread, but probably someone else has already responded.

Oscar Robertson was arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.

The primary reason he didn't win titles with the Cincinnati Royals was because of the dominant Boston Celtics. I think they won 11 NBA titles in 13 years.

Though he was past his prime, as soon as Oscar was traded to the Bucks, the Bucks won the NBA championship.
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...and Russell Westbrook played at the same time as LeBron James and the Spurs/Warriors, both of who have posted multiple seasons that rank in the top 15 of all-time during his tenure.
 
KA4Prez said:
...and Russell Westbrook played at the same time as LeBron James and the Spurs/Warriors, both of who have posted multiple seasons that rank in the top 15 of all-time during his tenure.
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I don't want to split hairs...and I certainly don't want to get into a whizzing match with you.

But...the Lebron and the Warriors...even the Spurs (who have one title in the last 10 years) don't come close the domination of the 1950-60-70's Celtics.

The Celtics dominated the most of any of the Big Four pro sports of all time.
 
LeBron/Spurs/Warriors have won 5 titles in a row. Pretty decent chance they continue that streak for another 3-5 years.

The Celtics won 11 of 13 from 1957 to 1969. Only twice in that span did Cincinnati even make the East Finals (1964, only went 5 games, 1963 went 7 games). The 2 years the Celtics didn't make the Finals, Cincinnati didn't either. Hard to say Oscar didn't win titles because of the Celtics.

I'm not really wanting to argue because Oscar was an incredible player. It just shows that on the surface it's hard to judge a player based on them "winning." Oscar made the East Finals twice in that span...Westbrook has already played in 3 Western Conference Finals.
 
Westbrook to me is a helluva talent, but he's a Kobe/Iverson type. A bit selfish and never met a shot he didn't like. Seems like a baby at times.
 
LeBron tonight- 41 pts, 12 rebounds, 13 assists. 14/27 shooting, only 3 TO's.

For the Westbrook true believers, answer this question: If you put LeBron on OKC's roster in place of Westbrook, and knew that he was motivated to do as much as he could possibly do, do you think he could match what Russ has been doing this year?

I do. In fact, I think he could do it way, way, way better than Russ, because it likely wouldn't involve 42% shooting and 5+ TO's a game.

And that right there is the problem with Westbrook. His competition often has its eyes on other things (wins, mainly) than what Russ does. When LeBron plays, 90% of what he cares about is whether his team wins. Can you say the same about Westbrook?

I think not.
 
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I would much rather play with westbrook than James harden. Atleast westbrook will pass the ball and does play defense.

It's crazy to think the thunder had Durant, westbrook, harden, and ibaka all on the same team. The thunder arent even in the playoffs without westbrook this year and I like westbrook, but he's not carry a team like LeBron can. The year LBJ lost to GS in the finals was actually pretty damn impressive...considering it was only him and he was able to win a couple games in the finals.
 
UKBrassowTipIN said:
I would much rather play with westbrook than James harden. Atleast westbrook will pass the ball and does play defense.

It's crazy to think the thunder had Durant, westbrook, harden, and ibaka all on the same team. The thunder arent even in the playoffs without westbrook this year and I like westbrook, but he's not carry a team like LeBron can. The year LBJ lost to GS in the finals was actually pretty damn impressive...considering it was only him and he was able to win a couple games in the finals.
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Harden averaged more assists this year than Westbrook. And took 5 fewer shots per game. With better percentages from everywhere. And last I saw, Harden wasn't taking 43 shots in a game. In fact, last I saw, Westbrook was taking more shots in the 4th quarter alone than Harden took all game.
 
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UKBrassowTipIN said:
I would much rather play with westbrook than James harden. Atleast westbrook will pass the ball and does play defense.
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That literally makes no sense. One of them led the league in assists, and the other is Westbrook.

Neither of them will be leading their teams to a title any time soon.
 
mj2k10 said:
Sort of.

It ties into his biggest issue- insecurity. He can't handle the idea that anyone might be considered better than him. He has a constant chip on his shoulder, which has an upside (the insane level of effort) and a downside (the often horrible decision making and shot selection).

Michael Jordan in his third season went for 37.1 ppg while taking 27.8 shots per game. His team went 40-42. He wisely decided that he didn't like that, and never again was he such a one-man show. He developed enough ego security, probably based in large part on his popularity, to not worry as much about putting up the biggest numbers he possibly could. Westbrook, OTOH, has always seemed to aspire to have the type of individual season that Jordan had in 86-87 (Or Kobe had the year after Shaq left), pretty much heedless of what that might mean for his team.

The guys who get EVERYTHING in their NBA careers- meaning individual and team greatness- almost invariably sacrifice at least a little bit of their individual brilliance in order to create more team cohesiveness. Westbrook has shown almost no inclination to do that. And yeah, that's a big part of why he no longer has Kevin Durant as a teammate, and it will be a huge part of his legacy.
Click to expand...

Jordan didn't become a team player until Phil Jackson and Pippen came to town. Tell me, on this thunder roster who exactly is supposed to be Westbrook's Pippen?
 
Westbrook deserves the MVP this year unanimously

But Lebron is still the best player on the planet

No one really disagrees with this do they?
 
gee thanks for clearing up that lebron is better and more efficient than westbrook

had massive doubts about that personally
 
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