Westbrook: "I'm not making no adjustments"

[tsherkin]

Watching Westbrook, I don't see him taking a lot of really bad shots. Now and again, he takes one where he should have passed it, but you can generally say that of any volume scorer, even the really good ones. They HAVE to believe in themselves that much in order to be that good. Westy isn't gunning threes, he isn't gunning long-range fadeaways or weird twisting shots.

He's driving forward and then predominantly getting to the rim, where he's having a great deal of success, or he's taking pull-up jumpers around the elbow mostly. Those are good shots, usually, and he's missing more of them than he usually does. A small shooting slump isn't cause to try and change what he's doing. Yeah, he's shooting a little more overall than maybe he should... but the Thunder have needed it. They need him aggressive, they need him scoring, it's part of the blueprint that has worked so well for them to this point. Now isn't the time to be making major changes to your style of play, it's the time for minor adjustments to counter what the other team is doing. Westbrook isn't being disrupted by the Heat, so they really shouldn't change a lot of what he's up to. They should hope that Ibaka, Thabo, Fisher and Perkins don't suck all at once as they did in Game 2; if even one or two of those guys is playing well, then that game looks a lot different. Maybe Miami still wins, but it is certainly no guarantee.

[DrewBynum77]

gotta respect westbrook attitude. They aren't winning **** without him putting 25+ 7+ 6+

He just need to attack the basket more. That's it. Reduce the pull up jumper and attack the basket more and Thunder win easily.

[slick_watts]

And let's not kid ourselves, Westbrook has already made a clear adjustment to his game in the postseason.

TOV%:
2010-11: 15.9%
2010-11 Postseason: 16.1%
2011-12: 14.2%
2011-12 Postseason: 9.1%

Westbrook's decrease in turnovers has been the biggest driving factor in the Thunder going from worst to (nearly) first in turnovers from the regular season to the playoffs. He's been way more selective with his passing. Sometimes detrimentally so. But to say he hasn't adjusted his game at all during the playoffs would be doing a disservice to an aspect of his game he's improved upon tremendously.

[bl2k]

People need to get off duded case, it's pretty ridiculous tbh

[bullsnewdynasty]

He just needs to ditch the pull up J's with 20 seconds on the shot clock

[MannyRam99]

He just needs to ditch the pull up J's with 20 seconds on the shot clock

but when those same "bad" shots are falling he looks like a top 5 player in the NBA ... there has to be a middle ground.

[GSP]

Wow I knew Heat was gonna win game 3 but this is just too sweet. Okc is just not ready for a chip yet. I expect a blowout tomorrow.

[JDRochholz]

He may want to make some adjustment's in the English department though......

[KAVK]

Brooks and Durant are trying to stand behind Russel even knowing man is making mistakes costly and hoping Russel will come to understand it on his own quickly.

[Hornetsfan4ever]

Damn, he's gonna be a completely new player if he's not making no adjustments.

Lol, caught it.

[HeatFanSince87]

Westbrook will have a great game 3... Possibly an OKC win, then all the haters will flip flop about him. Other then Lebron.. No other top player gets the irrational hate as this kid.


Whats crazy we could have drafted him over Beasley and kept him with the Big 3 in Miami. Imagine him in a Harden role off the bench for Miami.. Lol insane.

Damn u supercoolbease!!

[KD35willbeGOAT]

via http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2012/st ... -criticism

"I'm not making no adjustments, regardless of what anybody says," Westbrook said Saturday before the Thunder's practice. "I'm going to play my game regardless of what happens."

Double negative. Dude's making adjustments . Jokes aside, dude doesn't need to change much, other than getting KD the ball more in the early portions of the game to keep him involved.

[Prop]

westbrook is awesome and he needs to play how he plays in order for the thunder to win. that's the bottom line, really.

[Lewnilli0605]

SMH@ Westbrook, and to think I thought that he would realize how his play is detrimental at times to his team's success.

[jmb987]

The argument of 'Westbrook taking away shots from Durant' is really stupid. Durant is not, and will never be, a volume scorer/ball dominant player like Westbrook is. It's silly to think that if Westbrook takes less shots, that it means automatically Durant will get more. KD is a very patient scorer and will only take shots based on what the defense gives to him, in the mean time, somebody on that team will have to take those difficult shots to fill in the gaps when no good shots are available.

It's the same dumb logic people will say that Kobe is taking too many shots, and then they compare FG% with Pau. Well, Pau has the luxury to be more patient with his shots and if he did take more, his % would drop.