Suggestions on how to Punish Westbrook for his turnovers

[tamaraw08]

1. Fine him 5 K for every turnover he commits after his quota of 3 TO's per game.
2. Teammates get to throw pies at his face after the game after he goes over 4 turnovers.
3. Put him in a dark Cell without any Heat if he goes over 4 TO's, throw ice-cold water if over 5 TO's for a minimum of 8 hours.
4. Lebron gets to head butt him after 4 TO's, then get elbowed by Dwight at his tummy after 5th TO.

[MoneyMo]

Nothing will be done. He has never been held accountable in his career and it ain't about to start. The best you can hope for his he gets benched down the stretch of a game if he's a liability but I doubt Vogel has the balls to do that.

[slifersd]

If this team is still treading water at 500, or even below after the all star break, I can definitely see Nunn taking over as the lead guard. Russ will probably pout and act out, at which point, we probably just send his ass home. He simply does not have the mental capacity to understand the errors in his ways and you can't fix something that you don't think is broken.

[Freighttrain]

I never wish any injury on any athlete whatsoever, but boy would it be nice to see this team without Westbrook for a couple of weeks just to see where we would be as a team on defense, offense, or even chemistry-wise. The phrase addition by subtraction couldn't apply more to this situation I think.

[euphorbus]

No one is going to "punish" an MVP player. You could have him play the two for portions of the game as a secondary playmaker and slasher. The Lakers already have several players bring the ball up the court, and LeBron James is known for his prowess as a playmaker on offense. Most of Westbrooks' turnovers come because he is forcing the pass or driving inside when there is not enough room.

[TylersLakers]

They need to slowly start cutting back his crunch time minutes. If he's not playing well and someone else is playing better than he is, whether that's a Malik Monk/Trevor Ariza/Austin Reaves/Ellington, etc - just don't bring him back in for crunch time minutes.

What concerns me is his approach to the media after those types of games. And it's not to the media - He said he's "allowed" to turn the ball over and "allowed to miss shots." Well, of course he is but the question that comes to my head.. is the coaching staff coaching him about his turnovers? Are they breaking down which ones are acceptable and which ones aren't? Or are they just afraid and encouraging him to do his thing, turnovers be damned?

Every great player has turnovers. That's totally acceptable and totally cool. Kobe, LeBron, Magic, etc. The highest turnovers Kobe ever had in a season was 4.1 in 2004-2005 which was the year after Shaq left and he had Caron Butler and Lamar Odom. Westbrook is currently at 4.8 which is just totally insane considering the roster and the players around him.

[tamaraw08]

They need to slowly start cutting back his crunch time minutes. If he's not playing well and someone else is playing better than he is, whether that's a Malik Monk/Trevor Ariza/Austin Reaves/Ellington, etc - just don't bring him back in for crunch time minutes.

What concerns me is his approach to the media after those types of games. And it's not to the media - He said he's "allowed" to turn the ball over and "allowed to miss shots." Well, of course he is but the question that comes to my head.. is the coaching staff coaching him about his turnovers? Are they breaking down which ones are acceptable and which ones aren't? Or are they just afraid and encouraging him to do his thing, turnovers be damned?

Every great player has turnovers. That's totally acceptable and totally cool. Kobe, LeBron, Magic, etc. The highest turnovers Kobe ever had in a season was 4.1 in 2004-2005 which was the year after Shaq left and he had Caron Butler and Lamar Odom. Westbrook is currently at 4.8 which is just totally insane considering the roster and the players around him.

I really thought one of the main reasons why they brought back Rondo was for him to show how the Lakers offense is done to Westbrook, that Russ continue to make dumb mistakes, that Vogel would pull him out the last 5 mins of each game and let Rajon finish the games.

[TJM217]

Excellent series from DH here

[ROballer]

Had to jinx it.

You just cost this guy his 400 consecutive game streak with a turnover.

[Slava]

Make him wear church clothes for every 5 turnover or more game.

[BEazy]

I don't even know anymore. No way we win the championship with this guy as our starting PG.

[tamaraw08]

Had to jinx it.

You just cost this guy his 400 consecutive game streak with a turnover.

You're welcome.
btw, Kudos to your boy, THT did GREAT last night, kept them afloat esp the first half.