12/30 | G35: Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks - 6PM CST

[ThunderBolt]

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Russ thinks he’s the best defender at the point guard position in the league? I’m dead.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Russ thinks he’s the best defender at the point guard position in the league? I’m dead.

Russ thinks he is Lonzo Ball...that is funny. Dejounte Murray is arguably #1 when healthy. Those two are clearly above the rest in terms of PG defense.

The real problem is that Russ doesn't realize that taking enough shots to score 30 while scoring 9 negatively impacts the game in a much bigger way than if he actually scored the 30 would have a positive effect. 4-22 from the field, 0-8 from 3 and it never occurred to him to stop shooting and go for 20 assists?!?!?!

[slick_watts]

Russ thinks he’s the best defender at the point guard position in the league? I’m dead.

Russ thinks he is Lonzo Ball...that is funny. Dejounte Murray is arguably #1 when healthy. Those two are clearly above the rest in terms of PG defense.

The real problem is that Russ doesn't realize that taking enough shots to score 30 while scoring 9 negatively impacts the game in a much bigger way than if he actually scored the 30 would have a positive effect. 4-22 from the field, 0-8 from 3 and it never occurred to him to stop shooting and go for 20 assists?!?!?!

teams like dallas stay fairly committed to forcing russ into taking shots (often, bad ones) with the ball in his hands. they're effectively camping the paint and taking away passing lanes to adams. on any screen they are just dropping into the paint and daring russ to shoot. russ' best options are on the perimeter but yeah we're the worst three point shooting team in the nba. so not much to do. i don't think our offense is good enough to endure russ not contributing at all as a scorer. dallas and utah are really good at exploiting russ this way. i would not want to face either of them in the playoffs.

[RalphSampsonJr]

Hell DSJ showed hes a better defender at the 1

[getrichordie]

Russ thinks he’s the best defender at the point guard position in the league? I’m dead.

Russ thinks he is Lonzo Ball...that is funny. Dejounte Murray is arguably #1 when healthy. Those two are clearly above the rest in terms of PG defense.

The real problem is that Russ doesn't realize that taking enough shots to score 30 while scoring 9 negatively impacts the game in a much bigger way than if he actually scored the 30 would have a positive effect. 4-22 from the field, 0-8 from 3 and it never occurred to him to stop shooting and go for 20 assists?!?!?!

teams like dallas stay fairly committed to forcing russ into taking shots (often, bad ones) with the ball in his hands. they're effectively camping the paint and taking away passing lanes to adams. on any screen they are just dropping into the paint and daring russ to shoot. russ' best options are on the perimeter but yeah we're the worst three point shooting team in the nba. so not much to do. i don't think our offense is good enough to endure russ not contributing at all as a scorer. dallas and utah are really good at exploiting russ this way. i would not want to face either of them in the playoffs.

Damn... I really wish Schroder would get this kind of analysis.


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[getrichordie]

Russell Westbrook can be the best defender at the point guard position if he put his mind to it. Hell, maybe he can’t. Maybe his body won’t let him.

Towards the end of the game, when he tried to break up that full court pass to Jordan, he didn’t get high enough. Old Russ would have intercepted that pass 100%.

But I think his game has been built around himself carrying the offensive load for so long, that he doesn’t know how or what it means to be consistent on defense.


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[Kizz Fastfists]

Russell Westbrook can be the best defender at the point guard position if he put his mind to it. Hell, maybe he can’t. Maybe his body won’t let him.

Towards the end of the game, when he tried to break up that full court pass to Jordan, he didn’t get high enough. Old Russ would have intercepted that pass 100%.

But I think his game has been built around himself carrying the offensive load for so long, that he doesn’t know how or what it means to be consistent on defense.

He was the DPOY in the pac-12(10?) in college. He was drafted, in typical Presti fashion, for defense and athleticism. He just no longer has the physical tools he did when he was young and could have been the best defensive PG. He was a VERY good defender his first years then he backed off to focus on offense. His body can no longer do the things it used to and he hasn't prepared for that. His game is what it is and his body declines his game will decline rapidly. As he looses small amounts of speed, acceleration, leg strength, etc. we will see that magnified because of the competition he is playing against.

LeBron is not the athlete he was 5 years ago, but his impact is the same because he has drastically changed his game. Kobe changed his game a lot as he aged. Every player that remained great into their 30s had to change their game as they lost their advantages in their athletic abilities, i.e. speed and vertical. Russ is still trying to play like he is 25 with good knees. It is a shame that Presti bet everything on someone that was obviously going to break down before he could put enough talent around him for it to matter.

[SecondTake]

Russell Westbrook can be the best defender at the point guard position if he put his mind to it. Hell, maybe he can’t. Maybe his body won’t let him.

Towards the end of the game, when he tried to break up that full court pass to Jordan, he didn’t get high enough. Old Russ would have intercepted that pass 100%.

But I think his game has been built around himself carrying the offensive load for so long, that he doesn’t know how or what it means to be consistent on defense.

He was the DPOY in the pac-12(10?) in college. He was drafted, in typical Presti fashion, for defense and athleticism. He just no longer has the physical tools he did when he was young and could have been the best defensive PG. He was a VERY good defender his first years then he backed off to focus on offense. His body can no longer do the things it used to and he hasn't prepared for that. His game is what it is and his body declines his game will decline rapidly. As he looses small amounts of speed, acceleration, leg strength, etc. we will see that magnified because of the competition he is playing against.

LeBron is not the athlete he was 5 years ago, but his impact is the same because he has drastically changed his game. Kobe changed his game a lot as he aged. Every player that remained great into their 30s had to change their game as they lost their advantages in their athletic abilities, i.e. speed and vertical. Russ is still trying to play like he is 25 with good knees. It is a shame that Presti bet everything on someone that was obviously going to break down before he could put enough talent around him for it to matter.

Huh? The guy is averaging a 20 point triple double, leading the league in steals and has the best defensive rating among all point guards in the NBA. He's right - he can score 15-20 points and still be the most impactful PG in the game because he does everything at a high level. If he can lower his turnovers and take fewer 3's a game (which he has shown an ability to do this season) his impact would be even greater. Surround him with semi decent 3 point shooters like harden and he would be in the MVP race.

[ThunderBolt]

Russ has never shown he will consistently take less threes. He might put together a handful of games here in and there but then he goes off for 7-8 attempts for a game. He's averaging the second most 3PA's of his career. Combine that with the fact that he's thirty years old and i think its safe to say that aspect of his game isn't changing.

[SecondTake]

If only Schröder weren't allergic to passing the ball, then then the bench could actually score.

Huh? In what season did the Thunder bench every provide evidence of scoring ability? They wouldnt be able to make one open shot in the 3 point contest. Shroder taking contested floaters is frankly more effective than passing the ball to an open guy off the bench most of the time.

[JustOneFix]

Horrible, just a horrible pass to George by Westbrook while up by 6 with like minute and a half left in the game. That's where it all went downhill....

[slick_watts]

If only Schröder weren't allergic to passing the ball, then then the bench could actually score.

Huh? In what season did the Thunder bench every provide evidence of scoring ability? They wouldnt be able to make one open shot in the 3 point contest. Shroder taking contested floaters is frankly more effective than passing the ball to an open guy off the bench most of the time.

contested floaters are < 40% fg for someone like schroder. perhaps way lower. an open three for most of our shooters is better than that. schroder sucks. he's a ball hog who doesn't know how to pass the ball properly. felton is better at running pnr than him.

weak pnr play was a problem for him year after year in atlanta too, where his teammates grew tired of him looking off screens and generally hogging the ball in the same way.

the bench last year with felton leading it was much better offensively.

[SecondTake]

If only Schröder weren't allergic to passing the ball, then then the bench could actually score.

Huh? In what season did the Thunder bench every provide evidence of scoring ability? They wouldnt be able to make one open shot in the 3 point contest. Shroder taking contested floaters is frankly more effective than passing the ball to an open guy off the bench most of the time.

contested floaters are < 40% fg for someone like schroder. perhaps way lower. an open three for most of our shooters is better than that. schroder sucks. he's a ball hog who doesn't know how to pass the ball properly. felton is better at running pnr than him.

weak pnr play was a problem for him year after year in atlanta too, where his teammates grew tired of him looking off screens and generally hogging the ball in the same way.

the bench last year with felton leading it was much better offensively.

So you think Fleton should start ahead of Shroder?

[getrichordie]

If only Schröder weren't allergic to passing the ball, then then the bench could actually score.

Huh? In what season did the Thunder bench every provide evidence of scoring ability? They wouldnt be able to make one open shot in the 3 point contest. Shroder taking contested floaters is frankly more effective than passing the ball to an open guy off the bench most of the time.

contested floaters are < 40% fg for someone like schroder. perhaps way lower. an open three for most of our shooters is better than that. schroder sucks. he's a ball hog who doesn't know how to pass the ball properly. felton is better at running pnr than him.

weak pnr play was a problem for him year after year in atlanta too, where his teammates grew tired of him looking off screens and generally hogging the ball in the same way.

the bench last year with felton leading it was much better offensively.

I generally trust your analysis for the most part, but... I’m a little skeptical of this take. Can you provide evidence that Felton would lead the bench unit better than Schroder?


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[slick_watts]

Huh? In what season did the Thunder bench every provide evidence of scoring ability? They wouldnt be able to make one open shot in the 3 point contest. Shroder taking contested floaters is frankly more effective than passing the ball to an open guy off the bench most of the time.

contested floaters are < 40% fg for someone like schroder. perhaps way lower. an open three for most of our shooters is better than that. schroder sucks. he's a ball hog who doesn't know how to pass the ball properly. felton is better at running pnr than him.

weak pnr play was a problem for him year after year in atlanta too, where his teammates grew tired of him looking off screens and generally hogging the ball in the same way.

the bench last year with felton leading it was much better offensively.

I generally trust your analysis for the most part, but... I’m a little skeptical of this take. Can you provide evidence that Felton would lead the bench unit better than Schroder?


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the all bench unit with felton last year was much better offensively than the schroder bench units this year. i dunno how else to say it. look it up.

[slick_watts]

Huh? In what season did the Thunder bench every provide evidence of scoring ability? They wouldnt be able to make one open shot in the 3 point contest. Shroder taking contested floaters is frankly more effective than passing the ball to an open guy off the bench most of the time.

contested floaters are < 40% fg for someone like schroder. perhaps way lower. an open three for most of our shooters is better than that. schroder sucks. he's a ball hog who doesn't know how to pass the ball properly. felton is better at running pnr than him.

weak pnr play was a problem for him year after year in atlanta too, where his teammates grew tired of him looking off screens and generally hogging the ball in the same way.

the bench last year with felton leading it was much better offensively.

So you think Fleton should start ahead of Shroder?

schroder is better than felton. but that's a really low floor. felton sucks. i think schroder's super high usage and refusal to make passes hurts the offense when he is in.

[getrichordie]

contested floaters are < 40% fg for someone like schroder. perhaps way lower. an open three for most of our shooters is better than that. schroder sucks. he's a ball hog who doesn't know how to pass the ball properly. felton is better at running pnr than him.

weak pnr play was a problem for him year after year in atlanta too, where his teammates grew tired of him looking off screens and generally hogging the ball in the same way.

the bench last year with felton leading it was much better offensively.

I generally trust your analysis for the most part, but... I’m a little skeptical of this take. Can you provide evidence that Felton would lead the bench unit better than Schroder?


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the all bench unit with felton last year was much better offensively than the schroder bench units this year. i dunno how else to say it. look it up.

I’m honestly not sure what lineup you are talking about... we used multiple bench lineups last year

Are you talking about...

Felton-Abrines-Huestis-Patterson-Grant?


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[getrichordie]

I really think we should view the game as philosophers would and just ask a bunch of questions.

Everyone is in such a rush to present their takes these days... without even double-checking themselves to see if they make sense...


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