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Seems like an obvious question, but still Im gonna ask.

Why is Russell taking that many 3-point attempts?
We are not a lottery team, we are title contenders. So why does someone like Russ take that many frickin 3s???

Just on a sidenote I wanna mention, that Russ takes so far 21 shots a game, while KD takes 16.3. Why?
Kevin Martin averages almost as many points (20.7) as Russ (21.3) while taking only 10.7 shots a game.

Back to the 3-pointes. Ok, the season is young, so I dont wanna judge by 3 games so far, just wanna mention that Russ takes 3.7 three-pointers so far while hitting 0.7 of them, which is 18.2%.

But lets take a look at the previous season rather:

2011-12 reg season: Russ had 3.0 attempts per game on 31.6% shooting
2011-12 playoffs: Russ had 3.3 attempts per game on 27.7% shooting

The year before (2010-11) he only took 1.3 attempts a game and hit 33%

Why did he up his attempts from distance from 1.3 to above 3 suddenly? I mean why???? WHY???
Does he think he improved his shot? Because he didnt!

Why is our Head Coach even allowing him to do that?

Shouldnt he focus more on getting his assist average back around 8 again after dropping to 5.5?

A lot of questions I know, but Im gonna keep asking until someone gives me an answer (there is none) or Russ stops being so ignorant (coaches get the blame just as much).

Thunder will never win the NBA title with Westbrook as a playmaker. I wrote about his weak decisions-making and low bball IQ, but I was laughed at. Wesbrook takes away shootes from Durant and the other guys, but he's not efficient enough to do so. Anyway, it's fine by him and he keeps on doing his things.

The other thing is he's not the PG, although he's playing this position. He won't be creating plays for the rest of the team overnight, since he can't do it.

BIG EDDIE wrote:Shouldnt he focus more on getting his assist average back around 8 again after dropping to 5.5?

No. Well, it's more complicated than that. But I'm not really concerned about the assist number. The assist number dropped when the starting lineup went from Green/Krstic to Ibaka/Perkins, and Westbrook had to take on more of the scoring load and didn't have the outlets offensively to pass it to. And I don't think I would want a player aiming to increase a particular stat. Assist padding can be just as detrimental as any other stat padding.

Obviously Westbrook shouldn't take all these threes if he continues to shoot them at 18%, but he won't. 3 threes a game at 30-33% is really not that bad, especially if it helps to keep the defense honest.

Honestly, the offense is just dysfunctional in general, beyond Westbrook. The team needs Westbrook to be aggressive because there's a complete lack of offensive structure and a complete lack of ball-handlers on the team. He's the only one who can really be trusted to create shots off the dribble from way behind the line. This could be mitigated by a coherent offensive gameplan, but there isn't any. Either Westbrook has gone off the handle, in which case the blame falls on Westbrook and Brooks, or the offense is just a total mess and Westbrook is just forced to make stuff up, and the blame goes on Brooks.

Martin and Durant are both best used off-ball. Durant's turnovers have spiked with his increased on-ball usage this year. Martin has been hot so far, but I wouldn't expect him to stay this hot (and Westbrook this cold). There needs to be more offensive structure, especially on a team with one talented but unpredictable ball-handler, and a starting lineup with three negative offensive players.