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http://grantland.com/the-triangle/you-t ... westbrook/

Russell Westbrook is the second motherf$*&#ing banana.

Great article!

I think of them as guitarists. Durant is Eric Clapton, when he is hitting the notes it's beautiful, it blends its way into the music, weaving and intertwining with the vocals, enhancing, enthralling, and enlightening. Westbrook is Hendrix. When he hits the notes everything else ceases to matter, there is no melody, or rythmic reason. There's power, raw and unadulterated, uncontainable, exhilarating and ultimately unexplainable. Neither can do what the other does, but when they play together it blends into something even more special.

yeah great, they are PO'd that Russ accepts his role with KD, so they gonna make something of it , and try to stir up some crap.

Grantland sucks, its a Simmons creation, and everything involved with Simmons has nothing to do with reality.

So , they say , " lets put the idea in Russ's head, that he should be more like Harden and Reggie, and not accept being second fiddle to KD " , yeah, that serves the Thunder really well.

Wow, I really want to see that idea promoted on the internets.

Grant land/ Simmons and his minions can shove it.

"Durant is the ocean from which the River Westbrook flows. Durant is Westbrook’s bail money. Durant allows Westbrook to be Westbrook"

The exact opposite is true. Westbrook allows KD to be KD.
KDs 50-40-90...wouldn't have happened had Russ not ran the offense and attacked in a way that allowed JD to pick and choose shots.

I took it as more of a point/counterpoint thing, kinda liked it, and I'm a Russ homer. The second half was KD being the second banana. Dunno.

spearsy23 wrote:I think of them as guitarists. Durant is Eric Clapton, when he is hitting the notes it's beautiful, it blends its way into the music, weaving and intertwining with the vocals, enhancing, enthralling, and enlightening. Westbrook is Hendrix. When he hits the notes everything else ceases to matter, there is no melody, or rythmic reason. There's power, raw and unadulterated, uncontainable, exhilarating and ultimately unexplainable. Neither can do what the other does, but when they play together it blends into something even more special.

This is the best comparison I've ever heard regarding these two players.

And I don't get all of the Grantland hate. They seem to love Westbrook more than anybody.

There has been lots of players similar to Westbrook. Wade in his prime was very similar to what Westbrook is now, you can say Westbrook is some kind of 60 grand per year middle class' Wade (not poor man's but definitely not rich man's). You can say Westbrook is some kind of hustling version of a rich man's Marbury or Francis. A bigger and not yet accomplished version of Isiah Thomas on a perimeter oriented league.

On the other hand Durant is the classic, old school perimeter scorer. He is what every perimeter scorer is taught to be but for lack of talent, coachability and smarts, they fail to be, Ultra polished, ultra long and ultra athletic version of the standard and prototypical perimeter off the ball scorer. He is some kind of old, classic and good concept being materialized into some special physical specimen. Every comparison of Durant pre-draft had its own level of precision - Dirk, Garnett, T-Mac, Bird. He has a bit of every single one of them. Why not throw Havlicek and Reggie Miller out there too?

None of them are precisely unique to the definition of the word - something that never happens, something that wasn't yet conceived. The uniqueness in the situation is the combination of these two players, their level of talent and their characteristics.

So why people insist to find labels to characterize this UNIQUE (now using the precise definition of the word) combination? Why? People are failing hard to realize that Westbrook and Durant are a concept of their own. They never happened beforne.

What makes this combination so special is that it's clear that Durant, while being a great player and definitely able to carry the load of 35 USG% while having great productivity and efficiency, like he did last season, he can't do that throughout a whole season. By the last year's playoffs he looked exhausted and he really got out of his game while playing some point forward. This is why he needs Westbrook, because this man just don't get tired no matter how huge the offensive load he has to carry is. He takes pressure of Durant so this good man can only bother thinking about roaming around the court looking for nice spots and nice looks to take shots. Durant wasn't joking when he said Westbrook would take a bullet for him. Westbrook figuratively did that night in, night out.

On the other hand, Westbrook, while being able to put some great pressurre on the opposing defenses and being able to carry almost infinite USG%, and demand every single bit of defensive attention on the ball, being almost like a gravity source that attracts the defenders to try to contain him, he can't be effective and deliver without space. While having some LeBron mojo, he's not LeBron. He isn't as big as LeBron, he isn't as skilled as LeBron. He needs space. Durant can create that space. He draws attention off the ball on the perimeter. He is the safe player to go to when you get trapped by defenses - which can happen a lot.

Without Westbrook, Durant distracts his focus from what he does best. Without Durant, Westbrook doesn't have neither the space be effective or safe shore to go when he gets trapped. I firmly believe that under the right system, both of them could lead a team to greatness without each other. The thing is: one brings to the other almost everything they need from a supporting cast to be a threat and to get the offensive job done. This is why I think: Thunder had some elite offenses, and f* Harden or K-Mart or Reggie Jackson, these two were clear cut leaders of the offense, but take one of them out, and the other needs a much more versatile, skilled and by causality, more expensive supporting cast around.

So cut the labels. Cut the second first banana crap. Cut the Batman and Robin crap. Cut the crap. Westbrook can be Westbrook without Durant and Durant can be Durant without Westbrook. What makes them great is a matter of economy: Durant without Westbrook would need a whole supporting cast to carry heavy usage (definition: attack and put pressure on defenses) and control the ball possession. Westbrook without Durant would need a supporting cast of off the ball threats to open things up front for him. Instead of having three or four extra expensive role players and solid coaching (most difficult part) to make that work out, they maximize their abilities just with one and another.

Closest thing to their combination was Shaq and Kobe. The only thing that differs them is simple: Westbrook and Durant realize they both maximize the other abilities, Shaq and Kobe made the brutal mistake of thinking one was hindering the other. By the end of the day, Kobe and Shaq got away with their mistakes, because: 1- they won enough rings to build their legacy, and; 2- Shaq found a similar player in Wade, and Kobe had the front office to deliver a strong front court to emulate Shaq's role.

Hope these guys don't make the same mistakes Shaq and Kobe did in the past - cause like I said, these two got away with bad decisions, but it's unlikely Durant and Westbrook will. They didn't yet win enough nor are likely to find better situation to win, like Kobe and Shaq did.

spearsy23 wrote:I think of them as guitarists. Durant is Eric Clapton, when he is hitting the notes it's beautiful, it blends its way into the music, weaving and intertwining with the vocals, enhancing, enthralling, and enlightening. Westbrook is Hendrix. When he hits the notes everything else ceases to matter, there is no melody, or rythmic reason. There's power, raw and unadulterated, uncontainable, exhilarating and ultimately unexplainable. Neither can do what the other does, but when they play together it blends into something even more special.

Man I just love these kind of comparisons. Mine would be the rambling of Led Zeppelin base: John Paul Jones and John Bonham.

While John Bonham was doing his thing with toughness, being loud, relentless and fierce, earning jawdrops around the World and being noted by the time his sticks were hitting the drums, Durant is the silently killer that don't often is seen by the casual listener, by the end of the day he was the guy that kept the rythm on check when the drums got wild, at the end of the day, he was consistent and perfect on his silent role, and from time to time he would drop a No Quarter masterpiece just so every one knows he can do a show off too.

spearsy23 wrote:I think of them as guitarists. Durant is Eric Clapton, when he is hitting the notes it's beautiful, it blends its way into the music, weaving and intertwining with the vocals, enhancing, enthralling, and enlightening. Westbrook is Hendrix. When he hits the notes everything else ceases to matter, there is no melody, or rythmic reason. There's power, raw and unadulterated, uncontainable, exhilarating and ultimately unexplainable. Neither can do what the other does, but when they play together it blends into something even more special.

I love that analogy. How about this one, KD is David Gilmour, so smooth, makes it look effortless. Westbrook is Tom Morello, an overpowering sonic arsonist.

You guys should start appreciating Russ and this 30,10 month because if they don't win it this year durant is gone. He's realizing that Russ is the alpha that's whys he's being all pissy lately. I'd almost rather have that the team looks better with Russ attacking anyway. Much more efficient than kd and his long twos and fadeaway threes. As great as he is at it. That's slowly turning into westbrooks city. Just ask enes kanter and Mitch mcgary

You guys should start appreciating Russ and this 30,10 month because if they don't win it this year durant is gone. He's realizing that Russ is the alpha that's whys he's being all pissy lately. I'd almost rather have that the team looks better with Russ attacking anyway. Much more efficient than kd and his long twos and fadeaway threes. As great as he is at it. That's slowly turning into westbrooks city. Just ask enes kanter and Mitch mcgary

You're trolling, right? I hope so

Otherwise

legendO_Kiko wrote:You guys should start appreciating Russ and this 30,10 month because if they don't win it this year durant is gone. He's realizing that Russ is the alpha that's whys he's being all pissy lately. I'd almost rather have that the team looks better with Russ attacking anyway. Much more efficient than kd and his long twos and fadeaway threes. As great as he is at it. That's slowly turning into westbrooks city. Just ask enes kanter and Mitch mcgary