Russell Westbrook is showing you what Kevin Durant had to put up with for 8 years.

[DreamTeam09]

Last night vs the Thunder. The final possession. There's the classic Westbrook I know.

Instead of giving the ball to the hot handed Carmelo, who put on a superman cape and was draining 3's to bring them back...

Westbrook decides to hold onto the final ball, iso's, and chucks a 3 to clank off the rim and lose the game.

This is classic WB, and what he used to do to Durant in OKC.

Watch on YouTube

Where exactly was Carmelo supposed to get the ball there. He's on the opposite side of the court, time ticking down and he actually got doubled team when he went to the top

[Danny1616]

Westbrook is one of those guys who is both overrated and underrated at the same time.

His haters make him out to be a scrub and forgot how good he actually was in his prime.

He's a very talented player with incredible athleticism who has serious flaws in his game and is getting old.

Stat padding does not make you great. He was always a very athletic, but low bball IQ, and inefficient..... and ballhog.

Read on Twitter

As I said he has serious flaws.

It still doesn't take away from him being great in his prime, but at this point in his career he's a negative to a team.

These aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

Where exactly was Carmelo supposed to get the ball there. He's on the opposite side of the court, time ticking down and he actually got doubled team when he went to the top

Whose fault is it that the ball is on the other side of the court.


Oh and let's not forget this.

Read on Twitter

[mademan]

Westbrook is one of those guys who is both overrated and underrated at the same time.

His haters make him out to be a scrub and forgot how good he actually was in his prime.

He's a very talented player with incredible athleticism who has serious flaws in his game and is getting old.

Stat padding does not make you great. He was always a very athletic, but low bball IQ, and inefficient..... and ballhog.

Read on Twitter

As I said he has serious flaws.

It still doesn't take away from him being great in his prime, but at this point in his career he's a negative to a team.

These aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

Whether he was ever individually great or not doesnt matter to me much. He's always been a losing player. Poor intangibles, poor BBIQ, never was a very good defender or shooter and his decision has always been terrible. He had value in his prime in being able to carry garbage tier teams but he's not a guy you would ever want on your squad if you were going to win a title.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

As I said he has serious flaws.

It still doesn't take away from him being great in his prime, but at this point in his career he's a negative to a team.

These aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

Sagging off your man on defense, to cherry pick rebounds and stat pad triple doubles does not make you great.

He has been a total failure in the playoffs in his entire career, and I blame him (along with OKC FO) for ruining the first half of KD's career.

[Danny1616]

Stat padding does not make you great. He was always a very athletic, but low bball IQ, and inefficient..... and ballhog.

Read on Twitter

As I said he has serious flaws.

It still doesn't take away from him being great in his prime, but at this point in his career he's a negative to a team.

These aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

Whether he was ever individually great or not doesnt matter to me much. He's always been a losing player. Poor intangibles, poor BBIQ, never was a very good defender or shooter and his decision has always been terrible. He had value in his prime in being able to carry garbage tier teams but he's not a guy you would ever want on your squad if you were going to win a title.

He's literally ranked 28th all-time in box score plus/minus.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/bpm_career.html

So yes I agree with you with many of his flaws, but in his prime he was still a major positive impact.

[nikster]

Where exactly was Carmelo supposed to get the ball there. He's on the opposite side of the court, time ticking down and he actually got doubled team when he went to the top

Whose fault is it that the ball is on the other side of the court.


Oh and let's not forget this.

Read on Twitter

Its not as bad as I thought first looking at it. Melos not that wide open and youve got 2 defenders running down hill toward the passing lane. Westbrook had a mediocre defender backpeddling in transition. Its not the worst decision, just looks horrible because of the turnover

[trickshot]

Where exactly was Carmelo supposed to get the ball there. He's on the opposite side of the court, time ticking down and he actually got doubled team when he went to the top

Whose fault is it that the ball is on the other side of the court.


Oh and let's not forget this.

Read on Twitter

Its not as bad as I thought first looking at it. Melos not that wide open and youve got 2 defenders running down hill toward the passing lane. Westbrook had a mediocre defender backpeddling in transition. Its not the worst decision, just looks horrible because of the turnover

it was a horrible decision because he didn't have to pick either option. Westbrook hasn't learnt you can pull the ball back and reset a possession on a fastbreak, it's not pass or shoot. He decided shoot and was eurostepping into two defenders with another 2 trailing. If there was even space for a euro he'd still have been forced into the most heavily contested layup from the 2-4 defenders in the paint.

[Pablo Escobar]

No wonder Kd started balding early. All the stress from that low iq idiot loool

[LouisLitt]

Lol KD still a cupcake

If you mean going to GSW, he simply out-Lebron'd Lebron, who formed a superteam in Miami, CLE, and LAL.

Lotta cupcakes in the league then.

Lebron went to Boston?

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

He's literally ranked 28th all-time in box score plus/minus.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/bpm_career.html

So yes I agree with you with many of his flaws, but in his prime he was still a major positive impact.

don't quote me stats. Westbrook's triple doubles should tell you all you need to know about stat manipulation and high usage%


This is not a new take for me. I've been saying this on realGM since around 2013. I would find the posts but the Search User Posts feature is broken, so all I could find was one from three years ago, in 2018.

If you truly paid attention to WB's game, you can see what he's all about all along.

viewtopic.php?p=64780829#p64780829

[Ugly0598]

I just can't believe the Thunder drafted MVPs in three straight drafts and have zero to show for it.

I’d like to see Harden win a ring before hating on the Thunder, Lol

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

Pelinka didn't want Westbrook.

Exactly. This is 100% on lebron.

Even RealGM posters were laughing at the trade idea before it was done. I remember posting that I hope they do it so I can laugh at the chaos he will cause lebron.

[OrangeBlueSkies]

You would think with the way this thread is going OP would want to add the missing “L” in Russell.

[ropjhk]

I don't blame KD for leaving OKC but joining GSW was a weak move. I agree that WB held him back but KD should of demanded that WB get traded or he should have joined just about any other team besides the one that just beat him in the playoffs.

[Saint_Killa]

I remember those ppl who said that Russ is better bball player than KD...

[Goomba3666]

Very curious on how Lebron stans spin this. They've always said that KD was lucky to play with Westbrook that's "all he needed".

Fast forward, Westbrook has averaged consecutives Triple Doubles seasons (something that Lebron stans anticipated their hero doing) and now playing with Lebron, AD, and other hall of famers.

Has Westbrook always been a hindrance on the court, or is it suddenly only the case when he's playing with Lebron - someone who supposedly "makes everyone better"?

Looking forward to the cognitive dissonance in this one.

Cheers.

This is aging like fine wine.

[JN61]

I don't blame KD for leaving OKC but joining GSW was a weak move. I agree that WB held him back but KD should of demanded that WB get traded or he should have joined just about any other team besides the one that just beat him in the playoffs.

How did Westbrook hold Durant back? He has 2 early playoff exits without Westbrook or warriors.

[SecondTake]

If he had averaged 9 rebounds or 9 assists Westbrook wouldn't have even gotten close to being voted MVP. It was a novelty MVP.

Can't comment on AI's MVP since I was too young and wasn't an NBA viewer at the time.

Uhm... Look at impact metrics posted... He also was one of leaders on WS that year and lead the league on OBPM, BPM and VORP.... He also led the league on massive way on clutch scoring (almost double to Harden and 10% better FG% and 5% better 3pt shot) and made SEVERAL game winning and buzzer beater shots that year.

Edit. Did you also conveniently forget that MVP was decided on the last weeks of the regular season? Time when Harden was awful and Westbrook was feasting:

last 10 games players played significant minutes (Westbrook showed up to the last reg season game just for the spectacle of Big O and sat most of it so not counting that):

Harden 5-5 record: 27.1 ppg, 8.7 TRB, 10.9 AST. 39.7% FG, 31.2% 3p%, 83% FT%. 35.4 MPG
Westbrook: 6-4 record: 35.3 ppg, 12.6 TRB, 11.1 AST, 47.8% FG, 38.5 3p%, 87 FT%. 35.6 MPG.

I'm sorry but how you finish up the season matters. Westbrook was just superior. He was on insane level last month or so of the season while Harden was regressing significantly.

Dude OKC was the 6th seed, Westbrook doesn't come close to winning MVP if he doesn't average a TD.

Ok, but he did average a triple double right? I mean I could say Curry doesn't win mvp in his unanimous season if they win 45 games instead of 73. But they won 73 right? Deal with reality

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[HMFFL]

OP, blaming Russ, but James Harden was spending the night before playoff and championship games at bars & strip clubs. I will agree that OKC mismanaged the trio.

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