The Warriors reportedly think Russell Westbrook plays a style that's easy to guard

[stilldropin20]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

[ajdontwatchthat]

Westbrook is a better defender than Curry, his athleticism allows him to be a very effective man defender. For instance, he had to guard Harden a few times down the stretch last year (with Roberson being unplayable) and he did a good enough job. He's a pretty good 1-on-1 defender.

Curry just tries much harder on defense/is much more disciplined, he rarely ever loses his man, does all the rotations right; problem is he's generally too small or too slow 1-on-1, if you're playing the Warriors your best offense is to get Curry switched on to your best player and let him ISO. Westbrook OTOH can be pretty lax with his defensive rotations, which can lead to open shots for teams with great ball movement; I remember thinking that was quite an issue in that Klay 3pt barrage in game 6 of 2016 WCF.

This is a good take. However, is being a better man defender (on occasion only) while often being lazy on rotations or gambling on defense... overall better than a much more disciplined team defender who isn't anything special athletically?

IMO, yes in general. Reason being Curry can be targetted on defense, you want to have Curry switched on your best offensive players so they can exploit him. With Westbrook this isn't the case, you don't need to hide him, he has the athleticism to guard almost anyone on the perimeter. As a team, you need to hide Curry on defense and you don't need to do that with Westbrook.

This would be a serious liability if the Warriors didn't have such a stacked defensive cast. Curry is exploited relatively rarely because he plays with a perennial DPOY, a cast of great athletic and lengthy defenders + his backcourt partner is an excellent defender who can always take the other team's lead guard. This means it's relatively easy to hide Curry on defense and most of what he has to do on that end is maintain effort and discipline...

Curry is the worst defender in the starting and death lineup, but that doesn't mean he is a bad defender, he is just the easier target because everyone else is elite or great.

If you're a PG or any scorer at any position, you would rather have a 6'3 skinny Curry guarding you then a 6'7 Klay with length, 6'7
DPOY Draymond, 7ft KD with a 7'6 wingspan or a 6'8 Igoudala who even gives Lebron fits sometimes.

Curry is 6'3, which is above average height for a PG. Not saying he can hold his own for an entire game against ELITE offensive players, but he isn't a "liability" on that end of the floor.

Pretty sure steph has a great % in terms of FGM against him. I'll check later on.

[bakesale]

Sure, but nobody shoots 20% in a whole season.

Don't over-exaggerate, the point is with how much 3pt rate has went up, many players can have a sub-40% FG but still be efficient if they shoot 3s over 33% on medium-high volume and make their FTs

The more 3PA a player takes, the lower his FG% will be, unless you're a generational talent like KD/Curry etc.

It's just an obsolete stat when it comes to judging a player's scoring efficiency, just like ERA is becoming an old man statistic for pitchers in baseball. Does it hold weight? Sure, but if a player shoots 10 field goal attempts, all 3s, makes 4 of them and has a 40% FG, and another player shoots 10 field goal attempts and makes 5 of them but they were all 2s, the 40% FG player is more efficient than the 50% FG player

Cool story, bro, but it's meaningless here, as Russ is a meh shooter from deep. FG% is actually a useful statistic when judging Russ; until this last year, his 2PT% and his eFG% were nearly identical on a year-by-year basis over his career.

Cool story, bro, but simple reading comprehension would tell you that I never even brought up Westbrook, I just made the point that FG% isn't that useful of a stat anymore due to the exponential increase in 3PA

And it kind of does apply to him, last season he increased his 3PA by 4 per 100 possessions, and with that, his FG% dropped from 45.5% to 42.5% yet his TS% was identical at 55.5%, another example that despite a seemingly low FG%, his efficiency was still just as good

55TS% isn't all that impressive compared to the other elite guards of the NBA.
He only knows one speed and that becomes predictable.
I'd also be curious about his TS specifically against the Warriors.
Also, as previously pointed out the number of turnovers he gets is pretty bad.

[koningcosmo]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

so is it curry thats so elite or the system? switch curry with lets say devin booker, im almost certain curry will have a TS like RW and devin booker wil suddenly become an elite shooter. for me its hard to say how good an player is in such an elite team as GSW, we saw what it did for durant, he is going beast mode with GSW and it looks so easy compared to when he played in OKC. i think it would be really fun to see what curry could do in an lottery team not that its ever going to happen.

[CnG]

I'm wondering why people are assuming with PG and Melo now on his team Russ will be a lot more efficient vs GS?

The way the Warriors defend Westbrook doesn't change based on these additions. Russ' eFG% was 36% v GS in 14/15 and 15/16, two seasons with Ibaka and KD next to him, he actually shot a lot better last year (42%) with less help.

He is a bad shooter against a team that defends bad shooters EXCELLENTLY. They can dare him to shoot and take inefficient shots or make him try finish inside where the Warriors a mobile rim-protecting big and a bevy of long arms to contest his shot. Also, Russ' finishing stats vs the Warriors are pretty awful if I recall.

It's not saying Russ isn't an amazing player or anything, it's just saying out of the elite players the Warriors gameplan for, Russ does not worry them stylistically compared to someone like KAT, Lebron etc.

[Pennebaker]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-warriors-reportedly-think-russell-westbrook-plays-a-style-thats-easy-to-guard/

Not a good look for the Warriors, and potentially a bad omen. Why talk trash to reporters and writers about other players? It's counter-productive. It only hurts your cause in multiple ways 1) bad PR 2) helping to motivate your opponent 3) adding unnecessary noise to your season and 4) you better back up what you say or else you will never live it down, which should've been a non-existent concern or task, but nevertheless one you've assigned to yourself the second you opened your mouth.

[CnG]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-warriors-reportedly-think-russell-westbrook-plays-a-style-thats-easy-to-guard/

Not a good look for the Warriors, and potentially a bad omen. Why talk trash to reporters and writers about other players? It's counter-productive. It only hurts your cause in multiple ways 1) bad PR 2) helping to motivate your opponent 3) adding unnecessary noise to your season and 4) you better back up what you say or else you will never live it down, which should've been a non-existent concern or task, but nevertheless one you've assigned to yourself the second you opened your mouth.

Are you aware this is from an NBA insider on the 'feeling' within an organisation?

It's not that deep...

1) It's not bad PR since there isn't a single quote on the matter. Also, this opinion has been evident if you follow any GS v OKC matchups over the past 3 years. The Warriors were ALWAYS concerned with Durant, not Westbrook, even though he had some excellent game vs them.
2) Westbrook needs no more motivation vs GS so this is a moot point, but even if it did motivate him more, Russ playing even more aggressive does nothing but play further into the Warriors' hands.
3) Once again, how can one create noise when no words are spoken?
4) Only time will tell, but why wouldn't the Warriors be confident of managing a player who has only shot 40%+ 3 times out of the last 17 times they've played. Russ has shot 36.9% and averaged 5 TOs vs the Warriors in his 17 meetings over the last 3 seasons, only won 4 of them, and had KD 13/17 times (although 1 time KD left at halftime).

Saying this is the Warriors talking trash is akin to the garbage take when fans say players should 'shut up and stop talking trash' when they're directly asked a question about a topic by a reporter. Nobody came out of nowhere and said 'Russ is easy to defend'.

[Pennebaker]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-warriors-reportedly-think-russell-westbrook-plays-a-style-thats-easy-to-guard/

Not a good look for the Warriors, and potentially a bad omen. Why talk trash to reporters and writers about other players? It's counter-productive. It only hurts your cause in multiple ways 1) bad PR 2) helping to motivate your opponent 3) adding unnecessary noise to your season and 4) you better back up what you say or else you will never live it down, which should've been a non-existent concern or task, but nevertheless one you've assigned to yourself the second you opened your mouth.

Are you aware this is from an NBA insider on the 'feeling' within an organisation?

It's not that deep...

1) It's not bad PR since there isn't a single quote on the matter. Also, this opinion has been evident if you follow any GS v OKC matchups over the past 3 years. The Warriors were ALWAYS concerned with Durant, not Westbrook, even though he had some excellent game vs them.
2) Westbrook needs no more motivation vs GS so this is a moot point, but even if it did motivate him more, Russ playing even more aggressive does nothing but play further into the Warriors' hands.
3) Once again, how can one create noise when no words are spoken?
4) Only time will tell, but why wouldn't the Warriors be confident of managing a player who has only shot 40%+ 3 times out of the last 17 times they've played. Russ has shot 36.9% and averaged 5 TOs vs the Warriors in his 17 meetings over the last 3 seasons, only won 4 of them, and had KD 13/17 times (although 1 time KD left at halftime).

Saying this is the Warriors talking trash is akin to the garbage take when fans say players should 'shut up and stop talking trash' when they're directly asked a question about a topic by a reporter. Nobody came out of nowhere and said 'Russ is easy to defend'.

Are you aware this is from an NBA insider on the 'feeling' within an organisation?

It's not that deep...

1) It's not bad PR since there isn't a single quote on the matter

You're wrong. Both Jack McCallum and Zach Lowe said that the Warriors DID say those things to them and you cannot get more reputable or more respected than McCallum and Lowe. McCallum is a legend. And there ARE quotes, they're just anonymous. But who is going to come out and say that Jack McCallum is full of BS? Absolutely nobody.

2) Westbrook needs no more motivation vs GS so this is a moot point

No, Westbrook doesn't need more motivation, but now he has some. Good job GSW! Moot? They just heavily criticized Westbrook. That is naturally going to make an impression on Russell. It is not moot.

3) Once again, how can one create noise when no words are spoken?

Words were spoken. That's the point.

4) Only time will tell, but why wouldn't the Warriors be confident of managing a player

Being confident is one thing, being arrogant is another. Confidence doesn't mean that you should talk trash about other players in the press. Do it on the court. That's where it belongs. When you do it in the press it's nothing more than a sucker punch.

[The_Hater]

FG% is a pretty meaningless stat now

You think a player shooting 20% from the field is meaningless?

Sure mean something to me if I were a coach.

Sure, but nobody shoots 20% in a whole season.

Don't over-exaggerate, the point is with how much 3pt rate has went up, many players can have a sub-40% FG but still be efficient if they shoot 3s over 33% on medium-high volume and make their FTs

The more 3PA a player takes, the lower his FG% will be, unless you're a generational talent like KD/Curry etc.

It's just an obsolete stat when it comes to judging a player's scoring efficiency, just like ERA is becoming an old man statistic for pitchers in baseball. Does it hold weight? Sure, but if a player shoots 10 field goal attempts, all 3s, makes 4 of them and has a 40% FG, and another player shoots 10 field goal attempts and makes 5 of them but they were all 2s, the 40% FG player is more efficient than the 50% FG player

You could have just said that TS% is more meaningful.

But nowhere in there did you list RWB’s TS% vs the Warriors.

[lambchop]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

Bron essentially averaged a triple double in 3 finals series versus the warriors. In fact the dubs figured him out so well that they called durant immediately after their finals loss in order to figure him out even more.

[bakesale]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

so is it curry thats so elite or the system? switch curry with lets say devin booker, im almost certain curry will have a TS like RW and devin booker wil suddenly become an elite shooter. for me its hard to say how good an player is in such an elite team as GSW, we saw what it did for durant, he is going beast mode with GSW and it looks so easy compared to when he played in OKC. i think it would be really fun to see what curry could do in an lottery team not that its ever going to happen.

Curry had a .610 TS with Mark Jackson as the coach. Mark Jackson was fired for his limited offensive system. That's still way better than Westbrook has ever had.
Your thoughts on the matter are invalid.

[ThunderBolt]

Its true. I think he's going to be much more efficient this year though. Tonight he took like just 1 bad shot and shot 70% for 20pts in 26 mins. Granted against, lesser teams, he's looked different out there than he ever has. Picking his spots more and making great decisions.

OKC finally has perimeter shooting (took 38 threes @ 40% tonight.) That's going to change everything. We'll see what happens.

And they still scored less than 100 points??

Dude it’s preseason. Besides George it was scrubs for the entire 4th and a significant part of the third. Not sure what your trying to prove other than you didn’t watch the game.

[cksdayoff]

any team playing catch up against the warriors is going to have players forcing the issue and putting up bad numbers

[michaelm]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-warriors-reportedly-think-russell-westbrook-plays-a-style-thats-easy-to-guard/

Not a good look for the Warriors, and potentially a bad omen. Why talk trash to reporters and writers about other players? It's counter-productive. It only hurts your cause in multiple ways 1) bad PR 2) helping to motivate your opponent 3) adding unnecessary noise to your season and 4) you better back up what you say or else you will never live it down, which should've been a non-exiqstent concern or task, but nevertheless one you've assigned to yourself the second you opened your mouth.

Are you aware this is from an NBA insider on the 'feeling' within an organisation?

It's not that deep...

1) It's not bad PR since there isn't a single quote on the matter. Also, this opinion has been evident if you follow any GS v OKC matchups over the past 3 years. The Warriors were ALWAYS concerned with Durant, not Westbrook, even though he had some excellent game vs them.
2) Westbrook needs no more motivation vs GS so this is a moot point, but even if it did motivate him more, Russ playing even more aggressive does nothing but play further into the Warriors' hands.
3) Once again, how can one create noise when no words are spoken?
4) Only time will tell, but why wouldn't the Warriors be confident of managing a player who has only shot 40%+ 3 times out of the last 17 times they've played. Russ has shot 36.9% and averaged 5 TOs vs the Warriors in his 17 meetings over the last 3 seasons, only won 4 of them, and had KD 13/17 times (although 1 time KD left at halftime).

Saying this is the Warriors talking trash is akin to the garbage take when fans say players should 'shut up and stop talking trash' when they're directly asked a question about a topic by a reporter. Nobody came out of nowhere and said 'Russ is easy to defend'.

So what anyway?

Every man and his dog says whatever they feel like saying about Durant, why shouldn’t the Warriors reply in kind?.

It is probably even good tactics, a problem might arise for GSW if Westbrook began playing in a more considered fashion, rather than from him being possibly motivated to further amp up his career long playing style.

I trust GSW have learned their lesson in 2016 in regard to motivating LeBron further (which he may have in turn also learnt in regard to GSW last year), but with the best will in the world Westbrook just isn’t LeBron.

[andrewww]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-warriors-reportedly-think-russell-westbrook-plays-a-style-thats-easy-to-guard/

Not a good look for the Warriors, and potentially a bad omen. Why talk trash to reporters and writers about other players? It's counter-productive. It only hurts your cause in multiple ways 1) bad PR 2) helping to motivate your opponent 3) adding unnecessary noise to your season and 4) you better back up what you say or else you will never live it down, which should've been a non-existent concern or task, but nevertheless one you've assigned to yourself the second you opened your mouth.

Can't really agree with this. What was GSW supposed to say to a reputed insider... that they think he's tough to guard when in their genuine opinion he isn't? All this talk about extra motivation is just outsider fodder, players will be motivated regardless or they're in the wrong field lol.

[Hoopzilla]

They're in for a rude awakening this year.

Kinda like the rude awakening the Cavs got last year in the Finals?

[NBA Fan 1234]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

so is it curry thats so elite or the system? switch curry with lets say devin booker, im almost certain curry will have a TS like RW and devin booker wil suddenly become an elite shooter. for me its hard to say how good an player is in such an elite team as GSW, we saw what it did for durant, he is going beast mode with GSW and it looks so easy compared to when he played in OKC. i think it would be really fun to see what curry could do in an lottery team not that its ever going to happen.

The system brings out the best in the entire Warriors' roster, but it's plainly obvious that Steph's efficiency would not suffer going to another team. Even before Kerr came and implemented his system, Steph's efficiency was still good...and that was with Mark Jackson as coach, who is in the lowest tier of coaches I've ever seen.

[Impuniti]

He's been getting routinely destroyed by them for 3 years running, so they're not wrong.

[afarmenian]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

Bron essentially averaged a triple double in 3 finals series versus the warriors. In fact the dubs figured him out so well that they called durant immediately after their finals loss in order to figure him out even more.

Ha right they "figured out" adding another superstar would beat Lebron. Im sure much analytics were done to come to that conclusion.

[Impuniti]

The top 2-3 teams in the NBA have always had the "Iversonian" type player figured out. Right now the warriors and spurs both have current version, westbrook, figured out.

In fact both the spurs and Warriors have a much better version, lebron, figured out as well.

Steph on the other hand is the "hardest-to-guard" player in the league. no one has anything close to that 61-65TS% on similar volume. and its really simple. He is confident in his team mates to give up the ball and get it back. it starts with him. he passes often and early, moves off ball, and is ready to shoot when he gets it back. it all starts with him. he is the best offensive player in the game. bar none.

Offensively, only prime Shaq, prime MJ and prime Magic have even been in the same tier. No one else since 1980.

and he is the most fun player to watch in the game.

Bron essentially averaged a triple double in 3 finals series versus the warriors. In fact the dubs figured him out so well that they called durant immediately after their finals loss in order to figure him out even more.

Ha right they "figured out" adding another superstar would beat Lebron. Im sure much analytics were done to come to that conclusion.

Kind of how Lebron figured out the league by stacking the deck for half his career?