Oh So We’re Gonna Ignore What Russell Westbrook is Doing?

[The_Hater]

whose teammate's stats is he stealing now?

probably Hacimura -

That kid might be close to getting a few double doubles this year but I'm sure Russ is swooping in there and stealing the rebounds.....

and he's probably bricked all the easy shots Rui set him up for which is not helping his assists.

Hach literally shoots the ball every time he touches it. Stealing stats from that guy isn’t really possible.

[Ambrose]

At this stage of his career nobody will care if he puts up big numbers. Get to the playoffs and don't lose to anybody but BKN or MIL. It's the easy East, remember?

We know he can deliver raw numbers. What we don't see is a team being good on offense with him controlling it or him being an ideal fit next to another star. Let's see if he can change that reputation before it's all over for him. I got a feeling he won't change it but.... you never know.

Westbrook's teams have been top 10 offensively in 8 of the past 11 seasons.

Context though...

2011-2014, 2016: Had 1st Team All NBA Kevin Durant playing next to him, including finishing 5th in offense in 2014 when Westbrook only played 46 games.

2015: Still managed a top 5 offense with Durant only playing 27 games, legitimately impressive.

2017-2018: Doesn't have a top ten offense (though not far off).

2019: Sneaks back in because Paul George had a career year.

2020: Clearly the second banana behind James Harden, and a worse offense than the year before when he wasn't there.

2021: Worse offense than the year before they had him.

The track record isn't as good as it might seem.

[the_flash__]

It's funny to see a lot of "someone", "somebody", "some analyst", "some stats" showing how terrible Russ is, but no one has yet to provide a legit source.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/sports/basketball/russell-westbrook-washington-wizards.html

Team’s Record When Westbrook Gets a Triple-Double

2016-17 Thunder: 33-9; .785 win percentage
2017-18 Thunder: 20-5; .800
2018-19 Thunder: 23-11; .676
2019-20 Rockets: 5-3; .625 win percentage
H
Teams have higher chance to win when Russ stat padding, it's a fact.

You never considered that perhaps his triple doubles just disproportionately occur against crappy teams?
Correlation is not causation.

I mean, it could be that his triple doubles just disproportionately occur against crappy teams or that his triple double leads to more wins. The problem with Russ is that he's looking for triple doubles and not wins.

Once he has his TD, his play changes (rate of assist goes down).

At the end of the day, getting assists, rebounds, and points is good for winning. Can't argue that. But seems like he's doing it for TDs and not wins. Wins just happen to be there sometimes.

[AbeVigodaLive]

At this stage of his career nobody will care if he puts up big numbers. Get to the playoffs and don't lose to anybody but BKN or MIL. It's the easy East, remember?

We know he can deliver raw numbers. What we don't see is a team being good on offense with him controlling it or him being an ideal fit next to another star. Let's see if he can change that reputation before it's all over for him. I got a feeling he won't change it but.... you never know.

Westbrook's teams have been top 10 offensively in 8 of the past 11 seasons.

Context though...

2011-2014, 2016: Had 1st Team All NBA Kevin Durant playing next to him, including finishing 5th in offense in 2014 when Westbrook only played 46 games.

2015: Still managed a top 5 offense with Durant only playing 27 games, legitimately impressive.

2017-2018: Doesn't have a top ten offense (though not far off).

2019: Sneaks back in because Paul George had a career year.

2020: Clearly the second banana behind James Harden, and a worse offense than the year before when he wasn't there.

2021: Worse offense than the year before they had him.

The track record isn't as good as it might seem.

But what I was responding to was ... "What we don't see is a team being good on offense with him controlling it or him being an ideal fit next to another star."

We can quibble... or agree... about just how good those offenses were or how much credit goes to Westbrook... but it's undeniably true that we have seen him on a good offensive team multiple times, contrary to what the post I quoted claimed.

[Beethoven]

I dont get threads title these days asking why we are ignoring some player or recent stat or team play, why not just say "Russell Westbrook is doing something we should not ignore"

[AbeVigodaLive]

It's funny to see a lot of "someone", "somebody", "some analyst", "some stats" showing how terrible Russ is, but no one has yet to provide a legit source.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/sports/basketball/russell-westbrook-washington-wizards.html

Team’s Record When Westbrook Gets a Triple-Double

2016-17 Thunder: 33-9; .785 win percentage
2017-18 Thunder: 20-5; .800
2018-19 Thunder: 23-11; .676
2019-20 Rockets: 5-3; .625 win percentage
H
Teams have higher chance to win when Russ stat padding, it's a fact.

You never considered that perhaps his triple doubles just disproportionately occur against crappy teams?
Correlation is not causation.

I mean, it could be that his triple doubles just disproportionately occur against crappy teams or that his triple double leads to more wins. The problem with Russ is that he's looking for triple doubles and not wins.

Once he has his TD, his play changes (rate of assist goes down).

At the end of the day, getting assists, rebounds, and points is good for winning. Can't argue that. But seems like he's doing it for TDs and not wins. Wins just happen to be there sometimes.

His teams win 60% of the time in his career. 10+ straight playoff appearances.

I get MUCH/MOST of the criticism about Westbrook. Obviously, the guy has issues.

But I don't get the "wins just happen despite him chasing stats" angle. Where's the evidence of this beyond 50+ games in Washington?

[SAKURABA216]

How the hell is this guy getting so many triple doubles? I get it that some OKC players would move out of the way so he could get rebounds, but did the Rockets and Wizards players have the same sort of understanding with him too? He's also getting 10+ assists every game, which is a feat in itself as well. Is he threating teammates with bodily harm if they don't convert for him? I just don't get how he can consistently get so many triple doubles like its a normal thing.

[GameOver25]

His team would be better off if he averaged a triple single.

[cupcakesnake]

Wiz are 4-1 over their last 5 games so I'm fine with Russ getting some love for his play. They beat Utah, which is a pretty impressive gem of a win in this little streak.

Still a pain to watch that man play. Never has there been so much talent paired with such bad decision-making. He's like a slave to his instincts. Do you think he has a tiny voice chained up in there somewhere telling him not to take the contested pull-up 3? He's still a force of nature. One of the strangest players of all-time.

[The_Hater]

if this averaging triple double happens to another person, it would have been a thing for this season... for Russ, people actually just ignore it

He literally won an MVP award because he averaged a triple double, and now we're claiming he's a victim because he doesnt get enough hype for his triple doubles?
Lol

To be fair, the season RWB won the mvp his TS% was a career high, his advanced stats were strong, OKC overachieved and they were a really awful team if Westbrook wasn’t on the floor. There were strong numbers behind the TD.

Since that time, his TS% continues to fall, his advanced stats continue to crater and the last 4 seasons his team has disappointed in the standings.

People love to think that one triple double is the same as the next, but they’re not. And RWB has gone from a deserving MVP candidate (at worst top 3-4) to a player with terrible shot selection who does less to help his team win games every season now.

[dhsilv2]

How long are we gonna pretend this isn’t happening?

Who?

[Scalabrine]

Who Could Possibly Ignore Every Word Capitalized That's Impossible.

It is a title...

[Ontario]

Welcome to RealGM, where every year 29 teams win an NBA title, excpet for Russell Westbrook's.

You guys are ridiculous, I understand finding any one box score of Russ underwhelming as we've seen him do it so many times. But what is happening this year is him potentially surpassing the Big O's all time record possibly averaging a triple double for a fourth season.

That is historic... like HOF historic.

I'm not saying he deserves to be an MVP again, but he probably does deserve for you take you petty complaints about contesting 3 point shots, stealing half a board per game from a PF that most of the audience cannot name or being a less than great jump shooter and blow out your keister.

He hung a 25/14/14 earlier this week in a win over the league leading Utah Jazz.... if you cannot see the impact of that I suggest you turn on the TV and actually watch the game.

[bubonicphoniks]

We always ignore the Wizards. Didnt you get the memo?

Sent from my SM-G998U using RealGM mobile app

[BallinBug]

He's averaging 5 turnovers a game and how many of those rebounds are stat padding?

This....those TO are kill you....but I see you a rockets fan so I bet you would rather watch RW over JW....


RW ain’t that ALLSTAR good anymore but dude tries hard as hell every Damn play - Russ players like it’s life or death-like game 7 in the 4th quarter - so if you not winning a ring might as well be truly entertained

What? He's a top 15 player in the NBA, that's not good enough to be an all star? Only reason he missed it is because he was injured the first half of the season. Post ASB Westbrook is the real WB as we've seen last year and this year so far.

[dlts20]

36, 15, and 9 on 13-24 from the field. Now in a 3 way tie with Chicago and Toronto for the play in

[fanofthegreats]

Dude is a bum.

[UnbelievablyRAW]

36, 15, and 9 on 13-24 from the field. Now in a 3 way tie with Chicago and Toronto for the play in

We are prepared to put Nick Nurse into COVID protocols to make sure we don’t get in

[Ontario]

36, 15, and 9 on 13-24 from the field. Now in a 3 way tie with Chicago and Toronto for the play in

Russ scored 10 of Washington's 12 pts. in OT to win the game (while also assisting on Bradley Beals lay-up for the remaining 2 pts).

3/4 FG - 2/3 3pt - 2-2 FT 10 pts. 1 ast. 1 reb. in OT.

I JuSt dOn'T SeE the ImAct?

For persepective the Wizards won this game and the second best player for them tonight was Daniel Gafford.... after Russ & Beal this team is very lean on talent.

[LesGrossman]

Russ out there collecting uncontested defensive rebounds he pays his bigs for, while the Wizz are on a 12 game losing streak. Yeah homie we finna zone on Russ junk stats. You be trippin big time son.Slow down on those caps too, dont hurt yourself reaching for that caps lock key.