Birdie wrote:Honestly, I don't think most anyone in the current NBA (yes, even LBJ) could do what Westbrook just did this season. Closet I could think of is Wall but I don't think Wall could rebound like a banshee the way Westbrook does. Westbrook's motor is just on another level and let's not forget, on a bum knee from a few years ago. Just crazy.
And as for your slight dig at Westbrook in not making his teammates better, I mean, I think that's a bit unfair, he did avg 10.4 ast per game, so you can't really say he's not involving his teammates to a degree. Being frank, I watched a few OKC games on League Pass this year and Russ most likely easily could've been around 12-15ast per game if he had guys not brick some great looks or had the shooters LBJ has. The fact OKC is a terrible 3pt shooting team and really doesn't have another creator outside of "maybe" Dipo, the fact he even got 10ast per game is remarkable in it's own instance.
At some point, you can't ding him for being "selfish" when in the end, he's the entire team because that's what Presti put around him unfortunately. And again, let's put this in perspective:
Russell: 81 games played; 2802 minutes played, 31.6PPG 10.7REB 10.4AST 10.2-24.0FGM/A 42.5FG% 34.3 3PT% 84.5FT%
LeBron: 74 games played; 2795 minutes played, 26.4PPG 8.6REB 8.7AST 9.9-18.2FGM/A 54.8FG% 36.3 3PT% 67.4FT%
CLE = 51 wins; OKC = 46 wins
And again, I'll mention, CLE had 2 other All-Stars on the team plus 9 guys who played, including LBJ, who shot 35% or higher (Korver highest at 48.5%) from 3, 5 of those guys shot > than 40%. Russ had 4 guys who shot better than 35% with Abrines topping out at 38.1% of the guys who played and actually jacked up shots. Dipo, McBuckets, Jerami Grant and Alex Abrines. Those 4 hardly instilling fear in the hearts of other teams.
I mean, if you're gonna look at those number and say, damn, Russ isn't the MVP, I don't know man, ya just gotta give props when it's due. Any other ho hum season, LBJ takes it easily but unfortunately, Russ just had a better season and to a degree, you could say Harden too. Some might say Kawhi too but I'm not quite sold on that one but he easily could finish 3rd with LBJ fatigue when it comes to voting.
I don't know why I'm going to these lengths to defend Westbrook as I could care less but you got me on one, lol. LBJ should've been unanimous MVP that one year where that idiot reporter gave his vote to Melo and possibly, LBJ/Kobe should've been MVP's those Nash years' but at this point, I think LBJ is more than happy taking Finals MVPs' and chips as opposed to a regular season accolade. That's all I'm sayin but I don't disagree with where you're coming from and why you feel the way you do. Perfectly understandable. I think as Cavs fans', we take LBJ for granted as well and when he's gone, we're gonna be right back into suckville where no one is gonna want to come play for us again and the universe will spin on...unless it all goes to hell with what's going on currently in this crazy world but I won't digress into that non-sport talk. In the end, LBJ just affirming his beast mode and we need 13 more wins worth of it so I can have another happy panda summer again.