Player of the Day: Russell Westbrook

[Andre Roberstan]

As promised, I'm starting a Player of the Day series to tide us over through the long offseason. With weekend skips it should eat at least a little of the time leading up to training camp. Hope you guys enjoy.

SCHEDULE:
Week 1: Starters
Aug 28: Russell Westbrook
Aug 29: Paul George
Aug 30: Steven Adams
Aug 31: Patrick Patterson
Sept 1: Andre Roberson

Week 2: Bench
Sept 4: Enes Kanter
Sept 5: Alejandro Abrines
Sept 6: Raymond Felton
Sept 7: Jerami Grant
Sept 8: Doug McDermott

Week 3: Deep Bench
Sept 11: Terrance Ferguson
Sept 12: Dakari Johnson
Sept 13: Semaj Christon
Sept 14: Josh Huestis
Sept 15: Kyle Singler

Week 4: Odds and Ends
Sept 16: Daniel Hamilton
Sept 17: Billy Donovan
Sept 18: Sam Presti
Sept 19: TBD
Sept 20: TBD



http://www.nba.com/playerfile/russell_westbrook/
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/westbru01.html

28 years old
Drafted 2008 out of UCLA by the Seattle Supersonics
6'3"
200lb
1x Most Valuable Player
6x All-Star
2x All-Star MVP
2x All-NBA First Team
4x All-NBA Second Team
2x NBA Scoring Champion
1x NBA All-Rookie First Team
1x 3rd-Team All Pac-10
1x Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year

Questions for the upcoming season:

1: What will his numbers be this year? Will they go up or down?
2: How will Paul George impact his usage?
3: Do you think Russ and PG will be able to work together? Why or why not?
4: What do you think Russ will add to his game this season?
5: Will his 3pt% increase continue?

[Kizz Fastfists]

Questions for the upcoming season:

1: What will his numbers be this year? Will they go up or down?
2: How will Paul George impact his usage?
3: Do you think Russ and PG will be able to work together? Why or why not?
4: What do you think Russ will add to his game this season?
5: Will his 3pt% increase continue?

1- Down. He is not going to average a triple double again.
2- His usage will drop to around 35%. Still above his career average, but not as high as it was last year or in '14-'15.
3- They'll be fine. PG doesn't have to have the ball in hands.
4- Nothing.
5- He will shoot below 30% from 3 this year to return his career to balance. It will give him 5 seasons above 30% from 3 and 5 seasons below it.

[retrobro90]

1: What will his numbers be this year? Will they go up or down?
2: How will Paul George impact his usage?
3: Do you think Russ and PG will be able to work together? Why or why not?
4: What do you think Russ will add to his game this season?
5: Will his 3pt% increase continue?

1: 26/8/10 on 45/33/83 TS% goes back to that 58 range where it was our last season with KD

2: Russ' usage will go down without there being much thought to it. PG will be able to do things with the ball in his hands. Russ doesn't need to give PG permission to run a play out of PnR or take his man 1 on 1

3: I think they'll be a lot of fun and work very nicely on the court but it's hard to tell whether they'll get along as teammates. George tends to check out from time to time whereas Russ goes balls out from start to finish.

4: A floater.

5: Maybe but I think it's entirely dependent on him. The added space on the floor won't really help him from range as most of his attempts will still be off the dribble. I don't think last season was a fluke though considering the volume of 3s he took compared to previous seasons.

[ThunderBolt]

Questions for the upcoming season:

1: What will his numbers be this year? Will they go up or down?
2: How will Paul George impact his usage?
3: Do you think Russ and PG will be able to work together? Why or why not?
4: What do you think Russ will add to his game this season?
5: Will his 3pt% increase continue?[/quote]

1) I hope points are rebounds good down but assists go up.

2) usage will still be high but it should go down. I imagine some possessions Russ will give the ball to George and let him create. That didn't happen with Oladipo last year.

3) yes. I think Russ wants to make it work. The fit seems very natural. The only way it doesn't work is if they didn't like each other off the court and it carried over.

4) nothing

5) it definitely can increase if he takes better shots.

[Kizz Fastfists]

3: I think they'll be a lot of fun and work very nicely on the court but it's hard to tell whether they'll get along as teammates. George tends to check out from time to time whereas Russ goes balls out from start to finish.

This is something that isn't talked about much here. Indiana fans credit Lance Stephenson with them making the playoffs last year because of his play down the stretch. A lot of them are glad PG is gone because he checks out for long stretches and they say he took total games off like he just didn't care. If PG just goes through the motions it could be a much worse season than any of us anticipate.

[ThunderBolt]

I think Paul George checking out of games fits the mentality of wanting to win now, therefore joining the last place lakers. It makes no sense to me. Hopefully playing alongside Russ will keep him motivated. George hasn't really been in this position before. It could be a good thing or a bad thing. I think it depends on how bad he wants to win.

Of course some of the blame against George by Indiana fans is sour grapes. We OKC fans do the same thing to Cupcake.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I think the going to LA thing has nothing to do with winning. I think he is looking at it as either be on a legitimate contender, which is not Indiana or OKC, or go home to LA and it doesn't matter. Also growing up there he has probably always had a desire to play for the Lakers which might be more important to him than anything else.