Post#100 » by slick_watts » Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:44 pm
it's a great article. this is what i would add.
first is that, while the idea of westbrook + adams + three shooters and an all out spread pnr attack is appealing, it is still inherently limited by westbrook's poor pull-up shooting ability. lowe compared westbrook to harden in this vein and sort of skirts over that difference. i don't see it as such a minor thing. westbrook also runs into a similar problem harden has when building such a team, in that you need one or more of those shooters to be quality defensive wings as well because westbrook isn't going to defend. morey has chris paul now, and a stable of '3&D' wings to flank harden. that's not an easy thing to do.
second, i believe westbrook's influence on the offense is overstated. he's a great offensive player but his flaws relative to harden and the others lowe mentions will always hold him back. i've noted this before, but the thunder offense with westbrook in the game this season being even above league average is entirely predicated on the offensive rebounding of steven adams (and to a lessor extent, others). the thunder are league average or worse at a factor level at eFG, TOV%, and FT/FGA with westbrook in the game this year, but blow the league away on ORB% because adams has turned into moses malone. some will quibble about how much influence westbrook has on ORB% but it's definitely the factor of the four he's least responsible for. by contrast, kemba walker's hornets have a better eFG, FT/FGA and TOV% when he is on the court. i don't think this should be the case if westbrook is as influential as lowe is implying.