Westbrook is too inefficient to win a championship with

[JohnMax]

I reordered his playoff series FG% (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260983&page=4&p=8607661&viewfull=1#post8607661).

36.0
37.6
37.8
38.2
39.5
39.6
40.7
41.5
41.5
43.3
45.3
46.3
47.3
48.5
49.1

He's played in 15 series and shot above 43% 6 times.

http://i.imgur.com/79c7dOg.png

[Nilocon165]

Who do you stan nowadays? Just Durant?

And by the way go f*ck yourself

[Ben Simmons]

Inefficent? What about Kevin Durant ?

10-31 in a chance to beat the warriors at home.

Stop blaming Westbrook.

[Quickening]

Better than Kobes shooting in the finals

[JohnMax]

I did the same thing for Kevin Durant.

35.0
36.8
42.1
42.3
42.9
44.0
44.9
45.5
47.0
47.1
47.5
48.5
50.0
51.6
54.8
53.2

He's played in 16 series and shot above 43% 11 times.

[L8krH8tr]

Stfu johnmaxipad

[ScalsFan21]

Durant will never win a title as a number one option in a league that has Curry and LeBron in their primes both with quality supporting casts. He's just not as good as those two guys. #LeBronBall #CurryEffect

However, OP is correct. Westbrook will never win a title at all. In fact I'd bet good money he will retire without a 50% FG playoff series to his name. Most overrated player in basketball right now. He is not capable of sustaining winning play. It's something he has to force himself to do. His natural way of playing the sport is unconducive to winning four straight playoff series.

Chris Paul is literally STILL better no matter how many times he's choked.

[CTbasketball92]

I reordered his playoff series FG% (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260983&page=4&p=8607661&viewfull=1#post8607661).

36.0
37.6
37.8
38.2
39.5
39.6
40.7
41.5
41.5
43.3
45.3
46.3
47.3
48.5
49.1

He's played in 15 series and shot above 43% 6 times.

http://i.imgur.com/79c7dOg.png

IDK. I'd also have to see how many of those series Westbrook won. He only shot 37.6% against the San Antonio Spurs, and yet OKC was still victorious. Westbrook was no less responsible for the W than KD. FG% rarely tells the story with Westbrook.

[imdaman99]

IDK. I'd also have to see how many of those series Westbrook won. He only shot 37.6% against the San Antonio Spurs, and yet OKC was still victorious. Westbrook was no less responsible for the W than KD. FG% rarely tells the story with Westbrook.
Westbrook was easily the most important player in those road victories at San Antonio and same with all 3 wins against Golden State. Far more than Durant. Even when Westbrook is inefficient, he turns the game around with a crazy play or 2. When Durant is off, what is he doing? :oldlol:

People in love with FG%, let's talk about impact.

[CTbasketball92]

Westbrook was easily the most important player in those road victories at San Antonio and same with all 3 wins against Golden State. Far more than Durant. Even when Westbrook is inefficient, he turns the game around with a crazy play or 2. When Durant is off, what is he doing? :oldlol:

People in love with FG%, let's talk about impact.

Yup. FG% is usually a pretty good indicator, but Westbrook is an exception. OKC has no other legit shot creator besides himself and KD, and Westbrook is the best passer. Westbrook opens up the offense by attacking relentlessly. Puts pressure on the defense, and Westbrook doesn't care about FG%. It's funny how Westgod has had teams win like 60 games more than once and he just beat a 67-win spurs team and came within one game of beating an all time great bball team, and people come away saying he isn't good enough. This year's Thunder could legitimately have beaten most championship teams over the last several years. Seriously. Westbrook can't beat the greatest team ever, or a team led by LeBron James, so he's not a legit MVP level player. Ridiculous.

[ScalsFan21]

This year's Thunder could legitimately have beaten most championship teams over the last several years. Seriously.

Westbrook can't beat the greatest team ever, or a team led by LeBron James

These two statements are damn near mutually exclusive. The 2014 Spurs with their ball movement would have beaten them (this year's Spurs team had key players battling injury in that series), and the only other examples are last year's GSW (watered down version of this year's team) and LeBron-led teams, so I'm not sure which recent teams you're saying they would've beaten.

Maybe Dallas or LA, but most over the last several years? C'mon...

I agree that FG% doesn't tell the full story with Westbrook since in a Kobe-esque way, he creates opportunities for putbacks just by being aggressive, forces the refs to blow the whistle with that same assertiveness. It's his decision-making that leaves so much to be desired. How many times have we seen him make KEY momentum-killing blunders at crucial times?

A guy who is so mistake-prone like that just isn't going to win 4 series in a row without amazing help, and even with amazing help he allows his usage rate to exceed his skillset. No way in the world should a guy sharing the court with Durant, when Russ also has one of the WORST qualifying 3PT% in the NBA right there with final-year Kobe, be launching the way he launches at least in terms of his jump shot selection. He should be able to make tweaks to his game but he really does have ultimate tunnel vision.

Westbrook defines what people want to believe "LeBron-ball" is: dominating the ball, passing out at the last possible second. He played under control (and effectively out-of-control) in spurts during the Spurs and Warriors series, but he will always give back so much of what he does well on the court that it prevents him from having a true top-tier overall impact on the court against elite teams, which will make it very hard to ever win a championship in what is becoming an increasingly top-heavy NBA.

[CTbasketball92]

These two statements are damn near mutually exclusive. The 2014 Spurs with their ball movement would have beaten them (this year's Spurs team had key players battling injury in that series), and the only other examples are last year's GSW (watered down version of this year's team) and LeBron-led teams, so I'm not sure which recent teams you're saying they would've beaten.

Maybe Dallas or LA, but most over the last several years? C'mon...

I agree that FG% doesn't tell the full story with Westbrook since in a Kobe-esque way, he creates opportunities for putbacks just by being aggressive, forces the refs to blow the whistle with that same assertiveness. It's his decision-making that leaves so much to be desired. How many times have we seen him make KEY momentum-killing blunders at crucial times?

A guy who is so mistake-prone like that just isn't going to win 4 series in a row without amazing help, and even with amazing help he allows his usage rate to exceed his skillset. No way in the world should a guy sharing the court with Durant, when Russ also has one of the WORST qualifying 3PT% in the NBA right there with final-year Kobe, be launching the way he launches at least in terms of his jump shot selection. He should be able to make tweaks to his game but he really does have ultimate tunnel vision.

Westbrook defines what people want to believe "LeBron-ball" is: dominating the ball, passing out at the last possible second. He played under control (and effectively out-of-control) in spurts during the Spurs and Warriors series, but he will always give back so much of what he does well on the court that it prevents him from having a true top-tier overall impact on the court against elite teams, which will make it very hard to ever win a championship in what is becoming an increasingly top-heavy NBA.

OKC could've beaten 2008-2010 Lakers, celtics or the 2011 Mavericks. I have a feeling this year's GSW team even with banged up curry was on par (at least) or better than the 2014 Spurs, so it isn't a huge stretch to think the thunder could beat them. OKC could've beaten GSW last year lol GSW lost two games to LeBron and a bunch of roughly average role players. OKC could've easily beaten the 2009 Magic as well imo. 6 game series at most, probably 5.

What people miss about "LeBron Ball" and "Westbrook Ball" is that their role players aren't nearly as good as the ones on the Spurs or GSW. Seriously, GSW had 6 or 7 legitimate guards on their team. All of them could pass, shoot and create off the dribble while also being able to play defense. Shaun Livingston is better than literally every other guard/wing on the thunder, and he's like what? The 7th best player on the team? Westbrook and KD and LeBron are so good their teams rarely get good draft picks and their organizations aren't super-savvy, like GSW and San Antonio. How well westbrook does on a deep team remains to be seen, but we haven't seen enough to rule him out as someone who can play in an efficient bball system.

Say what you want about Westbrook, but his team's success speaks for itself. I think during the 2015 season proved he's good for nearly 48-50 wins as the only offensive star on a team if he plays 80 games. For all the talk about LeBron Ball being bad, unless you've got the best organization in the league from management down, that's really your only way of winning a title. LeBron and Kyrie literally beat an all time great team playing hero ball. Seriously. The Game 4, 5, 6 and 7 shots they took would've been looked won upon if they missed more shots and lost, but thats the risk you take. It's either that or pass to Delly or Dion Waiters. Not everyone has the luxury of passing to Draymond green, Iggy, Harrison Barnes, Shaun Livingston, Barbosa ... Bogut ... Danny green, Diaw, all of those spurs role players in 2014 .... the list goes on.

Curry had literally all of the help in the world last year, and he still almost lost to the cavs, and actually did lose to them this year, even if he was hurt (looked great in OKC, *shrugs*). He managed to screw up even though he didn't have to set up the offense, he didn't have to play defense ... etc, all he had to do was score, and that's it.

Went on a bit of a tangent, but this whole narrative is annoying to me. Basically: you either have a holistically all time great team or a few superstars to take a team down. That's really your only shot these days.