Aloha,
One of the major concerns about landing Westbrook was his poor shooting from deep. And .315 from deep is obviously not good. But what all the critics fail to mention is DWade was even worse when he played with LeBron. He didn’t fix his 3 point shot until later in his career. The pairing with LeBron worked because Wade learned to play off the ball. Russ is athletic and has a high motor. If he learns the lessons DWade learned he should thrive.
The other area Westbrook needs to improve on is shot selection. He was miserable on pull up 3’s. Only 28%. But he was a decent 35.6% on catch and shoot 3’s. And surprisingly he shot 40% from the corner. The lesson here is no pull up 3’s. Perhaps Frank should fine him every time he takes one.
Russ has never played with 2 players like LeBron and AD and with so many shooters. His already impressive assist total should be even better. If he makes these adjustments our offense can be right up there as one of the best in the league. And hopefully we can maintain enough defense to stay in the top 10 as well.
Great post, Michael. The disrespect the media is giving Russ reminds me of what happened with CP3. Media ignoring all of the monster positives Russ brings to the table.
I mean is there any question that Russ is one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game? I mean the guy averaged a triple double for the season. He puts more pressureon the rim with his play than most of the bigs in the league.
I think Russ will personally reign his game in and focus on attacking the rim and creating points or opportunities for teammates to get dunks and wide open threes. I think he will eschew pull up threes and be judicious with anything midrange or beyond the arc. He will emulate what Harden did for the Nets and become the team’s primary facilitator and glue.