Tag: Russell Westbrook (Page 4 of 7)

Grizzlies upend Thunder, take Game 1

May 1, 2011 / John Paulsen

This Memphis team deserves a lot of credit. The Grizzlies are playing some very good basketball right now on both ends of the court. In Sunday’s Game 1, they allowed Kevin Durant (33 points) and Russell Westbrook (29 points) to get theirs, but they turned the Thunder over 18 times, which led to a +11 margin in shot attempts, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.

I’ve been harping on Russell Westbrook for a while, but the more I see him play, the more I realize that he’s simply not a point guard. He should play off guard a la Dwyane Wade. That way, he’d still be able to be a big part of the offense, but he wouldn’t be responsible for handling the ball all the time and setting his teammates up, two things that he struggles with. He had seven turnovers and 14 missed shots, so there’s 21 possessions where the Thunder didn’t score. He also gets stuck defensively on ball screens, and if he was playing more off guard, he’d be chasing screens off the ball, an area at which he excels. That said, the Thunder passed on Ricky Rubio and Stephen Curry in the ’09 draft and they don’t seem poised to move Westbrook off the ball anytime soon.

But back to the Grizzlies. Zach Randolph may be playing the best basketball in the playoffs right now. He scored 34 points and snagged 10 rebounds, while Marc Gasol went for 20-13 on 9-of-11 shooting. What’s interesting about this pair is that they wouldn’t be in Memphis if not for owner Michael Heisley’s decision to trade Pau Gasol to the Lakers a few years ago. Marc Gasol came over in the trade, but no one thought he would develop into the all-around big man that he has become. The Grizzlies were able to afford the trade for Randolph since they had the cap space left by the Pau Gasol trade.

At the time, the acquisition of Randolph didn’t look very promising considering he was overpaid and underachieving. But he has settled in nicely in Memphis and the duo have formed one of the best one-two frontcourt punches in the league. The Pau Gasol trade was still terrible on paper, but it has since worked out for both teams (albeit more so for the Lakers).

Game 2 of the series is on Tuesday night on TNT.

External Sports, NBA

2011 NBA Playoffs Marc Gasol Memphis Grizzlies Oklahoma City Thunder Russell Westbrook Zach Randolph

Durant’s 41 closes out the Nuggets, no thanks to Westbrook

April 28, 2011 / John Paulsen

Thanks to Kevin Durant’s 41 points and Serge Ibaka’s defense down the stretch, the Thunder won Game 5 and closed out the series against the Nuggets, 100-97.

There’s no doubt about it — OKC won in spite of Russell Westbrook’s play. He went 3-of-15 from the field and turned the ball over three times while posting just four assists on a night that Durant hit 14 field goals. He nearly turned the ball over twice in the waning minutes, once dribbling the ball off of his foot after crossing half court and then again nearly whipping the ball out of bounds while attempting to pass the ball to James Harden. Ty Lawson beat him to the hole repeatedly because he kept getting stuck on ball screens set by Nene. He should thank his lucky stars that his teammates were there to protect the rim. (How about Serge Ibaka’s line? One point, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals, NINE BLOCKS and five turnovers. Wowsers.)

Westbrook made a three-pointer with 8:11 to play to cut the Nuggets’ lead to four, but was pretty dreadful down the stretch. Here’s a look at his play-by-play:

6:56 Russell Westbrook misses jumper
6:13 Russell Westbrook misses 25-foot three point jumper
4:20 Russell Westbrook misses 5-foot two point shot (this was a force)
3:53 Russell Westbrook offensive rebound
3:50 Wilson Chandler blocks Russell Westbrook’s 4-foot jumper
3:03 Russell Westbrook makes free throw 1 of 2
3:03 Russell Westbrook misses free throw 2 of 2
1:15 Russell Westbrook shooting foul (Ty Lawson draws the foul)

So in the last seven minutes, he went 0-4 from the field, 1-2 from the free throw line, with one rebound, one assist and one foul. Plus, he nearly turned the ball over twice because he was sloppy with the ball. He also contributed to the defense that allowed Ty Lawson and Ray Felton to combine for 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the thing that really worries me about the Thunder is the lack of heady play at the point. There’s no doubt that Russell Westbrook is a great player, but he’s not yet a great point guard.

I’ll give him some credit for Game 5 though. Coming down the stretch, he recognized that it was not his night, gave the ball to Durant and got out of his way.

External Sports, NBA

2011 NBA Playoffs Kevin Durant Oklahoma City Thunder Russell Westbrook

Here’s what worries me about the Thunder…

April 18, 2011 / John Paulsen

Watching the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Thunder/Nuggets series, I noticed that OKC didn’t utilize Kevin Durant much down the stretch, even though he had 37 points in the game with seven minutes to play. Over those final seven minutes, Durant was just 1-2 from the field.

Here’s how the Thunder’s final possessions went, before the Nuggets had to start fouling with 0:11 to play:

7:26 Kevin Durant makes two point shot (Russell Westbrook assists)
7:05 Kevin Durant makes 14-foot two point shot (Russell Westbrook assists)
6:13 Russell Westbrook makes 19-foot two point shot
5:45 Russell Westbrook lost ball (Raymond Felton steals)
5:28 Kevin Durant misses 25-foot three point jumper
5:05 Russell Westbrook misses 17-foot two point shot
4:26 Russell Westbrook misses 24-foot three point jumper
4:01 Thabo Sefolosha misses 23-foot three point jumper
3:26 Kevin Durant makes 11-foot jumper (Thabo Sefolosha assists)
2:38 Serge Ibaka misses 16-foot jumper
2:09 Russell Westbrook misses 17-foot jumper
1:40 Russell Westbrook bad pass (Nene Hilario steals)
1:06 Russell Westbrook misses 11-foot jumper
1:05 Kendrick Perkins makes tip shot
0:22 Russell Westbrook makes 15-foot two point shot

Not counting those first two possessions, someone other than Durant shot the ball (or turned it over) on eight of the next 10 possessions. During that span, Russell Westbrook shot 2-for-6 for four points, zero assists and two turnovers. (He did assist on the first two Durant makes.)

If not for the blown goaltending no-call on Kendrick Perkins’ tip-in, the Thunder would have found themselves down by one without the ball with a minute to play. Under those circumstances they easily could have lost the game and they would have those previous eight possessions to blame.

I like Russell Westbrook and he’s obviously a great player, but he doesn’t have a point guard mentality. This has been only major gripe with his game since he has come into the league and that probably won’t change anytime soon. He went 2-for-6 with two turnovers, so he was responsible for five empty possessions in the final seven minutes. It would have been six if not for Perkins’ illegal tip-in.

At some point, Westbrook needs to figure out a way to get Durant (arguably the league’s best scorer) the ball in a position where he can be successful, especially in crunch time when Durant is obviously the team’s best chance at winning. If teams are going to double-team Durant, fine. Let Durant use his size to find the open man. I didn’t see a lot of that down the stretch. Instead, I saw Westbrook dribbling around and firing up contested jumpers. The shoot-first point guard can be successful depending on team make-up (i.e. Derrick Rose, who is clearly the Bulls’ best offensive weapon), but OKC cannot afford to waste crucial possessions in a tight game.

For this reason, I don’t know that the Thunder are championship caliber, at least not yet. They’re my favorite team in the West, but without heady point guard play, it’s tough to win those nailbiters down the stretch.

External Sports, NBA

2011 NBA Playoffs Oklahoma City Thunder Russell Westbrook

What kind of point guard WAS he?

March 29, 2011 / John Paulsen

My post from a few days ago was relatively well-received at reddit, and one of the readers there said that he’d like to see the same graph for some of the all-time great point guards.

So with a little help from Basketball-Reference.com, I compiled a list of (all?) the Hall of Fame point guards: Oscar Robertson, Lenny Wilkens, Bob Cousy, Jerry West, John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Dennis Johnson, Tiny Archibald, Calvin Murphy, Pete Maravich and Walt Frazier. Unfortunately, the NBA didn’t start keeping track of turnovers until the 1977-78 season, so there’s no assist-to-turnover data for the first four (Robertson, Wilkens, Cousy, West) and the data for Archibald, Murphy, Maravich and Frazier is incomplete, so I could only use their post-1977 numbers.

I also compiled a list of the top non-HOF point guards who are both retired and still active: Jason Kidd, Mark Jackson, Steve Nash, Gary Payton, Rod Strickland, Maurice Cheeks, Terry Porter, Tim Hardaway, Andre Miller, Muggsy Bogues, Kevin Johnson, Derek Harper, Stephon Marbury (yes, Stephon Marbury), John Lucas, Norm Nixon, Mookie Blaylock, Sam Cassell, Avery Johnson, Baron Davis, Nick Van Exel, Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups and Mike Bibby. All of these players have at least 5,400 career assists, which seemed to be the cutoff for players I was interested in using for this study.

Lastly, I added seven of the top current point guards who have yet to break the 5,400-assist barrier: Tony Parker, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, Deron Williams and of course, Chris Paul.

I first tackled this subject two years ago, and settled on the shot-to-assist ratio to determine whether a player is “pass-first” or “shoot-first.” The higher the number, the more of a “shoot-first” player he is. To determine whether or not a player is “turnover-prone,” I calculated each player’s assist-to-turnover ratio. The higher the number, the better the player is at taking care of the ball, relative to what he’s asked to do as a playmaker for his team. The graph takes a gentle downward slope because assists are part of both calculations. (Note: While I do like FGA/A as the criteria for shoot-first/pass-first, I am not completely sold on A/TO as the criteria for turnover-prone. Perhaps (A+FGA)/TO would show shoot-first guards in a better light? Maybe I’ll try that next year.)

External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA

Allen Iverson Andre Miller Avery Johnson Baron Davis Bob Cousy Calvin Murphy Chauncey Billups Chris Paul Dennis Johnson Derek Harper Deron Williams Derrick Rose Gary Payton Isiah Thomas Jason Kidd Jerry West John Lucas John Stockton Kevin Johnson Lenny Wilkens Magic Johnson Mark Jackson Maurice Cheeks Mike Bibby Mookie Blaylock Muggsy Bogues Nick Van Exel Norm Nixon Oscar Robertson pass-first point guards Pete Maravich Rajon Rondo Rod Strickland Russell Westbrook Sam Cassell shoot-first point guards statistical studies Stephon Marbury Steve Nash Terry Porter Tim Hardaway Tiny Archibald Tony Parker turnover-prone point guards Walt Frazier

Thunder’s championship hopes depend on Russell Westbrook

February 27, 2011 / John Paulsen

The Thunder’s 90-87 loss to the Lakers on Sunday is a great example of why Russell Westbrook holds the championship keys for this young Oklahoma City team. He posted 22 points, six assists and six rebounds, but turned the ball over seven times, including two bad turnovers in the final minute when the Thunder were trying to complete a comeback.

He’s super-aggressive and supremely talented, but the bottom line is that he’s a scoring guard playing the point, and he has to learn to keep himself under control, especially when he’s attacking the rim and there are defenders in position to take the charge. Unfortunately, his turnovers are actually up this year (3.8 vs 3.3 last season) so it doesn’t look like the light is going to go on anytime soon. He’s actually tied with Rajon Rondo with the most turnovers per game this season.

Can the Thunder emerge from the West? I think they can, but they’re going to have to play better offensively than they did on Sunday. OKC took the Lakers to a Game 7 last year, and once they get Kendrick Perkins into the mix — he sat out of Sunday’s game with sprained knee — they’ll fare better against the Lakers’ big front line. Serge Ibaka looks more than capable of playing power forward, while James Harden and Nick Collison anchor a very capable bench.

Believe it or not — even with the best scorer in the league in Kevin Durant, the Thunder have trouble executing offensively. Westbrook is not a natural playmaker so when he’s penetrating he’s looking for his own shot. The Thunder will probably have to play Harden at the two down the stretch if Ibaka and Perkins are also on the floor. Otherwise, the defense will be able to focus on Durant and Westbrook.

If Westbrook can raise his game and increase his assist-to-turnover ratio from the current 2.2 to 2.8 or 3.0, the Thunder will be very, very dangerous come playoff time.

External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA

2010-11 NBA season Los Angeles Lakers Oklahoma City Thunder Russell Westbrook

Tag: Russell Westbrook (Page 4 of 7)

Grizzlies upend Thunder, take Game 1

Durant’s 41 closes out the Nuggets, no thanks to Westbrook

Here’s what worries me about the Thunder…

What kind of point guard WAS he?

Thunder’s championship hopes depend on Russell Westbrook

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