Feb 6, 2013; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) congratulates Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) after a play against the Golden State Warriors during the second half at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

You don’t need to do much more than watch a few games of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to know how awesome each is.

STATS LLC is using a new player tracking system called SportVU that tracks everything individual players do on the court. The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of 15 teams in the league using this technology.

Zach Lowe of Grantland looked at these stats and had this to write about Durant and Westbrook:

Post-ups? Durant is 26-of-37 from the floor when he catches a pass within 12 feet of the rim, which is the current STATS definition of “post touch.” The Thunder average nearly 1.6 points per possession when this happens, a top-10 mark among camera players, and a stat that makes you think Durant should get more than the paltry 1.27 such touches he averages per game.

That’s the thing about Durant: Scroll through these categories one by one, and you’ll say to yourself, “He should be doing this particular thing more often!” Then you realize you’ve said that for every category — drives, post-ups, elbow touches — and you just shake your head.

As for Westbrook, his numbers are merely “good,” but they also contradict the (dying) notion that he’s an irresponsible ball hog. Westbrook has attempted a shot on just half of his drives, a below-average mark for a high-scoring guard (and in general), and has coughed the ball up on only 5 percent of those drives.

…

Here’s one that surprised me: Serge Ibaka averages only 1.59 elbow touches per game, the fourth-lowest number among nearly 90 players with at least 40 total elbow touches…But Ibaka knows what he’s there to do: shoot. He has jacked it up on 50 percent of his elbow touches, the highest such rate in the league. Ibaka has hit 41 percent from there so far, which is solid, but certainly not great.

It’s not surprising that Durant is a monster like this. Everyone is always screaming for him to get more touches and take more shots. This year when you’re shooting split are 50-40-90, it’s no surprise that means you are great from anywhere on the floor.

The Westbrook stats are nice to see too because his driving and kicking has been one of the biggest improvements in his game this year. He’s not taking as many reckless shots at the rim anymore and doing a much better job of finding teammates which has resulted in his assists going back up from 5.5 a year ago to 8.1 this season.

And Ibaka has been extremely aggressive looking for his shot this season. It would be nice to see him starting to get more touches but it’s hard to ever make him the focal point on offense with Durant and Westbrook around. Still, the Thunder are doing it a little more this season and Ibaka is taking advantage.

Lowe also noted some things about James Harden in this piece. Basically, teams score more often when “drives” take place in the offense. Harden drives to the rim almost as much as anyone in the league and when he does, the Rockets are more efficient than anyone.

It confirms the notion of getting into the paint to make things happen. Drives don’t just result in shots for the driver but they can mean kick-outs for threes, getting fouled or simply making the defense work a little bit harder. Westbrook ranks third in the league (among teams with cameras) averaging 9.3 drives per game.

These stats are cool and confirm a lot of things about how great the Thunder have been this season. We will be sure to keep an eye on them and update you on any more statistical trends throughout the season.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder have the best record in the NBA but they don’t necessarily play the best “team” basketball. The Thunder rely more on isolation scoring than any other team in the league and turn the ball over nearly 17 times per game.

Oklahoma City’s starting point guard, Russell Westbrook, averages just 5.5 assists per game, down from 8.2 last season and 8.0 two years ago. The assist numbers from Westbrook are something that needs to improve without question.

With Kevin Durant and James Harden both having the best seasons of their careers, the fourth option for Oklahoma City, Serge Ibaka, hasn’t improved as much as some thought he would.

Ibaka is leading the NBA averaging 3.2 blocks per game but is only scoring 8.2 points per game. Last season Ibaka averaged 9.9 points per game with that number really going up after the Jeff Green trade.

Not a lot has really changed in Ibaka’s game this year though. He still takes that 16-foot jump shot when he gets it and doesn’t have much of a game at the rim aside from finishing with dunks and layups.

It’s Westbrook’s playmaking that has gone down. Westbrook and Ibaka should be a lethal combination for Oklahoma City and it is when they do it. They just don’t do it enough.

Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

SportVu Technology recently posted a study where they researched the highest field goal percentages by passer. They tracked every pass thrown by every NBA player so far this season.

Paul Pierce leads the league with his teammates shooting .568 percent off his passes. The top combination in the NBA is when Ricky Rubio sets up Nikola Pekovic who shoots .707 percent off Rubio’s passes.

Up there in the top combinations is Westbrook and Ibaka. Ibaka shoots .634 percent on passes from Westbrook. Most of those passes are Westbrook kicking out to Ibaka on pick-and-pops for midrange jumpers or Westbrook finding Ibaka on cuts for dunks and layups.

Using Westbrook and Ibaka together should really become more of a staple of the Thunder offense. Help can’t come easily when Durant and James Harden are also on the floor and by this point in the season, defenses are much more focused on Westbrook trying to score than Ibaka.

Ibaka has played great basketball the last two postseasons and will of course be another key component this year for the Thunder. As the games slow down into more of a halfcourt setting, Oklahoma City is going need a little bump in scoring from Ibaka if they want to make it to the NBA Finals.

It will be up to Westbrook to make this happen.