Russell Westbrook – Epic season in review

‘There is no success without hardship’ – Sophocles

However, as the long season dragged on through the depths of winter, it became more and more clear that this team, despite the heroics of one Russell Westbrook, was deeply flawed.

Whispers began to spread in NBA-land, and a line in the sand was drawn. There were those who defended Russ. Then, there were those who saw the bad that came with such unbridled brilliance.

To quote Bill Simmons, who wrote a rather lengthy column on Westbrook in March:

"“…Westbrook plays 75 percent of every game, and when he plays, he shoots more than just about anyone ever, and assists on a higher percentage of his team’s baskets than just about anyone ever. Adding those two pieces of information together, then including usage rate, we can safely say that Westbrook dominates the basketball more than anyone else ever has.” -Bill Simmons"

Westbrook’s usage rate was a staggering 40.8%. That’s simply way too high. In addition, he turned the ball over 5.4 times a game. That’s too many times, regardless of how often Russ was handling the ball. In addition, he had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.92, which is exceedingly low.

Westbrook led the league in scoring, however, he also needed to take 1491 shots, which is 371 more than Andrew Wiggins, who finished 2nd in the NBA. This translated to a 42.5 field goal percentage, and a 34. 3 percent clip from deep. Unfortunately, 34.3 percent from three was a career high for Westbrook. Why is that unfortunate? Russell was 7th in the NBA with 583 three-point attempts during the season.

As breathless as Westbrook’s transition attack can be, Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post reveals a stunning truth:

"“The benefit is getting the ball into Westbrook’s hand as quickly as possible, but his individual production in transition is below average (0.98 points per possession, bottom 30 percent of the NBA) with just 30 percent of his transition opportunities leading to an assist. Almost a quarter of his transition possessions as the ball handler end up in a turnover (23.1 percent), the fourth-highest among guards with at least 100 possessions.” -Neil Greenberg"

Finally, on the other end of the ball, Westbrook was a quiet disaster:

"Westbrook contests 3.6 shots per game, the lowest rate of any player averaging at least 30 minutes per night. The players he guards attempt eight field goals per game, per Synergy Sports, which means they take more than half of their shots without any sort of defensive effort on Westbrook’s part despite him being the closest defender. Even his attempts to contest shots does little good: Opponents have a better field goal percentage on shots he defends (48.6 percent) than on all of their other field goal attempts combined during the regular season (45.2 percent). -Neil Greenberg"

The Fatal Flaw

Every hero in every epic has a fatal flaw. It inserts a sense of doubt into the story. It adds a compelling twist to an otherwise straightforward story.

Like most of those heroes, Russ is afflicted by hubris. Westbrook has shown time and time again that he wants, no he needs, to be the guy that wins the game. He’s going to be the guy that carries his team on his back to the sweetest of victories or the darkest defeats.

In the clutch (during the 4th quarter or overtime with less than 5 minutes remaining and the game within 5 points) this year, Westbrook was 82-184 (44 percent) from the field. He was 19-58 from three, or 32 percent. Worst of all, Westbrook had an assisted field goal percentage of .061 percent. For a point guard that number is egregious. Of his 10.4 assists per game, only 1.9 of them came in the final frame of the game.