Thunder in the News: Russell Westbrook is starting to take heat
By Tony Heim
Thunder in the News is using the next couple of days to break down the biggest problems with the OKC Thunder through the first 19 games of the season.
Happy Monday Thunder Nation. Usually I end that sentence with an exclamation point, but I’m not feeling all that exclamatory about this Thunder team. It doesn’t help that it’s the Monday after Thanksgiving either.
As you all have heard/seen, the Oklahoma City Thunder are a mess right now. After playing the best game of their season against the Warriors they dropped two terrible games to the Pistons and Mavericks respectively. I keep telling myself they’ve hit Rock Bottom, probably for my own sanity. This time I mean it though: there’s no place to go but up for this team.
“The Thunder have a Russell Westbrook problem”
In my opinion Kevin O’Connor is second-in-command to Zach Lowe as the best basketball writer around. When he speaks on your team, you listen. That’s why you have to read his piece on Russell Westbrook before you can go any further.
"Teams tend to follow the leader. It’s no coincidence that once LeBron James started playing defense this season, the rest of the Cavs followed suit. Westbrook is OKC’s LeBron."
O’Connor makes approximately 4,582 great points, but his last one sums everything up perfectly. The Thunder move the ball when Westbrook is moving the ball. The Thunder play defense when he is engaged on that end. All of the bad habits we’ve seen this team fall into start with Russ. He’s going to have to change if we’re going to see anything different from this team this season.
Carmelo Anthony isn’t helping
These numbers won’t come as a shock to those who’ve watched Carmelo before this season. Many thought that Melo teaming up with two superstars would calm down his propensity to force shots in isolation. It hasn’t. In fact he’s taken the role of the Thunder’s offensive safety net to heart.
When Carmelo gets the ball it feels like he takes a shot every time. There’s countless instances of him blatantly missing open teammates because he was so set on getting his shot off. The Thunder will go where Russell Westbrook takes them, but it’s going to take sacrifices from everybody else for him to change too.
Carmelo Anthony's year over year comparison.
— Machine Pun Kelly 🇺🇦 (@KellyScaletta) November 26, 2017
2016-17: 22.4 points, 29.1% USG, 2.9 assists, 5.9 rebounds, .535 TS%, 17.9 PER
2017-18: 19.9 points, 27.3% USG, 1.6 assists, 6.2 rebounds, .535 TS%, 17.1 PER
Olympic Melo looks a lot like Knicks Melo.
Can we please stop counting Russ’ triple-doubles
I blame ESPN Stats & Info for creating the misconception that Thunder fans are obsessed with triple-doubles. Because that simply isn’t the case. Sure we cheered for it last season (what else did we truly have), but their obsession has caused an unfair view of Thunder Nation. I mean look at this tweet after OKC lost to the Pistons:
Russell Westbrook gets his NBA-leading 6th triple-double this season.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 25, 2017
Coincidentally, it comes on Oscar Robertson's 79th birthday (Westbrook broke Robertson's single-season triple-double record last season) pic.twitter.com/6gK3huFpHY
Did you really expect me to bash the team the whole time today? Of course I was going to stick up for my team at some point. Because that’s what we have to do in this tumultuous time: stick together and keep believing.
That’s it for this Monday’s issue of Thunder in the News. Oklahoma City has another day off until they travel to Orlando for a matchup with the Magic. Enjoy the extra day off – I have no clue what to expect of this team come Wednesday.