OKC Thunder New Year’s resolutions: Top-five goals

The Westbrook factor:

With Paul George playing the best basketball of his career and a potential MVP candidate, quieting Russell Westbrook’s haters seems attainable to a certain extent. Many of his critics will complain regardless, additional arguments against him are being debunked more this season than any other.

First and foremost, Westbrook not playing the best basketball of his career is actually a blessing in disguise. No, I’m not insinuating the Thunder is better without him. The reality is, however, the team has proven to be able to hold its own without Westbrook on the court.

While Westbrook sat out with injury twice this year, the team proved capable of winning without him. This was good because it showed Westbrook he didn’t have to do everything in order to win and gave a confidence boost to George and the rest of the team. And since Westbrook is back to 100 percent, he’s proven to be able to take a back seat to George at times and still manage to average a triple-double doing it.

In short, Westbrook does whatever necessary to win. If that means taking 50 shots and taking a beating in the media, then so be it. But for now, it means playing off of George, getting Dennis Schroder in the mix and taking over when the time’s right.

Again, the haters will never be completely silenced, but if George wins (or comes close) to winning MVP and the Thunder advance in the playoffs, it will be hard to say Westbrook is a bad teammate and isn’t efficient with the basketball in his hands.