OKC Thunder season review: Analyzing Russell Westbrook’s complicated season

Game Evolution – the assist master:

One of the more promising – but also maybe most frustrating – developments of the year for OKC as a whole was that there was a moment when Westbrook did, indeed, start to evolve his game. Right up until Paul George started falling apart (which we’ll get to on the next Lightning Report), Westbrook was evolving his game.

He was taking the fewest shots per game he had taken since Kevin Durant left for the Warriors in 2015 and his defense was tamer than it had been in years past and he worked himself into a slight plus on that end; he was finally embracing the facilitator role that he seemed to reject for so long.

Better yet, it was helping the Thunder win. His own, personal development was generating open looks for an offense that desperately needed any help it could get which coincided with the Thunder playing the best offense they’d played in years.

There is a reason, after all, that he finished with 1489 potential assists this season – more than anyone else in the NBA and 259 more than the second-place Trae Young. Paul George was the splashy reason that OKC was establishing itself as a real contender, but Westbrook finally playing the right way deserved just as much credit.

That’s why it’s so hard to blame Westbrook for some of the things that went wrong in Oklahoma City this season. He was abysmal in the playoffs, but they wouldn’t have sniffed the postseason if not for him. And it’s not his fault that the Thunder didn’t have the shooters to capitalize on the looks with which he was setting them up. Nor is it his fault that he was basically the only one on the roster who could reliably create shots for his teammates. We can debate about his scoring and decision-making all day, but his impact on their offense was undeniable.