Well, Boozer shouldn't be talking shit in the first place considering the year he's having. He simply lit a fire under Bosh's ass. You'd be surprised what that can do. But I do see Bosh doing some damage if the Mavs completely lose focus on him. He's good enough at dunking the ball, and hitting open shots.
Beaubois wouldn't be in their playoff rotation if he did come back. He played a game earlier in the playoffs. His decision making is too bad for playoff basketball.
Westbrook is an idiot. He has the two time league scoring champion on his team, yet he calls his own number WAY too much, shoots a horrible percentage, is a turnover machine, and gets called for some of the stupidest technicals I've ever seen. The dumb ass shoved Jason Terry INTO a ref. Did he think he was actually going to get away with that? For the playoffs: Kevin Durant: 722 Minutes Played 345 FGA 0.449 FG% Russell Westbrook: 638 Minutes Played 343 FGA 0.394 FG% So, the league's two time scoring champion played 84 more minutes, but only got two more FGA than his much worse shooting "PG"? In fact, out of the top 7 Thunder players in minutes played, Westbrook had, by far, the worst FG%, yet took the most shots, by far, per minute played. He is a poor shooting ballhog Any PG who takes > 2.0 FGA per assist, is a shoot first PG. Any PG who takes > 2.5 FGA per assist is a ballhog. Any PG who takes > 3.0 FGA per assist isn't a PG. He's a ball dominating SG, and when his GF% is lss than 40%, nit a very good one. For the playoffs, Russell Westbrook: 343 FGA, 108 AST = 3.18 FGA per assist. Somewhere out there, Stephon Marbury (career FGA/AST = 2.06) is embarrassed for Russell Westbrook. And, then there's the turnovers. Westbrook had 78 TOs for the playoffs. Second highest is Derrick Rose with 55. Compared to his counterpart in this series: Russel Westbrook: AST - 108 TOV - 78 AST/TO = 1.38 Jason Kidd: AST = 115 TOV = 35 AST/TO = 3.29 Westbrook is highly over rated. A lot of people are in love with his athleticism and scoring average and love to compare him to Derrick Rose (not even close). He didn't deserve to be second team all-NBA. He hurts his team in so many ways (poor shooting, not getting the ball to his better shooting teammates, turnovers, etc.). The ESPN talking heads like to make the excuse that he's only 22 and still learning to play the PG position. That's true, but his grade for these playoffs is a solid F. He needs to get a LOT better and learn his role. Specifically, when you are running your team's offense, and you have the best scorer in the league on your team GET HIM THE FUCKING BALL! When you are the WORST SHOOTER ON THE FLOOR, LOOK TO PASS OCCASIONALLY! Until then, you're not the second best PG in the league, you're not even top 10. BNM
He makes them worse. He completely froze out Durant for long stretches. And why is Westbrook jacking up 343 FGA for the playoffs and the much better shooting James Harden only got 139 FGA (over 200 fewer than his "PG")? Russell Westbrook: 343 FGA 0.394 FG% James Harden: 139 FGA 0.475 FG% OKC lost some very close games in this series they could have easily won had Westbrook not called his own number so many times, and would have gotten the ball in the hands of his much better shooting teammates. BNM
I don't know what to think about Westbook. Yes he is an idiot, but I do like his fire. He doesn't make his teammates better like a PG should, but he is unstoppable at times. Would I want him on the Blazers? Yes, but I doubt LMA would benefit from it. He seems to be another SG in a PG's body. OKC played best when Hardin ran the offense and Westbrook was the scorer. Durant did not handle the double team very well.
He reminds me of a poor man's Allen Iverson. The difference being, that other than a couple years in Denver, Iverson was, by far, the best scoring option on his team. Westbrook has the best scorer in the league on his team, and a SG that is a MUCH more efficient scorer - yet Westbrook calls his own number more (at least in these playoffs) than either of those guys. I think the all star appearance and 2nd team all-NBA award went to his head and made him think he's better than he really is. WTF is he doing jacking up 19.4 FGA/36 (and shooting 0.394 FG%) while limiting Durant to 17.3 FGA/36 and Harden to 9.3 FGA/36? Stupid! BNM
I absolutely agree with what you are saying. However Harden had the ball in his hands alot. He could have put up more shots, but being the unselfish player he is, he passed. As for Durant there were times where Westbrook should have passed to him. NO DOUBT. However Dallas at times did a great job of denying Durant the ball. Durant did not move without the ball in the half court set. They would just double him 25 feet from the basket and Westbrook simply attacked the basket. My point is it was not all Westbrook's fault. Durant and Brooks should share some of that blame.
Since everyone is ripping on Westbrook, I'm going to throw some fuel on the fire. His +/- for the series was a god awful -30. He had one game where he had a positive +/-, and it was in a loss and he had a +6 I believe. Everything else he did this series was awful.
Very solid point. Dallas basically dictated that they weren't going to let Durant beat them. Normally when that happens, giant gaps appear in the middle that Westbrook gets to do his thing through--drives and either dunks or gets fouled. The problem in this series was the Dallas interior defense, particularly Chandler. He's such a great interior defender that the normal advantages that arise for Westbrook just weren't there. Westbrook still tried because it's the only thing he knows how to do. BNM--I kind of agree with the Iverson/Marbury comparisons, but to be fair that's only half the game. He's a far more elite defender than either of those guys ever tried to be. A Dallas/Heat series could be really intriguing. Star power vs depth. Kind of like the Lakers/Blazers 2000 series. My gut says the Heat win, but my heart is with Dallas.
A 19.6 PER is pretty bad with a usage rate near 35% yet only 6 apg. His advanced stats were simply awful, and his WS/48 of .084 is shameful for somebody hogging the ball like Westbrook did in these playoffs. Compare the advance stats from the playoffs and see how terrible Westbrook was compared to Durant. Westbrook is getting a lot of criticism, and he deserves every bit of it.
I didn't say he didn't deserve criticism, but they still don't make the WCF, or maybe even the playoffs without him.
So what? You think OKC would be an better team if other teams can focus their defense entirely on Durant? It's probably better to just ignore you when you go into agenda mode. I think that's happening now, so I'll just stop.
I never said that. I said that the advanced stats show Westbrook was hurting his team while on the court. His WS/48 and overall WS are embarrassing for a guy with a 35% usage rate. Of course Westbrook helped OKC get to the WCF. I posted after Game 7 against Memphis that if he continued to play as a PG, which he did that game, that OKC would beat Dallas. Because of that performance, I picked OKC in 6 games. Then, the other Westbrook we've seen in the playoffs showed up against Dallas, and they win one game.
