I don't intend for this to be a basketball blog; but I happen to love the game, especially NBA basketball. So I anticipate that as the season starts up in a couple of months, there will be more basketball related posts. I also anticipate writing a follow up to this post sometime in December, entitled "Rodrigue Beaubois and the Discovery of Pass-to-Dirk-aphobia." So be on the lookout for that one. I know you'll sit huddled in your room refreshing your web browser every ten seconds until it arrives...So anyway, on to the point. You know those girls who just look absolutely gorgeous, regardless of the medium - in person, photos, on the phone, beautiful voice, basically the whole package - and you find yourself intrigued. Then you strike up a conversation with her, and you realize immediately why she was willing to let you strike up that conversation: she is an idiot. Just, you know, like the absolute dumbest person you've ever met in your life.
That is Russel Westbrook. I hate him; not personally, you understand. I don't know him, I've never met him, and I don't expect that we'll ever be in the same room, so I'm not qualified to make any judgement as to his personality or characteristics or intelligence. But as far as running an NBA basketball team on the floor as a point guard, well...Let's put it this way: he's got a fantastic highlight reel, honestly jaw-dropping skill and athleticism. He has all of the tools to be one of the deadliest players in the league, but not unlike the Tick his mind has always been his Achilles heel. Seriously, he makes some of the worst decisions I've ever seen anyone make on the court and still get the kind of minutes that he gets. Which is not to say that he shouldn't get those minutes; just take the ball out of his hands, let Harden run point and only pass it to Russ when you want him to shoot it. Cause he refuses to play the point guard position, but Scott Brooks still lets him run the plays.
I don't think it's because he's stupid; I think it's because he always thinks he's the best player out on the court...which, when you're on the same team with Kevin Durant might seem a little South of the Intelligence Equator-Line-of-Demarcation-and-Whatever-Other-Type-of-Boundary-You-Choose-To-Use-As-a-Metaphor, but I've had the same delusion in regards to myself on occasion when just playing pick-up ball so I understand how it happens. I'm not burning him for that, he just...look, it got so bad in the 2011 playoffs that, as a Mavs fan in the 4th quarter of those close games, I would cheer every time Westbrook touched the ball. I'm not joking about that, not even a little bit; there is no exaggeration or hyperbole happening in that sentence. I wanted him to have the ball. (By the way, anytime the fans of the opposing team are rooting for you to have the ball in your hands, it's probably a bad sign). Why? Because I knew that he was going to drive the ball right into 3 defenders and force up a shot over a seven footer who would win the Defensive Player of the Year Award the next season - should have won it in 2011 too, but everyone slept on the Mavs until they beat the Lakers in the second round; sorry, swept the Lakers in the second round. It bore mentioning. If not the 1 on 3 fastbreak, the only other I ever saw Westbrook take was a pull up jumper from the free throw line; which I've seen him hit a lot...in the first three quarters. Never really seen one drop in the fourth. Not cause he's got the yips, but because in a close 4th quarter the defense gets better. His shot selection was always made worse by the fact that he's so freaking fast, he's the only guy on his team that's past half court yet, and only 3 seconds have run off the shot clock. So you throw up a contested shot with 20 seconds left on the clock in a situation when every second counts, no chance for an offensive rebound and without even pretending to look for a pass...not the best guard-ery. Speaking of Tyson Chandler, though I didn't mention him by name earlier...why did everyone sleep on that guy for so long? I mean, he goes to the Hornets and they immediately became a playoff team, and one of the best defensive teams in the league; so he gets traded to Charlotte. The Bobcats then suddenly have one of the best defensive teams in the league and, you guessed it, make their first playoff appearance. So what happens? He gets traded to the Mavs for Erica Dampier - the oddest combination of gigantic shoulders, tiny hands, chicken legs, and morose disposition I have ever seen. And you know what? The Mavs, who have for years had one of the best offenses in the league but consistently lacked any sort of defensive presence in the paint, suddenly become one of the best defensive teams in the league. I remarked this to anyone I met that would listen to me all throughout the Mavs 2011 season, regular season and playoffs: they are a different team. They have confidence, swagger, defensive intensity; they would play a team on a huge winning streak at shut them down - on the road, at home, didn't matter. It happened at least three times before Christmas. At the end of close games, when they had historically collapsed, they were now getting stops and stretching leads...I loved that team. They were invincible. And combine Tyson Chandler with Shawn Marion, one of the league's best perimeter defenders, and, well...you get the Mavs' 2011 playoff run. I will never understand why Mark Cuban let that man walk out of their organization; what do you need Dwight Howard for? You already have the second best defensive player in the entire league, pay him whatever you have to pay him to keep him in a Dallas uniform. (I am still, as you might be able to tell, bitter. Let Deshawn go, J.J, Caron; who cares. But Chandler? You broke my heart Cuban...you broke my heart. Also, way to go and no-show the one do-or-die meeting to convince Deron Williams to take less money and come to Dallas, effectively eliminating your team's chances of signing him).
This next sentence does have a bit of exaggeration in it, but very little: he was the Mavs' MVP in that 2011 series; you know, the one that the Mavericks won? I mean yeah, Dirk was obviously the MVP, so I guess Westbrook was just runner up. Reread that first sentance; he was not the Thunder's runner-up MVP, he was the Mavericks; the opposing team. And his decision making hasn't gotten any better over the last year and a half, he's just gotten more skilled as a player; so his ppg average has and will continue to go up, and even his assists; but I watch him try to run a half-court offense and cringe. Just watch: when Spain and USA go to their respective benches in the gold medal game tomorrow, the part of the game where we should rip the game wide open because of USA's spectacular depth, Westbrook will make at least 2 terrible plays that will kill our momentum and allow Spain to keep it close. He'll also make some spectacular plays to keep us in the lead; but that's my point: he's feast or famine. You either have to accept the good with the bad and hope that Durant will learn to demand the ball in key situations, or (what I think they should do) trade him to another team while his stock is still high for a real PG and another guy that can just knock down threes. I can't think of anyone available that fits the description though; so they're pretty much stuck. But mark my words: the Thunder's ceiling is not dependent on Kevin Durant; they can only go as high as Westbrook will allow them to go, because he's the one with the ball in his hands 75% of the time, and 60% of those times he makes a poor decision...every time. Look, I'm not a statistician, so if those numbers don't make sense to you well, they don't to me either so let's just move on.
Basically, with Westbrook I feel the same way I feel about watching soccer: just show me the highlights - which do tend to be pretty spectacular - because I can't think of much worse than having to sit through the entire game. Seriously, watching him play infuriates me; I mean, how many times is he going to run the ball up to the free throw line and shoot a contested jump shot in the 4th quarter of a close game? You realize you have a team, right; not to mention the most lethal offensive weapon in the league as part of that team? Apparently not.
Having said all of that, would I still take him on the Mavericks this year instead of Nick Collision and Rodrigue Beaubois (if you don't know who he is, he's the Mavs' young back-up point guard with the same problems as Westbrook with virtually none of the upside except for his long arms and huge hands)? In a heartbeat. Because when it all comes down to it, I guess I'm the shallow guy that will not only start and continue a conversation with a vapid, clueless beauty; I'll go ahead and get into a mind-numbingly painful relationship with her and keep it going for quite a long time. Cause, you know...I mean, she's really hot...
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