You’ll notice I didn’t include Billy Donovan in this question? I didn’t because he’s not relevant in this question of whether the Thunder can win the Northwest Division let alone an NBA championship with Russell Westbrook as their point guard.
This will ultimately be Sam Presti’s call. This is his team. He puts it together each season. He has built it around Russell Westbrook.
At times it looks good on paper after one of those nights when Russell Westbrook somehow pulls it together. On other nights when Westbrook can’t come to terms with the fact he’s not Steph Curry… the team looks pretty much horrific. Like a bunch of throw togethers with one guy hogging the ball and repeatedly taking as assortment of poor risk/reward shots.
The latter is what the Thunder looked like at home on Saturday night as the decent Denver Nuggets toyed with the Thunder for a coast to coast 105-98 win over the Thunder.
Sam Presti is not a stupid person. He knows his craft. But at what point do you continue this in Oklahoma City with the highest payroll in the league with a team which right now to me looks like they could very well not win the Northwest Division.
Think about what I just wrote…with the highest payroll in the league is it fair to ask out loud if maybe Sam Presti needs to make one more move.
You can’t win big in this league being a stupid basketball team. You just can’t do it. And I hate writing this because I’m not Jim Traber and I don’t enjoy writing this, but at what point do you have that come to Jesus moment with Russell Westbrook and say, ” Wild Thing, it’s not me, it’s you. I need a break.”
For some reason which I can’t figure out some 12 hours after Saturday night’s 105-98 loss to the pedestrian Nuggets at home…I’m wondering how Sam Presti can come to terms with the fact Russell Westbrook went 1-12 shooting threes in this basketball game. Russell Westbrook shouldn’t be chucking six threes a game… let alone twelve. You know why…because he’s not good at doing it most of the time.
If you’re a baseball pitcher and your curveball sucks…. then you know what? You don’t throw it very often.
You can finish above .500 with Russell Westbrook. You can maybe even get a top four seed in the West. But do you really think when you get to post season against the better teams and better coaches you can win sixteen games and four different series?
No way. Because NBA post season play is a puzzle of adjustments and re-adjustments every game as a series moves along. You can’t be like Rocky Balboa and lead with your face. Russell Westbrook leads with his face and every coach in the league knows it and calibrates their game plan with that in mind.
I hate writing this because I want Westbrook to succeed in Oklahoma City, but for some reason which I can’t decipher beyond just Westbrook’s ultra stubborn competitiveness…he can’t come to terms with the player he is.
Russell Westbrook is not Steph Curry. He’s not Kyrie Irving.
What he is…is a glorious grinder.
A grinder for the ages. A Hall of Fame grinder.
But one who needs to be told….quit jacking stupid threes. Be yourself as a player because that’s not a bad thing.