Russell Westbrook Is The WORST Finisher In The NBA

Russell Westbrook has hit a new low for the Lakers, he has become the worst finisher in the NBA by the stats and by the eye test. #Westbrook #Lakers #NBA
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No Westbrook, no one is expecting you to average 25, 15, 15. We just don’t want you to hurt the team, that’s all.

But worst of all, there was a twitter spaces where at first, everyone was dissecting the game and Russ’s horrible performance, talking about Russ being a bad decision makers, can’t make a shot and then Russ’s brother joined the space and this happened.

I see your point? What in the d riding is this?* He really countered that with who is keeping track? They really gonna just bend over because his bro in the call? Players can perform badly and we can call em out on it just like when they can also perform well and we praise it. Saying Russ got no turnovers when this is his statline and they lost is dumb. What’s even crazier is that the host admitted it.

Man was an MVP a few years ago and I’m not taking away from that, I’m talking about here and now.

*Now I’ve made a couple videos on Russ as the season has progressed, the ups and downs, but I was wrong on one thing*

He’s shooting 50% from the paint, which is still not great, even with the stretch of 10 games with him shooting 50% from the field and 42% from 3. These past 3 games, he’s shot 20% from the field, multiple missed layups, it’s gotten out of hand but yes the turnovers are also down.

I don’t even care about the midrange at this point. The backboard’s gonna break, screw it. But now defenses are legitimately leaving him open and guarding other players.

I wanna go back to what that one individual said on spaces. About Westbrook being 29th out of 35th all guards in efficiency despite leading all guards in field goals attempted in the paint.

Westbrook is 6th in the NBA in field goals attempted less than 5 ft. More than Ja, Jokic, KAT. Yet he’s second to last in field goal percentage among all NBA players averaging more than 5 field goal attempts under 5 feet. High volume low efficiency, lowest efficiency, it’s an actual problem.

This impacts the rest of his game because if he’s not making layups, he’s not a scoring threat. And if he’s not a scoring threat, defenses can leave him which means he can get baited into bad shots or take shots that just aren’t good.

LeBron is not averaging more points because of Russ. He’s averaging more points in spite of Russ. I’m happy that LeBron is doing what needs to be done to win instead of trying to do a bit of everything. What sucks is that this team needs all that to still lose.

Rather LeBron is having to do even more just to keep the Lakers at 500. They’ve experimented with LeBron at center, LeBron at point guard. He has the 4th highest usage rate in the league in the past 10 games, higher than Kevin Durant I’m not gonna say LeBron needs more help, he designed this. Man is really going through it right now.

Forget the analytics for just a second, forget the bad shooting, finishing, I’ll even forget the turnovers. Forget the scoring, forget the inconsistent playmaking, forget the plus minus, everything else should be ok right? Right?

I wish. Analytics isn’t able to capture timely baskets, momentum swings, the important little things that lead to wins. Well how about this, Russ is on the court while the Lakers are making their run against the Kings and they go from down 12 to 6. But here’s how the Lakers finish the quarter out.

The Lakers are a +2.2 with Westbrook but remember I said to forget analytics. Because in important moments of games, Westbrook ends up making more mistakes than production. Whether that is leaving defensive assignments open, turning the ball over, taking boneheaded shots, it actually leads to losses and collapses.

Ok back to the defense, Russ is legitimately not playing defense. He is leaving people open, playing roamer without actually getting steals in the passing lane. He’s not running back on defense, essentially the effort part of Russ is gone on the defensive end. Whether it’s the +2.5% field goal percentage when defended by him or the lapses in judgement at the end of games. It’s all bad.

Again, I want Russ to do well, I want him to ball out, I think most fans have wanted that for a while, but each year our expectations get lower and lower, and it keeps getting worse and worse. And now if Russ can’t make layups, it’s back to the drawing board. But what do you think? How far can the Lakers go?