Russell Westbrook Adds Depth, Energy, and Playmaking to the Denver Nuggets
At the urging of three-time NBA regular season MVP Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets signed 2017 NBA regular season MVP Russell Westbrook. The Nuggets did not have to give up anything for Westbrook, who was waived by the Utah Jazz after the Jazz acquired him in a sign and trade deal with the L.A. Clippers.
Westbrook spent the first 11 seasons of his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder before being traded to the Houston Rockets in 2019 for Chris Paul and four first round draft picks. Westbrook's stay in Houston lasted just one season, as his serious approach to the game--playing hard consistently and showing up on time for practices and games--did not mesh well with the much more casual approach favored by James Harden. The Rockets traded Westbrook to the Washington Wizards in 2020 for John Wall and a first round draft pick. Westbrook averaged 22.2 ppg, 11.7 apg, and 11.5 rpg for the Wizards in 2020-21, capturing his third assists title in four years while leading the Wizards to their only playoff appearance between 2018 and 2024. Westbrook also broke Oscar Robertson's record for career triple doubles.
After the 2021 season, Westbrook landed with the L.A. Lakers as part of a five team trade. The LeBron James-Anthony Davis-Russell Westbrook trio could have been a force to reckon with if the Lakers committed to playing defense and then pushing the ball up the court at a fast pace after defensive stops, but James prefers to slow the game down, monopolize the ball, and then find scapegoats after his team loses. Westbrook and Coach Frank Vogel became the prime scapegoats for James and his media sycophants. The Lakers fired Vogel in 2022, just two years after he led the Lakers to the championship, and then they traded Westbrook to the Utah Jazz in February 2023. The Jazz waived Westrook, who finished the season with the L.A. Clippers. Westbrook averaged 15.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 7.5 apg overall in the 2022-23 season, and he averaged 23.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, and 7.4 apg during the Clippers' first round loss to the Phoenix Suns. The Clippers acquired James Harden early during the 2023-24 season, and Westbrook accepted being relegated to a reserve role. Westbrook averaged 11.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg, and 4.5 apg while shooting .454 from the field. He finished tied for seventh in the voting for Sixth Man of the Year. Not surprisingly, the Clippers flamed out again in the playoffs, with Kawhi Leonard getting hurt, Harden putting up his typical "concert tour" field goal percentages, and Paul "I call myself Playoff P" George disappearing as usual.
In short, Westbrook has spent the past four seasons with organizations that are not serious about consistently putting together a championship caliber program: he should get a special award for carrying the "Wheeze-hards" to the playoffs, the Lakers have not advanced past the first round in three of the four seasons after winning the 2020 "bubble title," and the Clippers put way too much faith in Leonard's balky knees, George's flimsy playoff resume, and Harden's documented record of disappearing in the games that matter most.
Westbrook will benefit tremendously from leaving teams engulfed in drama to go to a team that is serious about winning but a bit shorthanded now due to salary cap constraints; in the past two years, the Nuggets have lost Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, two key rotation players from their 2023 championship team. Westbrook will not replace their "3 and D" contributions, but he is an elite scorer, rebounder, and playmaker who consistently plays hard and who would do anything to help his team. The Nuggets have a great organization from ownership to management to the coaching staff to the tone set by Jokic, and Westbrook will fit in perfectly with a team that is serious about winning.
Westbrook's critics dismiss his rebounding numbers as stat padding.
It is evident that Westbrook's critics--including but not limited to Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper--either have an agenda or do not understand basketball very well, because it is easy to demonstrate (1) that Westbrook's rebounds are not fungible and (2) there are many real, documented examples of stat padding that the league and its media partners are quite happy to ignore.
Westbrook will be a great energizer as a sixth man for the Nuggets, and he is still capable of being a starter as well.
Labels: Bruce Brown, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Jamal Murray, James Harden, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, L.A. Clippers, L.A. Lakers, Nikola Jokic, Russell Westbrook, Washington Wizards
posted by David Friedman @ 5:15 PM
Wizards Have Yet to Reap Dividends From Westbrook Trade
There was much excitement about the Washington Wizards in some quarters early in the
season--media members love to run with any narrative that even
tangentially diminishes Russell Westbrook's value, such as asserting that the
Wizards "won" the trade that sent Westbrook from the Wizards to the Lakers in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope--but over the course of an 82
game season teams reveal who they really are, and the Wizards are who
intelligent analysts thought they were: a team that is not very good,
and a team that is not better than it was last season with Westbrook running the
show.
Kuzma, Harrell--who the Wizards sent to Charlotte in a midseason deal--and Caldwell-Pope proved to be so valuable to the Wizards that the Wizards went 35-47 to finish 12th in the 15 team Eastern Conference, eight games behind the 10th place finish required to qualify for the Play-In Tournament. Yes, Bradley Beal missed 42 games, but the Wizards were just 17-23 when he played.
Remember, the 2021 Wizards went 34-38, and then blew out the Indiana Pacers 142-115 in the Play-In Tournament to clinch the eighth seed. That was the first time the Wizards franchise won an elimination game since 1979. The Wizards even won a playoff game versus the number one seed Philadelphia 76ers.
The Wizards started just 7-17 during the 2021 season, but finished strongly, largely due to Westbrook's exceptional play. A major and underrated contribution that Westbrook provides is rebounding. Not only did Westbrook average a triple double in 2020-21 (22.2 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 11.7 apg) for the fourth time in five seasons--Oscar Robertson is the only other player in pro basketball history to average a triple double even once--but he ranked sixth in the NBA in rebounding. It is incorrect to assert that Westbrook pads his rebounding numbers and
that if he were replaced with a different player there would not be any
impact on team rebounding. Rebounds are not fungible, and it is unfortunate that many of the media members who demonstrate their bias and/or ignorance by bashing Westbrook vote for the NBA's official awards, including MVP and the All-NBA Team. During the 2020-21 season with Westbrook pounding the boards as a 6-3 point guard, the Wizards ranked eighth in the NBA in rebounding. This season, the Wizards plummeted to 23rd in the NBA in rebounding.
It will be very interesting to track the Wizards moving forward and see just how much value is provided by the players that they acquired in the Westbrook trade. The only time the Wizards made the playoffs in the past four years is the one season that Westbrook spent with the team.
Labels: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, L.A. Lakers, Montrezl Harrell, Russell Westbrook, Washington Wizards
posted by David Friedman @ 8:17 PM
What Impact Will Russell Westbrook Have on the L.A. Lakers?
The L.A. Lakers acquired 2017 NBA regular season MVP, two-time scoring champion, and three-time assist leader Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Lakers also received three second round draft picks, while the Wizards received the draft rights to Isaiah Jackson.
The winner of an NBA trade is almost always the team that acquired the best player, so the Lakers are the landslide winner of this trade. Westbrook is the NBA's career triple double leader, the only player in NBA history to average a triple double in four different seasons (Oscar Robertson is the only other player to accomplish this feat even once), and the most prolific rebounding guard in pro basketball history.
Any notion that Westbrook has to change his game to fit in with other great players is easily refuted. In fact, his game elevates the performances of other great players. All-Star players who have had their best seasons playing alongside Westbrook include Kevin Durant (won the 2014 regular season MVP), Paul George (third in 2019 regular season MVP voting after averaging a career-high 28.0 ppg), and Bradley Beal (averaged a career-high 31.3 ppg and a career-high .485 FG% during his one season playing alongside Westbrook). Also, James Harden had the second highest scoring average of his career (34.3 ppg) during his one season playing alongside Westbrook.
When healthy, the LeBron James-Anthony Davis duo not only led the L.A. Lakers to the 2020 championship but they have helped the Lakers to post a gaudy .744 regular season winning percentage (equivalent to a 61-21 record for an 82 game season). Adding Westbrook's talents and drive to that duo creates a team that--if healthy--should be the favorite to win the title. The main questions/concerns for this team revolve around James and Davis, not Westbrook. James is not getting any younger, and he has been limited by
injuries in each of the past two seasons. Davis has always been an
injury-prone player. Whether or not the Lakers win the 2022 NBA title
will have much more to do with the health and availability of those
players than with any supposed flaws in Westbrook's game.
Westbrook will
show up, play hard, and be productive. He is an outstanding rebounder and open court player, so the Lakers could have one of the most fearsome transition offenses in recent memory: the Lakers at full strength should be a very good defensive team, and their top three players are excellent rebounders, so there should be many opportunities to get a stop, control the boards, and score quickly before the opponent can get into a set defense.
From a skill set standpoint, this trio is at least as good as the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh trio that won back to back titles with the Miami Heat while making four straight Finals appearances. James is not quite the athlete that he was back then, but when healthy he is still an MVP caliber player. Westbrook is more explosive than Wade was by that point in Wade's career, and Westbrook is a better rebounder and passer than Wade ever was. Davis is a better rebounder and rim protector than Bosh, and a better post scorer as well.
Some commentators have propagated the absurd notion that Buddy Hield would be a better fit with the Lakers than Westbrook. One writer even called Hield one of the greatest shooters in NBA history. Hield ranks 30th in career three point shooting percentage (.406), and he has never finished in the top five in that category in a season. There are 11 active players who have a higher career three point field goal percentage than Hield, including Davis Bertans and Joe Ingles. Wally Szczerbiak is just ahead of Hield on the career list, and Raja Bell is right behind Hield. No serious basketball observer would rank Bertans, Ingles, Szczerbiak or Bell among the greatest shooters in NBA history, and no serious basketball observer should rank Hield that highly either. Of course, three point field goal percentage is not the only way to measure shooting greatness--one has to consider a player's role and his shooting ability from other areas of the court--but Drazen Petrovic (.437), Stephen Curry (.433), Steve Nash (.428), and Klay Thompson (.419) are just a few of the players who rank ahead of Hield in this category and are demonstrably better overall shooters than he is.
Hield's .435 career field goal percentage is subpar for a perimeter player even after taking into account that more than half of his field goal attempts are from three point range. Hield has only made 509 free throws in five seasons, so he does not qualify to be listed among the career free throw percentage leaders, but even if he qualified his .863 free throw percentage would barely crack the top 40, just ahead of Luke Ridnour, John Long, and Jamal Crawford.
Hield is the kind of player who Kenny Smith calls "a looter in a riot" (though I cannot say that Smith has specifically put Hield in that category): in five NBA seasons, Hield has averaged 16.0 ppg in the regular season for teams that did not make a single postseason appearance.
Even if Hield were one of the greatest shooters of all-time, he still would not provide more value than a dynamic player like Westbrook who is a prolific scorer, an elite passer, and an elite rebounder. "Advanced basketball statistics" can be used to define Westbrook as an above average defender, an average defender, or a poor defender--which is yet another indication that "advanced basketball statistics" are not very useful for evaluating individual defense--but by any meaningful metric or evaluation method Westbrook is a better defender than Hield.
Westbrook played at an All-NBA level for four teams that advanced to the Western Conference Finals, and he has a great opportunity to be an All-NBA caliber performer for a Lakers team that wins a championship this season--assuming that James and Davis can stay healthy and that James can continue to defy the aging process by remaining an MVP caliber player.
Labels: Anthony Davis, Buddy Hield, Isaiah Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Montrezl Harrell, Russell Westbrook
posted by David Friedman @ 9:11 PM
LeBron Dominates in Second Half as Lakers Take 3-1 Lead
When LeBron James is focused and attacks the hoop, he is still the best player in the NBA. He showed that again in the second half of game four of the NBA Finals, powering the L.A. Lakers to a 102-96 victory over the Miami Heat and a 3-1 series lead. James had 20 points and nine rebounds in the second half, including 11 points and five rebounds in the fourth quarter. With James setting the tone, the Lakers pounded the smaller Heat in the fourth quarter, shooting 5-6 on two pointers and 11-12 on free throws. James led both teams in scoring (28 points) and rebounds (12) while shooting 8-16 from the field and dishing for a team-high eight assists. James had a -2 plus/minus number, but this game is an example of why plus/minus can be deceptive in a small sample size; James was without question the best player on the court when it mattered most, and he took over as the Lakers built a 100-91 lead after a Jimmy Butler drive tied the score at 83.
James had five turnovers in the first half, but just one turnover in the second half. James was out of sync during the first half. Anyone could see it, and ABC's Jeff Van Gundy mentioned it during the telecast. If James had not lifted his game, this series would likely be 2-2 now--but James played up to his potential, and the Lakers are one win away from capturing the NBA title.
Anthony Davis also had a subpar first half by his standards (eight points, though he did have six rebounds and three assists) but he scored 14 second half points, including the three pointer that put the Lakers up 100-91 with :39.5 remaining, a shot that most likely not only clinched this game but the series as well; only one team has won the NBA Finals after trailing 3-1, and that team featured James (the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers, who defeated the Golden State Warriors). Davis finished with 22 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and four blocked shots. He shot 8-16 from the field, and had a game-high +17 plus/minus number.
The Lakers received key contributions from their role players. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope paced the Lakers in scoring during the first half (10 points) as they led 49-47 at halftime. He ended up with 15 points on 6-12 field goal shooting, plus five assists. He hit a three pointer and a driving layup on consecutive fourth quarter possessions to push the Lakers' lead to 95-88. Danny Green added 10 points on 4-8 field goal shooting. Rajon Rondo only scored two points on 1-7 field goal shooting but he was third on the team in rebounds (seven) and tied with Caldwell-Pope for second in assists (five).
Jimmy Butler played well, but the Heat needed for him to be great. Butler led the Heat in scoring (22 points), rebounds (10), and assists (nine), but he has an odd tendency to turn down open shots in the paint and pass to his teammates. Unselfishness is fine to a point, but sometimes the best player has an obligation to force the action, which can not only lead to scores but also induce the defense to "tilt" in a way that creates easier shots for that player's teammates.
The Heat received a lift from the return of injured starting center Bam Adebayo. He scored 15 points and had seven rebounds. Adebayo played with high energy and posted a +3 plus/minus number but he did not have the overall impact that he did during the Eastern Conference Finals. Early in the game, the Heat played very actively, forcing turnovers and making it hard for the Lakers to feed the ball to Davis in the post.
Tyler Herro (21 points) and Duncan Robinson (17 points) were the Heat's only other double figure scorers, but they probably gave up at least as many points on defense as they scored on offense; the Lakers were openly "hunting" to create switches involving either guard down the stretch. Even though the injured Goran Dragic was the Heat's leading playoff scorer heading into this series, the team may miss his defense even more than his offense.
Neither team led by more than seven points until Davis hit the clinching three pointer, but once James decided to attack the hoop it was a wrap. James scored on a drive, was fouled, and made the free throw to put the Lakers up 86-83 with 6:08 remaining in the fourth quarter. James scored the Lakers' next four points on free throws, and when the defense crowded him on a drive he dished to Caldwell-Pope for a right corner three pointer at the 2:58 mark that extended the Lakers' lead to 93-88. The Lakers' half court set that involves James wandering around aimlessly without the ball behind the three point line is puzzling to watch, but when James drives to score (and passes only if a second defender blocks his path) he becomes almost impossible to stop.
Is James held to an unreasonably high standard, or is it appropriate to expect him to drive to the hoop more often because he is an unstoppable force in the paint? I think that all players should maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Driving to the hoop requires physical, mental, and emotional stamina, but there is no shortcut to achieving and sustaining greatness. Every jump shot that James shoots--particularly jump shots from further than 15-18 feet--is a victory for the defense, even if James connects; every James drive bends, distorts, and ultimately destroys the defense.
Labels: Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Miami Heat, Rajon Rondo
posted by David Friedman @ 1:32 AM
The L.A. Lakers' "Small Ball" Lineup
Much has been made of the L.A. Lakers supposedly playing a "small ball" lineup in the final three games of the second round as the Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 4-1. The Lakers moved Markieff Morris to the starting lineup in place of JaVale McGee. The new lineup was no doubt smaller (McGee is 7-0; Morris is 6-8), but was it really a "small ball" lineup? Anthony Davis is 6-10, LeBron James is 6-9, Morris is 6-8, Danny Green is 6-6, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is 6-5; the "small ball" lineup averages 6-9 in the frontcourt, and averages nearly 6-8 overall, while the original starting lineup averages 6-9.5 in the frontcourt and a little over 6-8 overall. By comparison, the 1986 Boston Celtics--who went 67-15 and won the NBA title with the legendary Larry Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish frontcourt--averaged 6-10.5 in the frontcourt and 6-8 overall. No one would argue that those Celtics were a "small ball" team, yet the supposedly "small ball" Lakers are just as big as the 1986 Celtics.
The Rockets' starting lineup after going to "small ball" was Robert Covington (6-7), P.J. Tucker (6-5), Eric Gordon (6-3), James Harden (6-5), and Russell Westbrook (6-3). That lineup averages 6-5 in the frontcourt and 6-4.5 overall. The Rockets' tallest starter is one inch taller than the tallest Lakers' starting guard, and one inch shorter than the smallest frontcourt player in the Lakers' "small ball" lineup.
When media members assert that the Lakers went to "small ball" to beat the Rockets, that falsely suggests that the Lakers had to fundamentally change in order to prevail against the Rockets' gimmicky approach. The reality is that the Lakers can play very big, big, or small, and the Lakers chose to play big versus the Rockets. The Lakers dominated the Rockets in the paint while also shutting down the Rockets' three point shooting. Despite all of the hype and rhetoric about the value of "small ball," it remains true that size--specifically height--matters in the NBA.
Through the first three games of the Western Conference Finals versus the Denver Nuggets, the Lakers reinserted JaVale McGee into the starting lineup in place of Markieff Morris, though Morris has logged five more minutes than McGee. Despite the large number of three pointers launched by most NBA teams in recent years, to win an NBA championship it is still essential to have a paint presence at both ends of the court.
Labels: Anthony Davis, Danny Green, JaVale McGee, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Markieff Morris
posted by David Friedman @ 10:07 PM
