Know You're Role: Westbrook vs. Durant

                                                                                                                                                

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Let's first state the facts; Russell Westbrook is an all star guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has incredible athleticism, quickness and an innate ability to use his physical talents to get to the rim. He is a good all around shooter with good range and is a tenacious defender. But here are some other facts; Westbrook is not the 2-time back to back league scoring champion, Kevin Durant is. Westbrook does not have the smoothest shot in basketball, Kevin Durant does. Westbrook is not the franchise player, no matter how much he wants to be because that title is reserved for (you guessed it) Kevin Durant.

Now, with Westbrook's scoring average and relative field goal percentage, it's hard to argue with his production on the court.  But take a closer look at the numbers and you'll be able to see how he is hurting his team more than helping it.  In 9 postseason games, he has taken a staggering 199 shots of the teams 400 total shots.  In just the Conference Semi Finals, he has accounted for 30% of the teams total shots to Durant's 25%.  And, most telling of all, his assist per game average is a pedestrian 5.8, whereas during the regular season he averaged 8.2 per game.  He is supposed to the be the point guard, the facilitator.  It would be different if most of Westbrook's shot attempts resulted from hard drives to the basket, or points from free throws as a result of strong takes, but they're not.  He is settling for pull up, mid to long range jumpers, often times without even committing a single pass.  That is not what a point guard is meant to do.  His failure to involve his teammates in the offense, mostly by choice, has continued to plague his team in the late stages of games. 



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His struggles have a domino effect.  He lacks the maturity or the ability to see the big picture team concept.  If he's struggling to find his range, he needs to distribute the ball to keep the offense running until he can get high percentage shots.  Since he doesn't do that, he just keeps throwing it up there, which causes Durant to get frustrated.  Durant's frustrations have been glaring during the series as both he and Westbrook have the worst poker faces in the league.  When they are frustrated, they don't conceal it well, and it's infectious to their team's psyche. 

When the team's take to the court tonight, it will be interesting to see who Westbrook comes out as:  the Derrick Rose wanna-be that has continued to keep tunnel vision on the basket or the second half of one of the best one-two punches in the league.