Once that pull-up middy he could always rely on left his arsenal and lost his touch at the free throw line, he became an extremely one-dimensional and more ball-dominant ball player.

He also should’ve been much a defender at the PG position than he was for someone with his size, strength, and physical tools.

Leave Basketball before Basketball leaves you

Westbrook’s touch was never that great tbh. Prime Westbrook missed his fair share of easy layups.

Prime westbrook also wasn’t some super efficient rim finisher either though. He’d smoke plenty of layups in transition because of how fast and aggressively he runs at the rim. He could score as much as he did through immense volume and athleticism. Not touch 

He has become that which he hates: Russell Westbrick

The downfall of Westbrook’s shooting percentage will always be what keeps teams from signing him.

His shooting percentages with OKC are basically the same as his shooting percentages post-OKC.

The downfall is more:

1. He’s being left wide open. He used to have on-ball gravity, and his pull-up jumper game (as inefficient as it always was) helped open up a driving lane and attracted help defense. Now he has the same shitty shooting percentages while being ignored by the defense, which makes him a significant offensive liability.

2. League shooting percentages (and, more importantly, overall efficiency) improved, while Westbrook’s stagnated.

I don’t really get the Melo comp. In his last couple of seasons, Melo was taking half his shots from 3-point range. Melo’s problem wasn’t adaptation, it was that he was no longer very useful at any other aspect of the game. Old, slow, broken down.

Westbrook just can’t shoot a basketball beyond 15 feet. He’s tried for many years. Stir in his mercurial personality and old age, and no team wants to bother with him anymore.

In a way what’s happening to him is like what happened to Carmelo.

Carmelo is a real shooter though.

he always smoked layups, part of why he has been overrated for so long

and he was always forcing bad shots too lol

Impact metrics have pointed prime Westbrook to be a great player

He’s 38 years old and his entire playstyle was dependant on his athleticism

It’s no mystery as to what happened

This is why signing Giannis long term is risky cause once he loses that athleticism he’s gonna fall of super quick.

“nowadays” he’s been doing that shit since the bubble in 2020 lol

The league has transitioned so many times in the last 2 to decades. I wonder what all-time greats would have had lesser careers if that have been born a hand full of years later.

this is what happens when you rely on just athleticism and forget fundamentals

Theres not a ton of pount guards in the league actually

Im a kings fan and he straight up outplayed Dennis schroeder. If youre team depsarately needs a ball handler he is useful. Look at the rockets last year because of no real pg. It really limits an offense

In a way what’s happening to him is like what happened to Carmelo.

Carmelo is a real shooter though.

As a 39 year old club ultimate player I feel this in my bones

You are correct, but you could’ve just stopped at:

> Not to mention he’s 38-years-old.

His finishing has improved percentage-wise from low-60s to close to 70% in the last few seasons within 3 ft of the rim, it’s the jump shot that lets him down. He’s just too old at this point. Lowry had a much better jump shot and was less turnover-prone but hasn’t played meaningful NBA minutes past 37 either. The fact that Russ even made it this far with his limitations is pretty impressive. I’m sure a team will pick him up this season regardless of his flaws because for a minimum it’s still worth the gamble to bring him in at a reduced role when players like Schroder have been putting up identical or worse numbers for their whole careers.

He wants it to be one way, but it’s the other way

Tell the streets, we down

Westbrook: My name is my name!

Recession indicator

I see you takin’ notes…

Yellow tops!

Recalculate that. Supply & demand, cuz.

Build a house up on it

No team in the NBA is paying him more than a minimum or a better role, including awful teams. His time is up

Seriously he should go to China at this point.

Yao Ming was the Shanghai legend.

Yi Jianlian was the Guangdong legend.

Marbury was the Beijing legend.

It’s time for Westbrook to make Fujian great again.

I mean he’s been on a minimum for years now and has been great value

165 upvotes for dumb shit, i love what this sub has become

No team has chosen to bring him back after that great value and now no one wants to sign him, why is such a great value player not being valued by teams?

It’s to the point where his value even on a minimum is questionable, the idea of prudent role player Westbrick’s never quite materialized.

Westbrook to join the Beermen here we go!

What are you even talking about? Westbrook has not been “great value” for years now. He is simply a bad player and a negative on the court. Being on the minimum doesn’t change that. If it wasn’t for his name, he would have been out of the league like two years ago.

I mean clearly not he was on a minimum with the kings of a contender was willing to give him that I’m sure he would have taken it last year. He was also signed like right before camp

him later

Thunder have no interest in him.
When he is retired, he comes back and gets his place in the rafters, but they have no interest in taking him in as a player.

If they weren’t actually competing for the title then I think they 110% would, but they can’t risk any possible interference at the moment.

Denver don’t want him

Even though he contributed on the court in important ways in the playoffs, there were reports that he didn’t get along with players and staff and they didn’t want him back.

Yeah, Denver really could have used his intensity in the playoffs. He would not have let that team play with no fight whatsoever against Minnesota after McDaniels called them out

What you want him to do? Force his way into a locker room?

shit, i think MVP can afford him hahahah

You’ve had 1,301 chances to do it, just in the regular season.

Keep Westbrook away from the Spurs.

im not interested

Fuck that.

Oh but he can 

All NBA players are role players. If you can’t play your role any more, you aren’t worth a roster spot. Westbrook’s role was ball-dominant, tone-setting, alpha-and-omega point guard; he can’t play that role any more, and he hasn’t shown he can play any other role to an NBA standard.

That’s not disrespect, that’s just business.

What do you want? Teams are trying to win, he’ll get picked up by a team, but he’s not a plug and play roleplayer and is going to be 38 in a few months. It’s a lot harder to see where he fits with a lot of teams given he’s been the league almost 20 years and can’t shoot consistently. It’s like with James Harden, good player, but he’s shown over his career, the style he plays can’t win a championship. When you get these guys, unless you’re already a team that just needs to plug in one guy in a specific role they cannfill, these guys aren’t going to put you over the top. That’s not mistreating star players, it’s evidence that their careers have shown year after year for more than a decade. I hope Russ gets a spot, and I imagine he will, but I’m not surprised he’s not that relevant anymore.

WB had a very vocal fan base that consistently insisted his value was (in my opinion) higher than it actually was. The last few years we are now seeing the pushback from the opposing group that see him not getting re-signed as validation.

Honestly, the NBA has a real problem with stars hanging on too long. Always has.

If you’re playing like Lebron or Durant, then by all means, keep at it. But once your game starts breaking down hard in your mid-30’s, it just gets really sad to keep forcing it while you only get worse and worse by the season.

Part of it is the guaranteed contracts in the NBA, nobody wants to retire while under contract. But part of it is also just mentality - players sadly can’t let go that they’re no longer a star NBA player.

I hope not. It’s actually shocking. There’s no way that there isn’t a fit for him SOMEWHERE.. I imagined he had at least 1-2 more years but his next contract could be his last, if it comes.

Ehhh CP3 was actually contributing at the end. His Clippers tenure sure, but the OKC, Warriors and Spurs season was still productive