Russell Westbrook on offense is literally unstoppable in his heyday but his lack or no attentiveness on defense has deep roots.
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From Erik Spoelstra to Steve Kerr and from LeBron James to Chris Paul or Rajon Rondo all the great minds of the current generation in the game of basketball have spoken of the importance of spending time in film rooms.
Even when they were at the highest points of their careers, they gave equal weightage to knowing more about the game and their top opponents to outdo them every time they get the chance.
They spend a lot of their valuable time learning about the game because learning never stops. And the results of that homework show massively in the team’s success even if you have just one avid learner of the game in your team apart from the coach.
It has resulted in James’ and Rondo’s incomparable excellence in the biggest of games, by that, I mean NBA Finals ranging from 2008 to 2020. It has made CP3 arguably the greatest floor general of the game.
Still, Russell Westbrook found no use in watching films in his illustrious career that has made him a multimillionaire worth in excess of $200 million and due a salary of over $47 million for the upcoming season.
When Russell Westbrook took pride in accepting his lack of interest in watching films
Westbrook was averaging 32.0 points, 9.9 assists and 9.7 rebounds per game, and his PER of 31.63 ranked third in the NBA when he said this in front of a group of reporters back in 2016.
He would finish that season with even better numbers — 31.5p/10.5r/10.4a a game, and with his first and only MVP award. Yet, his OKC Thunder ended up losing the first round of the Playoffs despite him averaging over 37/11/10 a game against James Harden’s Rockets.
Imagine what he could do if he was actually prepared for what opponents were at him defensively and he himself could have found a way of stopping The Beard. But no, Russ doesn’t play defense like he doesn’t like to watch films.
And what the heck was @russwest44 doing here? Floating on defense on a moment like this is simple egregious.
Horrible loss by the @Lakers to the lowly (and tanking) @okcthunder. pic.twitter.com/7FxiLcDFzt
— PBA insider 🏀 (@PBAinsider) November 5, 2021
Come on!! Give the man some leeway for being an unstoppable beast on the offense, shall we? But then what did it do for him in the long term, sure it made him NBA’s Top 75 players of all time for being the triple-double machine that he was.
But now as he reaches the last year of his $206 million contract, the 9x All-Star who was the starting point guard of the LA Lakers is now arguably the most unwanted player in the league.
Surely having a habit of watching films would not just have saved him from the embarrassment and taught him where to be on defensive possessions but also might have brought another championship or two for the Purple and Gold.
At least, now we know what causes those unbelievably hysterical blunders by him on the defensive side of the court.
