The Honorable Cock Jowles: Disappearing? How can a guy who set an all-time record for WS/48 that playoffs (.399 in 14 games, a number so staggeringly good I am incredulous that anyone could be that good at basketball) “disappear?” Or the next year, when he posted a pedestrian .242 WS/48 in 460 minutes?

er, you really gotta give up the “points per game” shit for good. On a board in which half of the members seem to have a hard time assigning value to individual shooting efficiency at all, when you post shit like this, you’re wasting everyone’s time by having them read words that say absolutely nothing.

thenamestsam:
johnlocke,

Personally, I think it’s more interesting to look at the other tangential factors that play into that, and the weakness of OKC’s offensive system, and Durant’s occasional inability to free himself at the end of games are both a part of that.

I don’t hate Brooks as a coach. As you say the record is good, and a number of players have improved greatly under his watch. Yes, their stars were largely high draft picks, but even for high lottery picks Durant and Harden have been better than anyone could have expected. Westbrook was considered a project when drafted, now he’s 2nd team all-NBA. Ibaka is better than anyone expected. Presti tends to get all the credit for picking the right guys, but all of those guys have gotten better and better every year in the league. The coaching staff deserves credit for that.

I do think Brooks does a poor job with the offensive system. For a team with so much talent they don’t play off each other especially well. Last in the league in assist rate last year. Boggles my mind. The way they’re set up to play on offense is largely based on the isolation abilities of their two stars. If Westbrook can’t find Durant, there isn’t much diversity in terms of what he can go to next.

I’m not trying to let Westbrook off the hook here at all. He played freaking terrible last night, and by far the largest factor in that is him. If someone wants to stop the discussion there, that’s fine. They’ve certainly gotten the main points. But there isn’t much reason to come on a basketball forum to talk about that. It doesn’t take much insight to see that Westbrook sucked last night.

Personally, I think it’s more interesting to look at the other tangential factors that play into that, and the weakness of OKC’s offensive system, and Durant’s occasional inability to free himself at the end of games are both a part of that.

DS:
I’m just putting this out there; as a group we may be overreacting to OKC’s and Harden’s first games.Luckily they play each other on Sunday.

FYI, Harden plays for the Houston Rockets and not the Atlanta Hawks. The first OKC-HOU game is not till 11/28.

thenamestsam: Is Brooks “responsible” for Westbrook going 6-21? I’m honestly not even sure what that means. I guess in your world where nothing in basketball is impacted by anything else Westbrook is “responsible” for his shooting percentage. In the real world a number of factors affect it.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
Holy shit. Are we actually discussing the possibility that Scott Brooks is responsible for Westbrook going 6-21? Even if he IS a shitty coach, he doesn’t take the shots.

no, Westbrook takes the shots and that’s why I also criticize him, but Brooks handling of the offense and the players he puts in play in crunch time are obviously inadequate.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
Holy shit. Are we actually discussing the possibility that Scott Brooks is responsible for Westbrook going 6-21? Even if he IS a shitty coach, he doesn’t take the shots.

Is Brooks “responsible” for Westbrook going 6-21? I’m honestly not even sure what that means. I guess in your world where nothing in basketball is impacted by anything else Westbrook is “responsible” for his shooting percentage. In the real world a number of factors affect it.

Westbrook is the largest of those factors. If he was better at shooting he would make more of those shots. If he was better at decision making he wouldn’t take some of those shots.But there are other factors also.

Durant is a factor. If he was more aggressive about establishing position and getting the ball some of OKC’s sets would run better and Westbrook wouldn’t end up being forced to take the offensive initiative himself.

His other teammates are a factor. They’re not incompetent offensively, but if Westbrook throws Ibaka (or Perkins, or Sefolosha) the ball with 12 seconds left on the clock, what happens? Those guys look to see if they’re wide open (they’re not) and then throw it right back to Westbrook. Those guys aren’t doing anything on offense unless they’re already open at the moment they receive the ball.

And yes, Scotty Brooks is a factor. If he plays more guys who are flexible offensively, or or designs plays to get other guys good looks, Westbrook will get better shots. Hell ultimately Brooks can just take him out and he won’t end up going 6-21.

Yes a player is mostly in control of how they play, but other things play a role. Does that make Brooks “responsible” for Westbrook playing badly? Well, I’m still not really sure what that means.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
Holy shit. Are we actually discussing the possibility that Scott Brooks is responsible for Westbrook going 6-21? Even if he IS a shitty coach, he doesn’t take the shots.

If you’re not going to properly read everyone’s comments, why bother responding to them? I don’t think a single person here blames Brooks for Westbrook’s poor performance yesterday, but at the same time Brooks is not putting his team in spots to succeed. Why put Sefalosha out there to do nothing? Why not run real offensive sets instead of having Westbrook dribble at the top of the key while Durant struggles to get himself open? Kevin Martin basically gave them what Harden would have (15 points 5 assists on over .600TS%) they don’t miss him as much as they miss having a coach that won’t put in Thabeet instead of experimenting with rookies and small ball lineups.

er:
Right…so in 2009 when lebron avg 35 points a game for the playoffs it wasnt his fault either for disappearing at times or the next year when he avg 29.1 in the playoffs. Just deflect from durant, the new teflon don lol

Disappearing? How can a guy who set an all-time record for WS/48 that playoffs (.399 in 14 games, a number so staggeringly good I am incredulous that anyone could be that good at basketball) “disappear?” Or the next year, when he posted a pedestrian .242 WS/48 in 460 minutes?

er, you really gotta give up the “points per game” shit for good. On a board in which half of the members seem to have a hard time assigning value to individual shooting efficiency at all, when you post shit like this, you’re wasting everyone’s time by having them read words that say absolutely nothing.