Russell Westbrook selected to Western Conference All-Star team

Edmond Hyundai should contact Russ so he can do their "saber dance" commercial:

Edmond Hyundai, Edmond Hyundai, Edmond Hyundai, Edmond Hyundai
Edmond, Edmond, Edmond, Hyundaaaaaaaaaaaai, Hyundaaaaaaaaaai

('twould be awesome)

for Russell, instead of the old
"floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee"

we have
"prances like a gazelle, ploughs through like a humvee"

@John
Nice!
(but I think your second reference will go over a few heads)

innocent bystander :back to the gazelle idea…
here’s Russell as a gazelle
but remember, gazelles really are adorable

Humzelle? Maybe "The Great Gazvee?"

Well Deserved! Congratulations Russell

anonymous :I’m sure Love will replace Yao’s roster spot. At least he should.

ditto

I'm sure Love will replace Yao's roster spot. At least he should.

I knew Russ would be an all-star someday. I called it last season. :)

innocent bystander :
LeBron got jealous hearing people talk about KD’s spate of 40+ games — so he had to go and score 51 points just to show them who’s boss, no?

No.

back to the gazelle idea...

here's Russell as a gazelle

but remember, gazelles really are adorable

uh-oh... just had a bad thought...

you don't think this will go to Russell's head, do you?

I mean, will he re-record his answering machine so that it says "This is Russell Westbrook... NBA ALL STAR!... I'm not here right now, so leave your message..."

Then have his credit card re-done so that is has ALL STAR emblazoned across the bottom.

Then have a local paint shop spray the words "ALL STAR" in bright flaming colors across his ride.

Then start wearing sun glasses all the time. And a purple jacket with ermine fur lining. And a big gold chain around his neck -- along with assorted other flashy bling bling.

You don't suppose that any of that would happen, do you????

LeBron got jealous hearing people talk about KD's spate of 40+ games -- so he had to go and score 51 points just to show them who's boss, no?

heh, thundershop already selling Westbrook (and Durant) All Star jerseys:

Pre-Order Westbrook All-Star Replica Jersey

Hey... if the Thunder has two (count 'em... TWO) players on the All Star team...

does that make us bad-axe mother-fletchers?

;)

.
.
.
(I think it does)

@Crow
please oh please let the Thunder be well above that mid-point if such an analysis be made!

speaking of the Cavs... I wonder if they have a dedicated team blogger who had just had to write a post (with heavy heart, no doubt) saying... Eight and FREAKING 41!!!

(trying to tap into Royce's distant memories of harsher days of yore)

@Crow
a cross between a humvee and a gazelle??

heh

Comparing Cleveland and San Antonio and finding the mid=point between them and then seeing whether the Thunder are above or below that mid-point by position and role could make an interesting article or post.

innocent bystander :
I think I’ve just invented a new nickname for Russ…
the “human humvee”

That's good. In lots of ways. Including maybe not fuel efficient and expensive. Not sure if the humvee is high-speed nimble like Russ, but other than that they are similar.

wow... it's late at night, and with my keyboard and mouse in hand... I OWN this comment thread!

mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

sure, triple-dubs and all that stuff is nice, but...

when you can coach a team of cute, toothless, lispy kids while calling out the names of obscure Oklahoma towns faster than Gary England on speed and then turn around and go all Vegas-y on the mic and croon the "Norman, oooh" song...

well, my friends, that's All Star material right there! Nuff said.

I think it was the "Norman... ooohh ooohh ooooh, Norman..." performance that tipped the scales in favor of the selection for Westbrook

It just had to be...
8)

Westbrook for the All Star team?

WHY NOT!

I think I've just invented a new nickname for Russ...

the "human humvee"

;)

incidentally, for those fascinated by pointless numeric patterns...

Cleveland and San Antonio now have exactly inverse records:

Cavs: 8-41
Spurs: 41-8

(I guess if you mixed the two of them and stirred thoroughly, you'd get a solid .500 team?)

congrats Westbrook!

Russell Westbrook -- the Humvee of point guards!

@justin
most definitely not even if he thought he could win a ring here he probably still wouldnt

I guess the Heat are trying the 50+ points per game from 2 perimeter players thing too but they also have Bosh. Chicago and Denver may be the only other contenders who get 40+ from 2 perimeter players and they have Boozer and Hilario. The Heat are 5-8 against the top 10, OKC 8-10, Chicago 8-7, Denver 6-10. Not bad, but there are 3 others with better win%s and they all get less than 40 points out of their big 2 perimeters and rely on them less. It is somewhat easier to defend a 1 - 2 perimeter punch than a perimeter / interior combo or a broader big 3 or 4? I'd guess generally yes.

Dwight Howard's not going to sign in OKC.

@Daniel</
ha! in such a small market how could okc afford him??

Orlando has gone from looking like a contender to a pretender lately, and I'd imagine that's not sitting well with Dwight Howard at all. If he opts out in 2012, is there any way we could free up cap space to get him? And would he even consider coming to OKC?

In the last 30 years I think only the Bulls got 50+ points per game from 2 perimeter players and won the title. If there were any others I missed it and they are very rare. It isn't often over 45 pts /g and even over 40 from 2 perimeter players and winning a title is notable. More common with a perimeter / big man combo.

The Thunder are getting and relying on getting 52 pts per game out of KD & Russ. It is not necessarily bad to have a big time shooter but 2? 2 with high usage but good FT rate can be better than 2 over 18 or 20 FGAs per game if one is not a good field shooter.

For all the problems that we have on the defensive rebounding end, the Lakers are weirdly terrible at boxing out. They had 3 chances to put the Spurs away if they had just grabbed a defensive rebound, but ended up losing to a 0.1 second tip-in. Incredible.

Scoring PG's dont really make it to the Finals. Hes going to be like Allen I If he doesnt watch it. Marbury didnt make it either

@justin

Yes I was going to add that his assist totals play a role in the high usage. Though it did in the other main comparison guys too.

Allen got to 6 assists once.

With Russ whether he stays at 18 FGAs per game or goes to 20+ or backs off on average to 15-16 (with big games when needed and "on") or less if the support cast improves long-run is probably a cleaner way to look at it.

dream catcher :I don’t think Russ will get the max, mainly because Presti seems like a guy that is big on roles and value. Probably 2 or 3 million less than Durant per year.

I think LAL (and others) would be happy to give Russ the max.

@Crow

Russ gets a lot of assists too, he still has a huge percentage of the team's assists in addition to his increased FGA. Ray never got that many assists.

I think it's good for Russ to play this way, he's learned how to score in a lot of ways. But eventually he'll have to settle down, and we'll see how the coaching handles that.

I think finding a historic precedent for Russ is difficult because this kind of scoring PG in his style was a lot more rare before 2005... guys like Marbury come to mind.

I don't think Russ will get the max, mainly because Presti seems like a guy that is big on roles and value. Probably 2 or 3 million less than Durant per year.

Only 6 guards have had a higher usage than Russ since 2000 and he will probably move up unless there is a major change in thought / change in control. Wade, Iverson and Arenas are the only guards to go that high twice. http://bkref.com/tiny/ssAPp
And Russ busted thru 30% usage earlier in age than any of those 3. Rose is doing it too but are both right or not? His usage is higher than Ray Allen ever went.

Wonder if Russ will pass in the All-Star game

"I do not think Russ’ ideal role is as a 30+ USG scorer. But he’s learning and of all our players probably deserves the most patience."

Agree, agree, agree.

But... what is the right long run usage?

If it was around 26%, why not keep it there after keeping it there for 2 seasons? I guess you could go to 31% usage and then try to back off to 26-28% but sometimes it seems like Russ wants to go to 35%.

Russell getting $1-4 million more a year than Rondo probably is not make or break for the team but Westbrook potentially feeling like an arrived star or super-star before being fully that might be a trickier thing to adjust later. But if the coaches feel he is still responsive and working on the weak things, great.

Crow :The earlier thought he might get re-signed to a Rondo level deal or a little more are long gone, given the 17-18 shots per game and the top 10 in the league overall usage.

I'd say he's clearly more talented than Rondo. Russ' success this year isn't only due to his high usage, he's improved his shooting and scoring efficiency despite the higher FGA. Westbrook of last season would have a sub 50% TS right now...

I do not think Russ' ideal role is as a 30+ USG scorer. But he's learning and of all our players probably deserves the most patience.

And ultimately it is about getting Russell to his peak. Is what is happening this season with his play entirely consistent with that goal? Could you improve upon the management and get better overall short-term and / or long-term results? I think so, but what happens, happens for good and maybe less good. If this season's management is fine, why was it somewhat different before?

i really kinda want westbrook to be offered 90% of max and see if he will take it.

@justin

I assume you are right but will the front office debate it or squirm about it?

The earlier thought he might get re-signed to a Rondo level deal or a little more are long gone, given the 17-18 shots per game and the top 10 in the league overall usage.

@Crow

If his performance stays about the same and he has another good playoffs, he's a max early extension guy. He's too young and skilled to let him test the market.

And then comes the question is he a full-max player and a full-max early extension?

How many full max players were under 45% eFG% at time of signing? How many of those still deserved it and later proved it to be the right price?

in second paragraph should be ...he "will" have...

Will be interesting to see if Russ plays more to setup the older guys, or if he goes Westbrook style on personal offense and competes for MVP of the game, and if he plays good defense or not.

But then back to regular season and eventually the playoffs.

He probably will get an even better balance. He has the ability and the drive. Folks know he is still a work in progress though the amount of progress overall so far is sometimes spun "quite favorable" noting the best and omitting some of the rest.

I imagine he have a good number of All-Star appearances. Probably most with a better case. But popularity with the league and fans has its advantages and he is far from the only one to benefit from that.