Friday Bolts – 4.17.15

Russ Bengston of Complex with a great thing on Westbrook: “Here is the biggest difference between Russell Westbrook and Allen Iverson, and why perhaps the initial comparison was ill-made: Allen Iverson will be remembered as the last pre-analytics superstar, when it was possible to win MVP while shooting 42 percent from the floor. Westbrook? He’s the first post-analytics superstar, even as analytics become a larger and larger presence in the game. Because analytics measure what’s already happened, and to Westbrook, good or bad, those things simply don’t matter. They may as well not even exist. It’s not that his numbers are bad, it’s that those numbers measure who he was, not who he is.”

Zach Harper of CBSSports.com: “It sets them up for a real run at an NBA championship in the final year of Durant’s current deal with the Thunder. When he hits free agency in the summer of 2016, the Thunder will have a young, diverse roster along with a bigger contract than any other team can give him to sway Durant to remain the leader of this organization. As long as this team is healthy, they should be the contending team we expected them to be heading into this season. Unfortunately for the Thunder, the health kept them from promise of more games when the regular season ended. But this organization now looks for the positives in a failed season without publicly making the excuses afforded to them.”

Kobe taking up for Russ is just him trying to validate himself.

Dan Devine of BDL: “Watching Russell Westbrook spend the 2014-15 season attacking the basket like his pores were on fire, like his life depended on it, like his salvation lay just inside the cylinder — and watching him do it repeatedly, administering the nightly shot of adrenaline that kept Oklahoma City’s heart beating past its expected expiration date — meant something. That mattered. That was huge. That was must-see television, an example of fury made flesh that demanded our attention. That was, if not the reason we do this, then damn sure one of them. It was one of the most singularly remarkable individual runs in recent memory, and we don’t have to pretend it wasn’t just because it didn’t produce the desired outcome or last as long as its creator might have liked. You don’t have to win to matter. Greatness — blinding, obvious, awe-inducing excellence — should be allowed to simply stand on its own merits.”

Brian Phillips of Grantland: “I almost never agree with Russ’s critics about anything — basketball, basic life philosophy, the true meaning of joy — but you know what? In this case, they’re right. Russell Westbrook is not the MVP. The difference is that the Russ doubters act as if this is because his game is somehow fundamentally invalid, while to me, it’s what makes him so worth celebrating. Being MVP means becoming the focal point of a consensus, an emblem of how the cognoscenti think basketball should look right now. And if Russell Westbrook has a higher purpose, it’s to smash consensus and leave the cognoscenti sleepless and terrified.”

Some exit interview notes: Jeremy Lamb said he just wants to play, whether that’s in OKC or elsewhere; Enes Kanter said he wants to re-sign with the Thunder; so does Kyle Singler; Serge Ibaka said he was targeting Game 3 for a return; and Andre Roberson thinks he could be the best defender in the league.

Charles Barkley: “For some reason, you all want to keep wanting to fire your coach and I have no idea why. Scott Brooks, man, has done a good job. Anybody else lose the MVP and is fighting to the end? People forget that Westbrook missed some games early in the season. And you spent the whole season without the MVP, the second best basketball player in the world, and you almost made the playoffs. The only thing I hear is these idiots on television talking about how Scott Brooks is on the hot seat. I mean that’s just crazy to me. Everybody knows Scott Brooks lived with me for a minute and he is a friend of mine, but this has nothing to do with that. For you guys to be without the MVP basically all season and still almost make the playoffs, I don’t know what more you all want in Oklahoma City. I really don’t. The notion that you all are even thinking about firing your coach has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.”

Berry Tramel: “Brooks is like most coaches who have yet to win a title. Widely doubted among the fan base. Win a championship, and you’ve got a five-year license to run a four corners offense. Until then, though, your strengths are forgotten, your weaknesses magnified. The truth about Scotty Brooks is that he coached the Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals and has been trying to get his soul back from the devil ever since. No Westbrook in the 2013 West semifinals. No Serge Ibaka for the first two games of the 2014 West finals. No Durant for 55 games of this season. Firing Brooks because he’s cursed makes much more sense than firing him for Thunder playoff failures.”