Posted by badja on 2/19/2014 11:20:00 AM (view original):
So Westbrook's WAR (wins above replacement) is essentially zero.    It's not are they better without him, it's why aren't they worse?   

Chris Paul
Paul George
Griffin
Aldridge
Love
Howard
Curry
Noah

Nowitzki would be ahead of all these guys if I were putting a team together to win a playoff run though.

Where did you come up with that statement? WAR of zero? WAR is a baseball term. The NBA's most used secondary stat is PER, of which Westbrook is 20th, ahead of Paul George, Harden, Wade, Kyrie.

They are worse without him. Look at the Thunder's record with and without.

Posted by stinenavy on 2/18/2014 9:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by eleibowitz on 2/16/2014 6:46:00 AM (view original):

Posted by stinenavy on 2/15/2014 3:13:00 PM (view original):
OKC is 21-4 with Westbrook
OKC is 22-8 without Westbrook

I don't see any merit in them somehow being better without him. If you look at their last 3 playoff seasons, last season they lost because Westbrook was out and the team offense was a disaster with Durant being DT the entire time. The previous season the lost in the Finals due to great 3 PT shooting by Miami and terrible refereeing. And previous to that they lost due to a Herculian effort by Dirk and co.

Yes you correct with the record.. Ugh I look at things quickly and mess up..

Anyway the thing your not taking into consideration about last year is that they didnt have any time to work the kinks with Westbrook being out so suddenly.  Now they do.. Westbrook is a great player but he's just takes way too many shot (and doesnt make them).  If he can come back and modify his game, OKC will be even that much better.  But if he comes back and is the same player, they are never winning a championship

No need for him to modify anything, that's just said by people that don't watch the games.

Completely disagree, he does need to modify.  Now Im not watching every game but Westbrook is a double edge sword.  If he can figure out how to take better shots, be more efficient, OKC can win a championship.  If not they won't last in a 7 game series against Miami.  This is the distinction, you agrument is that they are very good team the way Westbrook plays.  What Im saying they are not good enough against Miami the way Westbrook plays

Westbrook has the lowest eFG% among the Thunder's 12 man rotation-except for Perkins.  Meanwhile, he has the highest usage%.   If he can buy into the fact that this is Durant's team and he is really no more than a role player they can improve.  He is not 1b, he is a distant 2 to Durant's 1.