Raymond Felton Calls Out Russell Westbrook
Did Thunder guard Russell Westbook worry too much about winning his individual matchup than the game Tuesday night? Portland guard Raymond Felton (right) says that's what happened.
I mentioned this in my post-game blog off last night’s game.
It was swept under the rug in the Thunder’s locker room but didn’t go unnoticed by the Blazers.
Russell Westbrook’s defense on Raymond Felton was super aggressive all night, and it worked well early but backfired late. Westbrook, you could say, was over-aggressive, and it actually helped a cool, calm and collected Felton control the rhythm and flow of the game in the second half, as he picked apart the Thunder for open shots for himself and his teammates with relative ease.
After the game, Blazers writer Jason Quick noted of Westbrook that “much of his night was spent trying to beat Felton, not the Blazers.” Quick also got reaction from Felton on the matchup, and Felton had some interesting things to say.
“That’s the type of guy he is, that’s his mindset, that’s how he plays,” Felton said when I remarked about Westbrook’s win-the-battle, but lose-the-war mentality. “He’s always in a one-on-one battle with all the point guards. I’m not really into that. I’m into winning. If you win, everybody gets the praises. We are not wearing ‘Felton’ on the front of our jerseys; it says Blazers. I care about the Blazers winning.”
Thunder coach Scott Brooks went out of his way after the game to single out Westbrook to praise his point guard’s efforts.
“I thought Russell had one of his best games,” said Brooks, unsolicited. “He left everything on the court. He made plays for us. He was moving the ball. He was defending.”
That sound bite became another example of Brooks having Westbrook’s back. No matter how Westbrook has performed over his three-plus seasons, it seems Brooks sticks up for him, almost in an attempt to ward off the backlash and criticism Westbrook might encounter before it even comes. Westbrook was indeed solid for a half last night. But you can’t ignore how he let his individual matchup get the best of him. Ultimately, it hurt the Thunder, as Felton figured out how to use Westbrook’s aggressiveness against him. As the game went on, Felton got drives to the rim for layups and dump-offs to LaMarcus Aldridge for dunks and jumpers.
To those of us who have watched Westbrook closely throughout his career, we know this is nothing new. He’s engaged in similar battles with everyone from Chris Paul and Deron Williams to Rajon Rondo and Kyle Lowry. He makes his matchups personal battles and does everything he possibly can to win them. Which, let’s be honest, is what you’re supposed to do. It’s part of what makes Westbrook who he is. What? Would you prefer the alternative, which is a point guard who doesn’t have enough fire to want to win his matchup? Coaches from the grassroots level on up teach winning your matchup helps the team win the game. So, fundamentally, Westbrook’s mind is in the right place.
But the question is whether Westbrook takes it too far?
If Westbrook is more about padding stats and winning the battle by any means, yes, that approach does nothing but hurt the team. But that doesn’t appear to be Westbrook’s main goal. Although he does appear stat happy at times, he’s clearly shown that he’s willing to sacrifice his numbers when needed to get wins.
Westbrook’s biggest problem appears to be not knowing when to turn it off. He hasn’t realized, it seems, that the fire inside him doesn’t always have to be a raging blaze. That’s when he puts the Thunder in a bad spot. Last year, we called it hero mode. But that was more about offense. Now, Westbrook is mixing in extreme aggressiveness on defense, defined mostly by gambling in the backcourt, as a means to force the issue and make something happen. He’s trying to be spectacular on every play instead of just being solid and trusting the system. It’s a part of what’s led to his surprisingly slow start.
That aggression has negatively impacted Westbrook in four of his first seven matchups. Here’s a look at Westbrook’s first four matchups and their points, assists, turnovers and plus-minus stats. Westbrook’s production in those matchups is in parenthesis.
ORL: Jameer Nelson 18, 6 and 4 and plus-9 (Westbrook 14, 6, and 7 and minus-5)
MIN: Luke Ridnour 2, 4 and 0 and minus-5 (Westbrook 28, 6 and 7 and plus-10)
MEM: Jeremy Pargo 15, 7 and 1 and plus-1 (Westbrook 4, 6 and 4 and plus-1)
DAL: Jason Kidd 3, 3 and 3 and minus-2 (Westbrook 16, 4 and 7 and minus-5)
PHX: Steve Nash 8, 6 and 3 and minus-10 (Westbrook, 18, 4 and 2 and plus-7)
DAL: Kidd 0, 9 and 3 and plus-2 (Westbrook 18, 3 and 2 and minus-4)
POR: Felton 12, 7 and 1 and plus-10 (Westbrook 22, 8 and 3 and minus-9)
The bold face teams are contests in which Westbrook was outplayed. The italicized teams, Minnesota and Phoenix, are the two games in which Westbrook clearly won the battle of his position. The lone remaining game, the first meeting with Dallas, you can consider a draw. Westbrook had a fantastic final 3 1/2 minutes but was largely lousy for his other 27.
Even in stretches against Wolves guard Ricky Rubio, Westbrook allowed his emotions to take over. He played like he wanted to embarrass Rubio. Like he had no respect for the rookie. And again, we saw that mentality allow the Spaniard with the steady hand to have some success.
The evidence suggests Felton clearly has a case. Westbrook, for the most part, makes his matchups one-on-one battles.
But that’s only a bad thing when Westbrook refuses to bring down that raging fire.
-DM-
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Comments
Westbrook was trying to cause turnovers for his team, not to look like the hero. What do you want westbrook to do, play non agressive defense? This is the stupidest thing ive ever read. Everyone tries to find flaws with westbrook, now him being an agressive defender is a bad thing? You should be embarassed.
No, Darnell makes a good point. It’s not a question of being aggressive or passive, it’s a matter of picking your spots.
I’m a big Westbrook fan and tend to defend him, but so far this season it’s like he’s always in all-out attack mode on both ends of the floor, regardless of the situation. He hasn’t been like that in the past, so I’m not quite sure what to make of it.
Part of me thinks it might be a response to the criticism he endured in the playoffs. Could be he’s pressing some, trying to disprove his critics like he’s done so often in the past. If so, and I don’t know that’s what it is, but if so he’s actually done the opposite and given his critics more ammo.
The people calling for OKC to trade Westbrook should save their breath, and their keyboards. Ain’t happening, and shouldn’t. He’s a big-time reason why the Thunder has come so far so fast. He doesn’t need to be less aggressive so much as just try some other setting than Full Blast all the time. I think he’ll be fine.
What a (another)crap article by mayberry.
I’m sick of the media trying to create problems for the Thunder (and Russel) that aren’t there.
Westbrook is the best rebounding guard in the league.
Westbrook is one of the best defending guards in the league.
Westbrook is the greatest athlete playing guard in the league.
Westbrook is one of the hardest working guards in the league.
WESTBROOK IS THE POINT GUARD FOR MY TEAM – THE OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER!!!!
We stand by Russel Westbrook! So STFU!
Good post by Todd. Yes, I think Westbrook just needs a transmission which works and he develop a 1st, 2nd & 3rd gear, and maybe a 4th or overdrive. And that would work well with his emotions also. But, he’s doing fine and is a great scoring threat for us.
Mayberry, wtb kind of article is this? Really? Felton? He’s an overweight 2nd tear guy who’s team one 1 game and he’s talkn this garbage? And for you to put this out is typical ESPN crap. Wait till we meet pudgy again. I’m sure Westbrook will play a little less aggressive. Your a fool.
Darneel is on drugs. If you have to draft who do you take: Felton or Westbrook? For everything you guys say about Westbrook, he is still one of the best players in the league period!
It s painfully obvious. RW is not a point guard. His best passing is when he is driving. He does not pass the ball instinctively as the better passers do. If the Thunder meaning Brooks do not make an adjustment, they will have problems against the better coached teams.
Just watch and see how slowly he finds the open man especially KD.
So Darnell is a “fool” and he’s “on drugs.” Well, comments like those are what happens when parents don’t teach the kids basic common courtesy and then leave them alone on the computer. Ah well, moving on….
Darnell is not suggesting the Thunder needs to trade Westbrook, or that Felton is better than Westbrook. Never did he say or even hint at such things. And it’s possible to be a fan of a player or a team and still be critical of something. As I said earlier, I’m a big fan of Westbrook, but he’s a little off so far this season. Plus, it’s Darnell’s job to call things as he sees them. And he’s seeing this thing pretty clearly.
Westbrook has been revving his engine to the red-line more often than not to start this season, and it’s hurt the team at times. He needs to dial that back some and pick his spots a little more. He was getting very good at that last year which I think is no small reason why he made the All Star team. I think he’ll come around.
And I also think that even when he’s being over-aggressive like he’s been doing this year, it’s not because he’s trying to make himself look good at the expense of the team. I think he’s trying to make something happen *for* the team. Which is something else that I think Darnell alluded to. He simply needs to do as Mike suggested, and learn, or maybe remember, to shift down from overdrive from time to time.
The truly greatpoint guards in NBA history know how to shift gears and how to elevate their game and their team in the fourth period. Russ has yet to learn this, but I didn’t need Raymond Felton to point this out to me. Russell is just pushing too much on both ends of the court right now. At least he’s gotten his turnovers back down to a reasonable rate these last few games. So–what did Russell have to do with neither KD or James being able to hit any key shots down the stretch last night? No one gets more pissed at Russ than me when he pulls one of his Little League tantrums, but last night was more on KD, James, and Perk than it was on Russell.Did Felton notice Aldridge repeatedly abusing Perk? Did he notice Gerald Wallace having his way with KD when he so desired? Did he notice James was great for the first two thirds of the game–but not so great the last six minutes? When a great NBA point guard like say Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, or Steve Nash wants to go on the record and say some things about Russell’s game–I’ll take note. Raymond Felton…not really all that interested.
[...] Darnell Mayberry on Ray Felton’s comments: “Westbrook’s biggest problem appears to be not knowing when to turn it off. He hasn’t realized, it seems, that the fire inside him doesn’t always have to be a raging blaze. That’s when he puts the Thunder in a bad spot. Last year, we called it hero mode. But that was more about offense. Now, Westbrook is mixing in extreme aggressiveness on defense, defined mostly by gambling in the backcourt, as a means to force the issue and make something happen. He’s trying to be spectacular on every play instead of just being solid and trusting the system. It’s a part of what’s led to his surprisingly slow start.” [...]
@Mr. Lucky “Westbrook is the best rebounding guard… Westbrook is one of the best defending guards…”
It’s all true, but IMHO, it also looks like since last season, Westbrook is guy that wants a big max contract above everything else, including making his team winning games.
Under the new rules, he can have up to 30% of the cap, and he could make everything he can to get that, more than help OKC win more games.
It’s even worse with Love, because he will ask for a max contract based on his personnal stats, while MIN was not winning at all, unless it changes this season.
Every people I know thought last season that Westbrook looked like he wanted to be the hero of OKC, but for his own goal.
Maybe all this is wrong, I hope.
Good article Darnell.I think it is really unfair to Russell that he doesn’t have a contract yet. Just wondering what the hold up is.
I don’t think Westbrook will ever play like a more “traditional” point guard until OKC finds big boys who actually initiate offense from the low post. That would relieve pressure on a supremely talented CONVERTED point guard. Until then Westbrook can’t win. I’m a Lakers fan(from LA) but I like watching OKC play but I see a talented but limited, one dimensional team if the point guard has to kick it around the perimeter all the time. Even D-Rose at least has Boozer.OKC’s big are either more comfy outside the paint or butter fingers like Perkins.
[...] didn’t see a repeat of whatever it was between Russell Westbrook and Raymond Felton; Felton was excused for personal reasons and did not dress. Rookie point guard Nolan Smith [...]
did the same thing to rubio against the t-pups. chalked it up to rookie hazing-type behavior, but have seen it every thunder game this season. makes dude look petty, like the mavericks play-by-play guy.