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The report he wanted from Houston made one thing clear: Russell Westbrook is the league’s hottest star. Let’s take a closer look at what he’s done this season to understand why.

Since Sun Sharania of Athletic broke the news that Russell Westbrook wants out of Houston, one thing has become quite clear: Westbrook is the league’s hottest star.

There is no denying Westbrook’s greatness. One-off best player with nine All-Star selections to his name, Westbrook is locking to be the Hall of Famer’s first ballot regardless of how he played the rest of his career. (For what he’s worth, give him the basketball reference 99. 9% made from Hall of Fame. The only active players with better odds are Chris Paul, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant).

Westbrook drops out of a season in which the third All-NBA team played with an average of 27. 2 points, 7. 9 rebounds and 7. 0 assists per match. His season didn’t end the way he or the Rockets wanted it, but the NBA. com his team was still ranked 22nd best player in the league when we last ranked our players.

However, ask two different people if they want their favorite team to make a move for Westbrook in the wake of the Charania report, and you’ll likely get two completely different answers..

Not many players squeeze at the edge like Westbrook.

In the 2019-20 season, Westbrook leads the league with 20 points. 8 engines for each game. Contributed to scoring 15. 0 points per game in the paint, which is the third highest in the league behind Giannis Antitokounmou (17). . 5) and Zion Williamson (16. 8). Even at the age of 32, Westbrook is still one of the fastest and fastest growing players in the NBA. He’s always looking to use his speed to get to paint, and he has the strength and athletics alike to finish a high clip when he gets there..

Westbrook has really improved as a definitive on the edge over the past few seasons. In his first nine seasons in the league, he achieved 57. 7% of his shot attempts are within three feet of the basket. Over the past three seasons, that number has risen to 63. 3 percent.

The Rockets made life easier for Westbrook in this regard by moving starting position Clint Capella at the trade deadline to surround him with four 3-point archers at all times. It turned Westbrook into the league’s most dominant goalscorer and led to playing some of the best basketball of his career.

The one thing that hasn’t changed with Westbrook is that he has always been at his best in transition. He was always among the top scorers in the league on the open field, finishing third in his total points scored in the transfer phase last season.. Rockets have transformed into a completely different team with him in the squad. According to the NBA. Com, Houston went from recording 14. 6 percent of his Fastbreak points with him on the field to 9. 1 percent with him on the bench.

For perspective, that was the difference between the Rockets ranking fifth and 29th in Fastbreak’s percentage points scoring.

Westbrook also became one of the league’s top goalscorers apart from the Rockets, just as Chris Paul did when he played alongside James Harden..

It’s a limited shooter – we’ll talk more about that in a minute – but Westbrook can maintain the honesty of defenses by drawing the ball from mid range. According to the NBA. com, over a quarter (28. 2 percent) of his attempts to shoot in the field last season was from two points of withdrawal, and he scored 41. 0 percent of those chances.

Teams will keep Westbrook settled on jump shots if that means he’s not hitting the basket, but he’s someone whom mid-level teams respect when they roll.

Put it all together, Westbrook still excels as a positive attacker with advanced metrics. Last season, he was ranked 12th best Real Plus-Minus attack in the league. It didn’t rank nearly as high on the Offensive Box Plus-Minus, Value Over Replacement Player, and Player Impact Plus-Minus, but it was still positive on every metric..

Despite its ability to score from the mid-range, Westbrook isn’t much of a threat on the three-point streak. Last season, he scored 29. 1 percent of his three-point attempts. Of the 209 players who attempted at least 100 players last season, only six converted them less. .

To boot, Westbrook made only 24. 2 percent of 3 seconds. Of the 128 players who tried 50 at least 3 draws, only seven converted them less.

This is not a case of a small sample size only. 30- Profession. 5% shooter from the ocean, Westbrook is one of the worst heavy-duty 3-point shooting games in NBA history.

More than anything, it limits Westbrook as an out-of-ball threat. Teams are not afraid to help him when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands, which leads to estrangement between others. It’s a big reason to transfer the Rockets to Capela on the trade deadline. Whenever Westbrook and Kabila were on the field together, it gave the two rival teams players who could help solve them.. Trading Capela opened the playing field not just for Westbrook but for everyone else on the Rockets.

This just makes Westbrook a much more complex player to build on as he enters the back end of his career. As mentioned earlier, he is still one of the hottest players in the league, but it will be difficult for him to be the primary choice in a team whenever a father is catching up with him.. why? His prototype – sports goalkeepers with questionable shots – tend not to age well. If his role in the shooting does not improve, he will struggle to transform into an effective secondary or third option on a good team.

The good news: Westbrook has shown signs he can still be an incredibly productive player in a major role. With Harden knocked out last season, Westbrook averaged 34. 0 points, 10. 4 assists and 8. 1 rebound per 36 minutes . 496 /. 233 /. 748 split shooting. And aside from the bad 3-point photography, these are some great numbers.

The bad news: Westbrook hasn’t had much success with the qualifiers in recent years as a primary option.

When Houston beat Oklahoma City in last season’s qualifiers, it was the first time since 2016 that Westbrook had made the first round.. He lost five games to the Rockets in 2017, six games against Utah Jazz in 2018 and five games against the Portland Trail Blazers in 2019.. . (Which makes matters worse? Westbrook were the highest ranked team in two of those three games.). He still puts great counting stats in each of those series, but their shooting percentages have dropped to 38. 4 percent from the field and 31. 2 percent of the 3-point range.

If the Hornets are trading with Russell Westbrook, congratulate them on snatching the eighth seed and sweeping them in the first round for the next three years https: // t. co / TExvCgABa0

Part of Westbrook’s problem is that it will earn more than $ 40 million in each of the next three seasons, which makes it difficult for teams to match salaries.. (It’s also a big commitment to make for a player of his age). The other part is that it’s hard to imagine the piece that puts a competitor on the edge because its boundaries are so clear that making it not. Option # 1 appears to be setting a fairly tangible cap for the team based on how their last three years in Oklahoma City played..

Matt Moore of The Action Network said it best: Westbrook is much more than a ceiling lifter. There is still value in it – which is why the likes of Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks have been linked to Westbrook – but it depends on which side of the fence you sit on.

Russell Westbrook, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, James Harden, NBA Most Valuable Player Award, NBA