With the possible exception of Anthony Davis, currently putting up monster numbers for the winless New Orleans Pelicans, no player has started the season off better than Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook. Freed from having to share the court with Kevin Durant, who bolted to the Golden State Warriors during the offseason, the newly liberated Westbrook has taken full control of his team and the early dividends have been astounding.
In the first game of the season, Westbrook was an assist away from logging a a triple double at the expense of Philadelphia’s defense. On Friday, Westbrook put up 51 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a 113-110 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns, the first time a player has scored 50 points in a triple double since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pulled off a similar feat in 1975.
Oh, and he won the game by making a layup with just 3.6 seconds left on the clock in overtime.
Westbrook was somewhat less impressive on Sunday, as he scored a mere 33 points in 33 minutes in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers, although he made up for that by accumulating 12 rebounds and16 assists. Yes, Westbrook only barely missed a chance to start the season with three straight triple-doubles. In short, he’s been looking exactly like the player who people were predicting to be the MVP this season, despite the continued existence of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Durant.
While few expected him to put up numbers quite this impressive, Westbrook’s hot start shouldn’t come as a total surprise. Although nobody could deny that his partnership with Durant was a successful one, there was always the sense that having to share the ball with a fellow Hall of Fame caliber player was preventing him from reaching his full potential.
And his performance during these first three games, all Thunder wins, can’t be completely dismissed as a small sample size anomaly, mostly because it corresponds with what Westbrook has done without Durant in the past. Most notably, Westbrook averaged 28.1 points per game during the 2014-15 season, nearly carrying a once-floundering team into the postseason while Durant was sidelined with an injury. Despite just missing the playoffs, Westbrook still came in fourth place during that year’s MVP voting, just behind Curry, LeBron and James Harden.
Somehow Westbrook looks even more dangerous this time around. In fact it’s difficult to recall a NBA player having a better start to the season. While Westbrook is a player who doesn’t need much motivation, he has always played the game like a surprisingly graceful wrecking ball, he looks like someone who has something to prove to the entire basketball world. Which he does.
Not only is Westbrook attempting to prove that the Thunder are his team now, he’s also competing with Durant now that he’s with the team’s arch-rivals in California. One imagines that he probably wasn’t too unhappy when Durant’s Warriors got blown out at home by the San Antonio Spurs on opening day.
While the 3-0 Thunder have to be thrilled about how Westbrook’s performance so far, they are well-aware that no player, nobody, not even Westbrook, is able to sustain this level of play for any long stretch of time. First off, there’s the reality that he would be risking burnout by the time the playoffs come around. Secondly, his current exertions will put a strain on his body, a dicey proposition considering Westbrook’s injury history.
There’s also the fact that there will be some nights where Westbrook’s admirable recklessness on the court will backfire. Yes, Westbrook can – and will – single-handedly win games, but on occasion he’ll also lose a few on his own as well. When Westbrook’s game is off, his propensity for volume shooting can lead to some thoroughly ugly stat lines and even on his best nights, he often commits unforced turnovers, almost as if the ball can’t quite keep up with him.
That’s the trade off when you have to rely on a player as unique as Westbrook, whose greatest strength also doubles as his biggest weakness. In the past, Durant has been able to bail out the team when Westbrook has one of those games where he has nearly as many turnovers as made field goals. The Thunder no longer have that security blanket.
The good news for Oklahoma City is that head coach Billy Donovan is well aware that they can’t count on Good Russell game-in, game-out, and is aware of the need to get more players involved. “He knows what happened last night is not sustainable,” Donovan said after Friday night’s win, emphasizing the Thunder’s need to start playing more as a group and less like Westbrook’s backup band. “It’s been great working with him because he’s really thinking from a leadership standpoint, ‘How do I incorporate all these guys? how do I help these guys?’”
This brings us the Thunder’s biggest concern: they either need to surround Westbrook with better players or hope for a breakout season from one or more guys already on their roster. At times Westbrook can be an incredibly inefficient shooter, but it’s hard to blame him here. If you were one of the best players in the league, and Victor Oladipo were your team’s second-highest scorer, you just might put up 44 shots a game too. Because of this it’s imperative that the Thunder be proactive in adding players who give Westbrook more options, boost their iffy bench and/or allow them to rest Westbrook more often during the regular season to keep him fresh, Gregg Popovich style.
As fun as it is to watch Westbrook take over games all by himself, barreling through defenses and burying opponents under an avalanche of made baskets, it’s not an effective long-term strategy. Just because the Thunder could depend on Westbrook lifting the entire team on his back, it doesn’t mean that they should.
