Behind Westbrook's Indian Summer
Russell Westbrook became the player everyone was clamoring for.
Two years ago, in the middle of Russell Westbrook’s star-crossed stint on the Los Angeles Lakers, Zach Lowe finally surrendered any remaining stock he had on Westbrook island.
What if he cut more on offense? What if he dialed in more on defense? We’ve been saying this since literally 2013 or '14, and it never happens and why should we expect it to happen now?
One can hardly blame Lowe, given the evidence to that point.1
And then this season happened. If you haven’t been paying attention, after the Denver Nuggets were universally panned for the Westbrook signing this past offseason, Russ is having a resurgence. And best of all, it has come about in the ways that Lakers fans (and Wizards fans before them, Rockets fans before them, and to a certain extent even Thunder fans before that) were begging for. Russ is cutting folks. Here’s a fairly representative play from his blossoming two-man game with Nikola Jokić:
They’ll run it all day and they are awfully good at it.
Age has diminished, but not eliminated Russ’ explosiveness. It is one of the reasons so many pundits were tantalized by the idea of Russ unlocking his abilities as a cutter. To say that Russ is cutting at a career-high rate understates just how much he has amped it up in that department. Russ is cutting more than twice as often as he did in his previous high mark, on nearly 1 in 10 possessions per NBA tracking data.
It helps that he plays with the best passer in the game. Jamal Murray is the only player on the Nuggets to receive more passes from the Joker than Westbrook. And nobody makes more passes to Jokić than Westbrook. Watch those two clips again and you see that the action is initiated by Westbrook’s entry pass to Jokić in the high post on both occasions.
That’s another element to Westbrook’s evolution this season: He is getting off the ball quicker, allowing for more ping-ping actions. This is the first season in which Russ’ average touch time is under 4 seconds per touch. Add it all up and not only is this a career low in usage rate for Westbrook, but he is also hitting a career high mark in efficiency with a 54% eFG% per Cleaning the Glass.2
Another stat to buttress the point: per Cleaning the Glass, for the first time in his career, Westbrook is being assisted on more than half of his made shots. Russ is deferring to the superior playmaker on his team and both he and the Nuggets are better for it.
A final clip for good measure. Watch Russ the entire possession below. When the Chicago Bulls throw a 3-2 zone look at the Nuggets, Russ is quick to cut into the paint as a counter. When the window isn’t open for Christian Braun, Russ continues over to the other wing, before making a 45 cut for Jokić to find him (of course) for an easy layup.
That’s the sort of off ball activity people had resigned themselves to not seeing from Westbrook. Salute.
We miss you Zach Lowe. I can’t wait for whatever the ESPN-mandated cooling off period is to expire and give you all of my money when you start your own Sub.
As a reminder, the usage rate is a measure of how much of the team’s offense a player uses up by shooting, assisting, or turning the ball over. Fewer possessions are ending with Westbrook making a play, but more of the possessions that do are meeting positive results.