Views from OKC: Thunder (Russell Westbrook) take down Boston
Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Welcome to Views from OKC, Thunderous Intentions’ daily roundup of the best OKC Thunder news across the web.New to Views from OKC? Glad to have you here, and I hope you’ll make this a daily destination. Well, let’s get started!
Westbrook proves once again he is not human
“If you’re looking for an early Heisman Moment, something to file away to tag onto the MVP resume, here’s one to remember. Against a good Celtics team, on the road, with no Victor Oladipo, Westbrook dropped 45-11-11, the first triple-double against Boston in 230 games, and scored the Thunder’s final 15 points.”
Last night was captivating television. Watching Russ shoot two contested threes over fantastic defenders (Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley) was terrifying. But than they went in. And neither shots were close to missing. Putting up three straight 40-point 10-rebound games as a point guard shouldn’t be possible. At this point I don’t understand how you can say he isn’t a top three player in the league.
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Enes Kanter’s rise has been huge in Oladipo’s absence
“Kanter may have tallied only one assist against the Pelicans, but he made multiple passes out of the post which led to buckets later in the possession. And during this game-by-game search for a secondary option not to replace Oladipo but to make up for some of what’s lost with his departure, Wednesday was Kanter’s turn to assume those duties.”
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In my player grades from Wednesday I noted that Kanter missed out on a few opportunities for assists. However, he did do a better job passing out of the post than we are accustomed too. The only way of stopping Kanter is to double him; if the Thunder surround him with shooters (i.e. Alex Abrines) the second unit could become deadly on the offensive end. It’s up to Kanter to keep working on his passing ability for that to happen.
Time to consider trading Russell Westbrook…
“Give me a few minutes of your time, because there are multiple reasons why trading Westbrook now will only serve to benefit the Thunder well into the future.”
There aren’t many times I plug a Thunderous Intentions’ piece, but this is one of them. Rich Condon lays out over 2000 words on why a move like this-especially this season-makes sense. Obviously a Russ trade would not help the Thunder now, but the eye is on 2020. Just check out that piece and I PROMISE you will come away with a different perspective at the least.
