This would all be more relevant if the Thunder didn't finish 10th in defensive rating last season.
10th is solid, but solid doesn't mean it can't be improved. Adams, Roberson and Oladipo (their three top minutes guys last season, after Westbrook) are all excellent defenders. Maybe they're top 5 if Russell puts in better effort on defense? He certainly has all the physical tools to be a great defender.
by allowing Westbrook to self-initiate the offense, OKC was able to fully maximize their abilities on offense while also playing well-above league average on defense. I think that was a strategy that paid off for OKC but YMMV.
Well, if we're going to point out their above-average defense, we should also point out their below-average offense (105.0 pts allowed per 100 possessions, #17 in the NBA). Maybe that was maximizing their limited abilities, but it's nothing special. It could well be that allowing bigs to rebound more would have made their offense worse. It's also a mathematical certainty that if Westbrook scored with anywhere near the elite efficiency of the other MVP candidates (LeBron, Durant, Curry, Harden, Kawhi, IT, e.g.) their offense would have been been significantly better.
Player A: 16 ppg-5rpg-4apg, 43/34/83, 22.9 usage rate. Player B: 16 ppg-4.5rpg-3apg, 44/36/75, 21.4 usage rate. Player A is Victor Oladipo is final year with Orlando, and Player B is is Oladipo last season with OKC. Obviously, Oladipo was a much worse player when he was playing with that triple-double crazed Westbrook.
See Bosox79's comment above.
I generally like you; but your obvious disdain for Westbrook, which I kind of think is done because you are threatened by the idea that someone could think he is better than Curry, is annoying.
Haha, I like you too! And yeah, I don't know about "disdain", but I will consider Westbrook at least mildly overrated, relative to the other top-line NBA superstars who he beat out for MVP, until he shows that he can lead a great team, make his teammates better, and/or play more efficiently — especially in the playoffs, when his worst hero-ball tendencies tend to emerge (giving rise to the whispers that he's "easy to guard"). Advanced stats like RPM that adjust for quality of floormates do rate him highly (though not as highly as LeBron or Curry), but those are somewhat theoretical compared to actual scoring efficiency and actual team wins.
Which one of these things is not like the others?
Career True Shooting %, reg. season / playoffs
====
.584 / .574 James
.608 / .588 Durant
.598 / .617 Leonard
.617 / .609 Curry
.606 / .590 Harden
.533 / .518 Westbrook