Russell Westbrook is one of the best players in the short history of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Ironically, that continued in a backwards way during OKC’s seven-game series win over the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semis.
Westbrook plays for the Nuggets now. He’s a long way removed from his MVP, triple-double averaging days with the Thunder.
And he might’ve just played one of the worst postseason series in NBA history. The Thunder fans certainly don’t mind.
For the series, Westbrook was a negative-92 in plus/minus. That included -34 in Game 7.
His seven-game averages were 9.9 points and 2.4 assists per game, with 2.6 turnovers per game.
Westbrook shot 34.8 percent from the floor and a ghastly 21.9 percent from 3-point land.
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The Nuggets had bench and depth issues, so Westbrook sort of had to play as a secondary creator by default, but it was a nightmare.
It’s a brutal fall from grace for Westbrook, who was an exhilarating player at his peak.
His peak is a long, long time ago.
Westbrook is still capable of the occasional flash play. He even had a game this year when he added a triple-double to one by Nikola Jokic.
But the playoff stage, against tenacious defenders like these current Thunder, was too much. Russ wasn’t equipped to handle it.
His career next steps are uncertain. But his former team is moving on, in a narrowly won series, in which Westbrook was by far the worst player. There’s a sad irony in that.
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