A very disturbing storyline is developing for the Oklahoma City Thunder in this postseason. Whether deserved or not (overdone, in my opinion), the successes of the team are being laid at the feet of Kevin Durant, while the struggles are heaped onto the shoulders of Russell Westbrook. Given the incredible youth and inexperience of virtually every major piece of the Thunder in postseason play, from coach on down the line (Kendrick Perkins' plus-minus contributions makes him a minor piece here), this is almost certainly unfair. Example: In the triple-overtime Grizzlies game, Westbrook misses at the end of regulation and OT #2 are ridiculed. Kevin Durant is exempted from criticism despite getting no closer than a step back 28 footer at the end of OT #1, in addition to openly complaining about not getting the ball for all the cameras to see. From the outside looking in, it appears to be wearing on Westbrook, which is bad for everybody.
The toughest thing to do in the NBA is put two upper echelon players on the same team while both are in their prime. Most of the time, one is past their prime, or not at it yet. Durant and Westbrook, and the league for that matter, are lucky enough to be in that rare position. The worst thing possible, for everyone involved, is if oustide pressures (read: media) and ego drive a wedge between these two, and force one to leave. This has happened before, and the results are not good.
Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury (1999): despite two consecutive playoff berths, Stephon was unhappy with his role, and demanded his way out. After being traded, Starbury and Garnett would make it past the 1st round just once, combined, in the next 9 years, despite piling up All-Star berths and All-NBA praise individually.
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant (2004): despite 3 titles and 5 NBA Finals appearances, Shaq and Kobe were always considered two alpha dogs that somehow coexisted despite hating each other. Management chose the younger guy, and both players won titles without the other. However, we haven't seen a pairing of two All-NBA 1st team talents since, and who knows how many titles they could have won had they just figured it out.
Steve Nash and Joe Johnson (2005): The 7 Seconds or Less Suns were an amazing phenomenon in '04-'05, and the combination of Nash, Stoudemire, Marion, and Joe Johnson lost in the conference finals to the Spurs. Most people forget that a Joe Johnson concussion in that series hampered the Suns, who may have already been the Spurs' match in their 1st year playing together. Joe Johnson wanted a team and venue to showcase his 6-8 point guard abilities, and management worked out a trade to Atlanta. Joe Johnson has never gotten back to the conference finals, and the Nash Suns didn't until 2010.
Hopefully, Russell and Kevin understand how rare their combination is, and from a team success standpoint, it's hard to imagine them being better positioned than they are now for the long term. Money is a separate issue, and I'll never pretend to tell someone how or why to leave $10mm+ in guaranteed money on the table. But I'll always believe that it's easier to teach skill/poise to talented players than to teach talent to skilled/poised players. And there are examples of guys sharing or even ceding the spotlight for team success (Ginobli with Duncan). Jordan had to learn to trust teammates, and never won it all until he did. But he figured it out. So I say to Durant, Westrbook, Scott Brooks: figure it out. It's the best thing for all of us.
Unless New Orleans would take Westbrook in a package for Chris Paul, in which case you can disregard all of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment