The Case for Russell Westbrook as the Best Point Guard in the NBA Right Now

In just 14 games, the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook has put himself in the running for both this year's MVP as well as the title for the league's best point guard. 

Each of the league's top floor generals has his own trait that sets him apart from the others. Stephen Curry has the deep ball. Rajon Rondo is a great passer. Chris Paul makes others around him better. John Wall has amazing speed. Damian Lillard has that knack for coming through in the clutch. 

For years, Westbrook's calling card has been his explosiveness. However, a funny thing happened after the 26-year-old returned from a broken hand on Nov. 28. He found a way to become the most complete point guard in the league. 

Numbers Don't Lie

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If his place on the leaderboard wasn't restricted by a lack of games played, here's where Westbrook would rank in some major categories: 

• First in scoring (27.4 points per game, career-high)
• Seventh in steals (1.9)
• 11th in assists (7.2)
• Second in player efficiency rating (32.3) 

In terms of rebounding, Rondo, Michael Carter-Williams and the injured Ricky Rubio are the only point guards averaging more than Westbrook's 5.5 boards per game. Here's what's even crazier: Westbrook is managing to put up these eye-popping numbers while playing just 31.2 minutes per game and sharing the ball with a four-time scoring champion for nine of his 14 games.

While Kevin Durant has been hindered by injuries and rust, Westbrook has put the Thunder on his back. The team is 9-3 since the UCLA product's return and is just a game and a half behind the New Orleans Pelicans for the eighth seed after toiling at the bottom of the West's standings for the first month of the season. 

 "Truthfully, he is playing like the best player in the league, to me," center Kendrick Perkins said, per Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. "I can’t really pinpoint somebody who’s playing better than him right now. He’s at a high level."

Other point guards may be able to top Westbrook in certain areas, but none offer the all-around goodness of the Long Beach blur. 

Offensive Efficiency

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

The knock on Westbrook for years has been that he plays a bit reckless. In the past, he's shown a tendency of taking ill-advised shots, particularly from behind the arc. This season, he's still playing with the anger and intensity of a young Henry Rollins, but he's a bit smarter with the basketball.

His 3.4 attempts from behind the three-point line is more than a full shot lower than his average from last year. His three-point shooting has taken a slight dip (29.2 percent), but he's shooting a career-high 46.2 percent from the field. Westbrook's newfound efficiency should have the haters scrambling for new material, per Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman:

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He’s playing with a controlled chaos that’s so rare. He’s darting to the rim with that same breakneck speed, but routinely maneuvering around the basket with a smoothness we’re not used to and tossing in feathery layups with either hand. His shot selection has always been criticized. His efficiency has always been used as an argument against him. But that’s not a crutch his biggest skeptics can lean on right now. 

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Westbrook's effectiveness around the rim has been the key to his success. According to NBA.com, he's converting 54 percent of his attempts from within 10 feet. A look at Westbrook's shot chart, courtesy of Vorped.com, gives an even better look at his improved selection:

Vorped.com

Of course, it's much easier to forgo constantly launching threes when you're able to do this:

The hope is that Westbrook can stay the course and that his career-high 40 percent usage rate doesn't wear him down later in the year. 

Defensive Improvement

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

While Westbrook has made strides as a scorer, his most impressive improvement has come on the defensive end, per ESPN's Royce Young:

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Westbrook has made small gains in a number of areas, such as better shot choices, and more all-out assault on the rim, but the biggest area is on the defensive end. He's always been an above-average defender, but because of his gambling tendencies, seemed to be only scratching the surface of his defensive potential. Defense was Westbrook's focus in the offseason, with him placing an individual goal of making an all-defense team. This season, he's playing at his highest defensive level, holding opposing point guards to 31 percent shooting entering Thursday's game.

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According to 82games.com, the Thunder allow an effective field-goal percentage of 45 percent when Westbrook is on the floor. Among the league's top point guards, only Wall, Curry and Patrick Beverley are equal or better than Westbrook's defensive rating of 101. He's posting a 3.2 steal percentage, which would tie him with the San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard for fifth-best in the league. 

"I haven't seen him locked in (like this)," said Perkins, per Mayberry. "I think he’s playing playoff defense for Russ. I haven’t seen that this early in the season in a long time."

USA Today's Sam Amick has also noticed Westbrook's strong defense:

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The list of Westbrook victims is growing by the day: New Orleans' Jrue Holiday missed 11 of 17 shots against him on Dec. 2; Philadelphia's Michael Carter-Williams was 6-of-19 three days later; the Detroit Pistons' Brandon Jennings and the Milwaukee Bucks' Brandon Knight were held to single digits in the week that followed; Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Kyrie Irving misfired on 14 of 21 attempts not long after; the Phoenix Suns' Eric Bledsoe went 4-of-12.

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Traditionally, the top spot has gone to two-way point guards. That was the case for Paul for many years. The same for Gary Payton before him. Westbrook knows that if he's going to stake claim to the "point god" mantle, he'll need to prove he's a complete player. 

"I defend every night but I told myself in the summer time that I really needed to lock back in defensively and try to be the best defensive player in the league," Westbrook said, per Amick. "I think if you're going to be one of the best players to do it in this game you've got to be able to do it on both ends." 

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

All it took was a broken hand for Russell Westbrook to transform into the point guard we always knew he could be. He has responded to the Thunder hitching its wagon to his star by turning in the best season of his career. 

The most impressive part of Westbrook's 2014-15 campaign isn't in the numbers; it's in the way he has emerged from Kevin Durant's shadow to become an MVP candidate in his own right. For at least this season, Oklahoma City feels like it's Westbrook's town. 

The NBA's point guard throne might be next.

Note: All stats current as of Dec. 21 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted.