Russell Westbrook: the Good, the Bad, and the Adjustment

"The Most Important" player (MIP) tag is dubious, a sort of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" situation. It means a player can be the most valuable player on the floor one night, and the most detrimental to his squad the next.

One reason for this is that the MIP thrives immensely under the right circumstances, but fails to adapt properly against teams capable of adjusting against his style of play.

No player encapsulates the "Most Important Player" category better than the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook. 

The Good: Thrives Under the Right Circumstances

Westbrook was the most valuable player of the OKC vs. Los Angeles Lakers series in which OKC soundly beat the Lakers in five games. Why? Because the Lakers' perimeter defense is mediocre. The Lakers were 28th in steals in 2012 and 22nd in field goals allowed. On the other end of the court, they were amongst the worst in the league in turnovers allowed (20th). 

Of course, under these circumstances the explosive, hyper-athletic Westbrook was well within his comfort zone. The turnover-happy Lakers gave him more than his fair share of transition scoring opportunities, and Westbrook constantly beat the Lakers' perimeter defense off the dribble. In the final two games of the series, Westbrook averaged 32.5 ppg on 52 percent shooting. 

The Bad: Struggles To Adapt

In the Western Conference finals, the San Antonio Spurs have made all the necessary adjustments to severely marginalize Westbrook's value. Point guard Tony Parker has protected the ball extremely well against Westbrook, who had zero steals in the series' first two games.

Parker's fine ball-handling plus his superior scoring efficiency (16-for-21 FG in Game 2) has prevented Westbrook from scoring transition points off defensive stops; plays that are necessary for Westbrook to get into his comfort zone.

Meanwhile, the Spurs, by closing blocking lanes and heavily guarding Kevin Durant and James Harden, have successfully baited the often petulant Westbrook into taking several rushed shots from outside his comfort range. This has frustrated Westbrook, and in turn, he has rushed several shots with plenty of time left on the shot clock to set up a better play. 

The Spurs have taken advantage of Westbrook's hasty shooting by grabbing long rebounds off his misses and running quick transition plays for easy scores at the other end of the floor. 

Overall, the Spurs' strategy has been very simple these past two games: ensure that Westbrook takes more shots than Durant or Harden, and make sure that those shots are outside of Westbrook's comfort zone. 

The Spurs have banked on Westbrook failing to adjust to their strategy, and thus far, they have been correct. Westbrook has easily been the least efficient player of OKC's big-three, shooting 48 percent to Durant's 68 percent and Harden's 77 percent. Meanwhile, Westbrook and has taken more several more shots than both Durant and Harden in the series.

The Ugly: Necessary Adjustments

The long-term adjustment is that Westbrook needs to learn how to shift between playing a pure point guard style and a shoot-first one when appropriate. Beating a team as deep and diversified as the Spurs means moving the ball around and getting the hottest player on the floor the most touches. In Game 2, that would have been Harden, who took a total of 13 shots compared to Westbrook's 24. 

While many pundits have offered that Westbrook has improved in this regard, his 4.8 assists-per-game average in the playoffs is a career low.  

It's unlikely that Oklahoma City will make the necessary adjustments to make this a tight series. You can't expect a 23-year-old Westbrook, who often plays like he wants to be "the man," to immediately become an unselfish and adaptable point guard. 

Can Scotty Brooks be the disciplinarian that Westbrook needs to become a more mature player in the NBA? Or, unless Oklahoma City somehow makes it to the NBA Finals, should OKC go after legendary disciplinarians Jerry Sloan or Phil Jackson in the offseason?

One immediate solution for Game 3 is to move Westbrook to the 2 spot and allow Harden, who has a considerable size advantage over Parker, to play the point. Harden has proven more capable of getting to the paint in this series without forcing the offense. Harden's length may also prove to give Parker headaches at both ends of the floor.

Another simpler strategy, to put it bluntly, would be to just give Durant the ball and allow the offense to run through him. At times, Durant has proven himself to be a capable passer off the wings this year.  Now may be the time to put his abilities to the test for a longer stretch of tonight's Game 3.