Why Derrick Rose is better than Russell Westbrook

Why Derrick Rose Is Better Than Russell Westbrook

Yahoo! Contributor Network Acamea Deadwiler 1 hour ago

Rose vs. Westbrook.

COMMENTARY | Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook changed the point-guard game by bringing supreme athleticism to the position.

Occupying the spot generally reserved for a player who can distribute the ball and run an offense, neither of these areas is the greatest strength of Rose nor Westbrook. They are most gifted at creating shots for themselves, getting to the basket, and even dunking with the best of them. Their games are uniquely similar in the sense that they may be the only point guards in the NBA with such a skill set. Naturally, one is often compared to the other.

In doing so, there are several areas in which Rose has a distinctive advantage over Westbrook:


Attitude

While Rose is often described as humble and an all-around good, unselfish teammate, words used characterize Westbrook include volatile and frustrating. He is frequently accused of "acting out" and being angered to the point of inconsolable during games.

One of these personas is endearing, the other is polarizing. It is not extremely important that teammates like each other, but lashing out and throwing tantrums ultimately cause discourse. While Rose seems to be one of the easiest stars to play with in terms of demeanor, Westbrook must be one of the most difficult.

Decision Making

Westbrook has been much-maligned as a decision-maker his entire NBA career. When the Oklahoma City Thunder lose a game, he often takes the blame. Whether it be bad shots, turnovers, or not deferring to Kevin Durant, Westbrook's perceived deficiencies as a floor leader have been exposed on many occasions.

Perhaps this is not a fair area of comparison. Rose has no one to defer to. He is the Bulls' first and second option on offense. He can take as many shots as he desires and no one would think twice about it. Still, he is seldom the reason his team loses and rarely takes the wild, contested jump-shots his counterpart is prone to.

Shot Selection

See the aforementioned "wild, contested jump-shots." Westbrook is notorious for these as he has never met a shot he did not like. Both players tend to go one-on-one a great deal. However, Rose's aim is usually to get to the basket, while Westbrook will settle for the low-percentage mid-range or even 3-point shot.

What is so baffling about Westbrook's shot selection and volume is that he does not have to play this way. Having arguably the league's second-best player on his team in Durant, there really is no reason to jack up jumpers. But this is what he does. He shoots. The problem is, while Westbrook is highly capable of shooting the Thunder into a game, he is just as liable to shoot his team out of one.

In fairness, both Rose and Westbrook are shooting guards in 6-foot-3-inch point-guard bodies. Both are great at what they do and exciting to watch. Neither is perfect if measured against what a point guard is supposed to do. Yet, at the end of the day, if we must compare them and apparently we must, Rose has the ever so slight edge.

----

My Take: For starters, neither one of them are pure point guards, just shooting guards in undersized bodies. Unfortunately, the author failed to mention that. Also, yes, they are similar. Here are some stats:

D Rose (2011-12): 21.8 PPG, .435 FG%, .812 FT%, 3.4 REB, 7.9 AST, 0.7 BLK, 0.9 STL, 3.1 TO

R Westbrook (2011-12): 23.6 PPG, .457 FG%, .823 FT%, 4.6 REB, 5.5 AST, 0.3 BLK, 1.7 STL, 3.6 TO
(2012-13): 23.2 PPG, .438 FG%, .800 FT%, 5.2 REB, 7.4 AST, 0.3 BLK, 1.8 STL, 3.3 TO

Statistically, they are about the same with a few minor differences. To be fair, I added Westbrook's 2011-12 season because that was the most recent year with which they both played. However, I also added his stats from last season, because that gives a more accurate picture of where his production is.

KJ

There are only a few true point guards in the league. I would list them as Rondo (the purest), Nash (he has lost a lot of his game, but it's still a point guard game) and Chris Paul (the best scorer of the three, perhaps sacrificing some of his point guard duties as a result).

I think the question as to "who is better, Westbrook or Rose?" cannot be answered until after it can be said that Derrick Rose has come back as fully as he can be expected to from his injury. If we're looking at pre-injury Rose, he was League MVP and led his team into the playoffs. Russell Westbrook isn't the leader on OKC and he has never been mentioned, to the best of my knowledge, as a legitimate candidate for MVP.

bob

.

Westbrook is a freak athlete with a questionable head for the game.
Rose is a freak athlete with a questionable heart for playing through pain.

Both are flawed in different ways.

I don't think it's as revolutionary as the author believes for an extremely athletic point guard to come down the pike.  The Celtics had one who won a championship with them and who, earlier in his career, had led the league in assists (11.4) and points (34.0) per game in the same season (1972-73) while averaging 46 minutes per game—Nate Archibald.  His body may have been relatively "Tiny," but not his talent.

By the way, 1972-73 was the season when Tiny moved to Kansas City-Omaha, which was coached by a guy named Cousy.  Probably just a coincidence.

Sam

I will say this, though...

I fully believe Westbrook would come back to play ASAP instead of skipping out on a whole season, as opposed to Rose.


KJ