Russell Westbrook Or Kevin Durant: Who Takes The Lead?

Things are going pretty well these days with the Oklahoma City Thunder organization.

The whole “Will he go or will he stay?” saga with Reggie Jackson is done with after he was traded to Detroit. The new acquisitions have been great in their first few games with OKC – especially Enes Kanter. Plus, the team is now in control of its own destiny having battled their way back to the eighth-seed in the Western Conference.

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And all this was done with Kevin Durant playing in just 27 games.

The 26-year-old has struggled for fitness having had surgery after a Jones fracture in his foot prior to the start of the 2014-15 season. That forced him to miss the first 17 games of the season and he has been out of several games since then due to soreness and some post-op procedures that have led to him missing the past five games.

Fortunately for Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook has been able to pick up the slack in his absence –even though he also missed 14 games at the start of season– and he is the primary reason the Thunder have been able to fight back from the 3-12 hole they were in early on.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma City, Westbrook is also due to miss some more time — albeit insignificant time — having had surgery on his cheekbone since he had a dent in his face after he got a knee to the face from his teammate, Andre Roberson.

The question now though is who is going to be Batman and who is going to be Robin when the pair are both on the court?

In the past, Westbrook has had to play second fiddle to Durant, and for good reason too. When healthy, KD is the most lethal scorer in the game, as illustrated by his 32 points per game average last season (27.5 for his career), so the ball has to be in his hands. Plus, he has also made great strides as a playmaker for others having recorded a career high 5.5 assists per game on his way to Most Valuable Player honors last year.

This season, though, with Durant missing significant court time, Russell Westbrook has been showing out. He is averaging 26.5 points, 8.1 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. Those figures place him second in scoring, fifth in assists, first among all guards in rebounding (third among players who are not either a Power Forward or Center) and second in steals.

Furthermore, in the month of February, he was playing like a man possessed. While KD missed seven of the games during the month, Russ kicked it up a notch and was a constant triple-double threat as he tallied 31.2 points, 10.3 dimes, 9.1 boards (Only Oscar Robertson has averaged 30 points, 10 assists and 9.0 rebounds per game for a calendar month with at least 10 games played) and recorded four triple-doubles, including three straight for the first time since LeBron James back in March 2009 – and he is only the fourth player to do so in the past 20 years.

So, yeah, he was pretty darn good.

In addition to adding his name into the history books, Russell Westbrook’s big month also earned him player of the month honors and has firmly catapulted him into the MVP conversation – which creates another dilemma for OKC.

As we have clearly seen, Westbrook can make things happen when the ball in his hands and Kevin Durant’s absence has given him ample time to run the show – thus the league-leading 38 percent usage rate and assist percentage (48.1). However, when Durant comes back, those numbers are bound to drop because the reigning MVP has to get his.

Having said that, perhaps Durant would be willing to play second fiddle – at least until the end of the regular season. After all, he might be happy to help out his buddy as well as make history in the process. Only once in the history of the game, have two teammates won the MVP trophy one after the other (Bob Cousy in 1956-57 then Bill Russell in 1957-58).

Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant have a chance to also do it if the former can maintain his herculean form and if the latter allows it.

Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time

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