OKC Thunder: What Russell Westbrook must improve in his game

3. Improve 3-point shooting

It’s a 3-point shooting league now. The mid-range jumper seems almost non-existent. When you have the Stephen Currys, James Hardens and Damian Lillards of the world draining triples at a high clip, you had better be able to shoot too — especially if you’re a point guard.

Westbrook, though, has never been a great shooter from deep. He’s been up-and-down, and extremely streaky. Of course he can get hot from time to time, and it’s a beautiful thing when he does. He’s a pro athlete and a great player. That will happen. However, for the most part, he struggles shooting from deep.

Russ finished the 2018-19 season shooting 29.0 percent from downtown. It was the third-worst 3-point percentage of his career. In the months of November, December and February, his 3-point shooting average was 25.6 percent. In his 36 games played on the road, Westbrook shot 27.3 percent from beyond the arc, compared to his 30.5 percent on his home court.

The worst part is the volume he takes those inefficient shots with. Russ jacked up 5.6 3s per game this season, and last year, when he only made 29.8 percent of his long range attempts, he was still taking 4.1 per game.

Among the top point guards in the league — most would agree that group includes Russ, Steph Curry, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard and Kemba Walker — Westbrook is the worst shooter of them all.

For a player to struggle so mightily from downtown, 27.9 percent of his Russ’ field goals came from behind the arc this season. That’s the highest percentage of his entire career. He either needs to improve this area of his game, or stop taking so many shots that are clearly inefficient for him.