6 reasons for Russell Westbrook’s recent production explosion

5. Spacing

Houston has been the catalyst of this 3-point revolution in the NBA and this has helped a guy like Russell Westbrook. While Westbrook himself isn’t a very good 3-point shooter, when he is surrounded by four guys that are, it opens up the floor for him.

The Rockets as a team shoot a league-leading 44.4 3-pointers per game and Russell Westbrook has only accounted for 2.3 of those attempts in January and February.

This is what has made Westbrook so dangerous. He’s doing more of what he’s good at (i.e. attacking the basket) and less of what he’s not good at (i.e. shooting threes). However, this would not be possible if it wasn’t for the amazing spacing provided by this elite 3-point shooting offense of the Rockets.

For his entire career, Westbrook has been forced to shoot four, five, six, even seven 3-pointers per game because he was surrounded by guys who also couldn’t shoot. He shared the backcourt with guys like Thabo Sefolosha, Andre Roberson, and Dennis Schröder, none of who are remotely close to being as good of shooters as James Harden.

This is also the first time we’ve seen Westbrook without a center like Steven Adams or Clint Capela clogging up the paint. There is just so much more space for Westbrook to operate inside when your center in P.J. Tucker is parked in the corner ready to shoot a three.