Washington Wizards: How Russell Westbrook can save the Wizards’ season

How Russell Westbrook can save his season

Russell Westbrook has a large hole to dig himself out of but as he has shown he has the ability to be a special player. There are three ways that Westbrook can get his season back on track and in turn, help the Wizards make a playoff push.

Stop taking threes

The easiest thing Russell Westbrook can do to help himself and his team is to stop taking 3-pointers. Every team gives him six-feet of space when he’s behind the arc for good reason, even when he’s wide open he still can’t hit them.

On the season, Westbrook has nine games where he hasn’t hit a single 3-pointer compared to the five where he has hit 40-percent or higher. Just because a shot is open doesn’t make it a good shot.

Attack the rim

One of the most confusing developments this season has been Westbrook’s inability to get shots near the rim. Just last season he was an absolute menace at getting to the rim and it was a large part of his second-half surge with the Rockets.

As Westbrook has dropped his attempts at the rim he is posting the best efficiency of his career when shooting around the rim at 67.9-percent. The ability to finish and get to the rim is still there for Westbrook he just needs to lean into it more.

Not only will more lay-ups help his scoring efficiency from the field it will lead to more free throws. Westbrook is getting to the line the fewest times per game since his second season in the league and that was on almost four fewer shot attempts a game.

A secondary concern has been Westbrook’s continued decline for the free-throw line. His free throw shooting has declined from perennially being over 80-percent to now being sub-70-percent. Just getting to the line is valuable, even if it doesn’t go in, and Westbrook has the history and the tools to start racking up the free throws.

Give up playmaking duties

The lone bright spot for Westbrook, on offense, has been his playmaking. His 9.7 assists per game rank second in the league as does his assist percentage of 45.9-percent. Unfortunately, all of those assists have come with an incredible amount of turnovers.

As mentioned before, his 5.1 turnovers per game lead the league and his turnover percentage of 20-percent is ninth in the league. Westbrook needs to find the happy medium where he is creating offense through passing without coughing the ball up at a league-leading rate.

Fortunately for Westbrook and the Wizards, Bradley Beal, along with being an amazing scorer, is also a savvy playmaker. Allowing Beal to shoulder more of the playmaking will help Westbrook reel in the turnovers without totally stripping him of his elite playmaking.

Westbrook is the key to the Washington Wizards’ season

Russell Westbrook and the Wizards have gotten off to a rocky start but there is still time and the ability to turn it around. Westbrook needs to realize the player he is and not the player he was.

The Wizards are close enough to make a playoff push but they’ll need Westbrook to step it up. Filling up the box-score is only cool when your team is winning. Westbrook needs to give up some shots and some passes to help his team win games. If he doesn’t, the Wizards will be watching the playoffs from home and Bradley Beal could be in another uniform.