This What Y'all Think

One of my favorite parts of sports are the various sports opinions. Sports opinions start some of the best conversations I’ve ever had with complete strangers and my closest friends. With this in mind, welcome to the first installment of This What Y’all Think. I’ll ask sports related questions on Twitter, share the results, and give my take! Be sure to follow me on twitter @SluggaSports and like the post if you do and comment your thoughts! I'd love to hear them! Without further ado, let’s get it.

Question 1: Which career would you rather have: Damian Lillard or Russell Westbrook?

Answer: Damian Lillard with 53%

My Take: Out of the four recent questions asked on twitter, this result surprised me the most. Both are beloved by their city. Both are all-time greats. Both are incredibly popular with NBA fans across the world. However, their careers as players could not be more different.

Damian Lillard is a phenomenal player. For his career, he's averaged 23.7 ppg, 6.4 apg, and 4.2 rpg shooting 36.8% from 3 with a 57.5% true shooting percentage. Dame is a four time All-Star (though it'd be more if he were in the Eastern Conference and a four time All-NBA player (one 1st team, two 2nd team, and one 3rd team). On top of his accolades, he’s one of the clutchest players in the NBA with multiple game winners: Dame’s series-clinching, buzzer-beaters against the Rockets and Thunder come to mind. But he hasn’t experienced much postseason success.

In Dame’s eight seasons, he missed the playoffs twice, made one Western Conference Final where they got swept, and only got out of the 1st round three times. In 2017 and 2018, Dame’s Blazers got swept in the 1st round both seasons, with the 2018 sweep by Anthony Davis's Pelicans leaving a mark on Portland. Though they bounced back and made the conference finals last season, they’re currently 10th in the West and struggling mightily. Dame is having a great year, but the Blazers not a good basketball team other than Dame and his co-star CJ McCollum (one of the most underrated players in the NBA).

On the flip side, Russell Westbrook is one of the most dynamic point guards in NBA history. Westbrook averages 23 ppg, 8.3 apg, and 7 rpg for his career. His record setting MVP season where he averaged 31.6 ppg, 10.4 apg, and 10.7 apg, eight All-Star and All-NBA selections, four Western Conference Finals appearance, and one NBA Finals appearance make up an impressive resume. Russ has also made tons of clutch shots and plays for the Thunder in the postseason and regular season. But while Russ played a big role in OKC’s postseason successes, he also played a role in their failures considering their lack of an NBA championship despite the amount of talent on their team. Those prime Thunder teams of Russ, Kevin Durant, James Harden (for a little bit), Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, and more should have found more success.

On those teams, Kevin Durant was the unquestioned, best player with Russell Westbrook as the 2nd star. However, Westbrook didn't care and took too many touches away from Durant hurting the team and causing KD to leave OKC. Westbrook's reputation as one of the most inefficient players in the NBA doesn’t help either. He’s one of the worst, volume three-point shooters in the history of the NBA with a career 30.7% on 3.7 attempts per game. Over the past three seasons, he shot an abysmal 27.3% from 3 on 4.8 attempts per game. This season, he’s shooting 23.2%, 2nd worst of his career, which is damaging the Rockets offense since teams double Harden daring Westbrook to shoot. For his career, his eFG% hasn’t hit 49%, which is very bad.

As shown, they have many differences. Yet they don't stop there.

Russ got back-stabbed by KD. Dame’s chemistry with Portland is unmatched.

Russ will go down in history for his triple-double MVP. Dame will go down as another really good point guard who never found consistent postseason success.

Dame has the efficient numbers and the better offensive reputation. Russ has the postseason success and a record setting MVP.

Russ will never be the best player on a championship team, and neither will Dame. But that’s not Dame's fault. Portland will never be good enough to win a championship unless they make a blockbuster trade or signing.

All in all, my gut says I’d rather have Russell Westbrook’s career. The triple-double, MVP season after KD left is one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. He proved to an entire city how much he loved them and led a bad Thunder team to the playoffs while doing something many thought would never happen again. That alone makes Westbrook’s career more memorable and the one I’d rather have.

Question 2: Who’s the bigger “what if” player: Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, or Derrick Rose?

Answer: Derrick Rose with 70%

My Take: While the result doesn’t surprise me, how lopsided the results were does. I'll have more on Rose's career in my next post discussing whether he's a Hall of Famer. But after becoming the youngest player to win MVP, Rose’s career was ruined by injuries leading many to label him the ultimate “what if” player.

While I don't disagree with y'all, let’s take a closer look at Tracy McGrady’s pre-injury peak from 2000-2007.

During this time, he averaged 26.7 ppg, 6.2 apg, and 6.6 rpg. His advanced stats are even more impressive with a 24.8 PER, 5.9 VORP, 33.1% usage rate, and a 6.4 box plus-minus. After looking at each player’s stats, McGrady’s prime is the best out of the four.

Now, I understand the question isn’t about which player had the better prime. Derrick Rose is still the right answer because of how much promise he showed at such a young age considering his MVP. But McGrady is not on many top 10 shooting guards of all-time list because of his drastic fall after his prime and could have gone down as a top 5 shooting guard if he stayed healthy.