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Philadelphia 76ers guard Patrick Beverley is pulling out all the stops to defend the reputation of Los Angeles Clippers PG Russell Westbrook. Although the two have had some animosity in the past, it appears that Beverley is now firmly on the side of Westbrook, who joined the Clippers midway through last season.
During a recent appearance on Gilbert Arenas's Gils Arena Show podcast, Beverley resorted to the use of fabricated stats to defend Westbrook's name.
“He shot 41, 40 percent from three,” Beverley claimed. “People are calling him ‘Westbrick.' How?”
Unless Beverley has access to a statistic book that is unavailable to the rest of the human population, his ball-park estimate of Westbrook's three-point shooting percentage is nowhere close to accurate. It is true that Russell Westbrook did have the best three-point shooting of his career in 2022-23… at 35.6 percent.
Still, even without the use of fake stats, it still could be argued that the “Westbrick” nickname, which the Clippers guard himself despises, is a bit unfair. While he's never been a good perimeter shooter, throughout most of his career Westbrook has been able to offset this weakness with his elite athleticism and seemingly unending motor.
While his athleticism has begun to diminish somewhat in recent seasons, Westbrook still has the ability to explode to the rim on occasion, which was seen during a rather impressive performance in the Clippers' first-round loss to the Suns a season ago.
Patrick Beverley might not be the best resource for accurate statistics. Still, that doesn't mean his argument is completely invalid.
