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Russell Westbrook's history with the 3-point shot has been a story of love and hate. Historically a career 31 percent shooter, Westbrook is at times enamored with the deep ball and tricked into thinking his hot-shooting streaks convert into consistency — often proved wrong as some of his shot-happy antics have ended into resounding bricks.
“I need to stop taking as many as I'm taking, to tell you the truth,” Westbrook said back in 2014, according to ESPN's Royce Young. “I'm going to take those down as the season goes along.
“It's not always a great shot for myself or my team. So I've got to do a better job of taking those out. My advantage is attacking, regardless of who's in front of me. That's my advantage. And I've got to use my advantage to help my team and help myself.”
Back in those days, fans would clamor for Kevin Durant, a more honed long-distance shooter, to take those shots that seemed to always find Westbrook's fingertips, even in moments Durant was open enough to bury them.
Westbrook didn't stop taking them, eerily taking them at the very same clip through his next two seasons, while failing to reach even 30 percent from distance.
Even during his MVP season, he took a career-high 7.2 shots from deep, but only resulted in a career-best, yet still disappointing 34.3 percent.
The numbers had proved too true for him to deny, as the Thunder were a glowing 26-7 when he attempts three or less threes, 32-12 when he takes four and a much worse 10-17 if he takes five or more.
That led him to take less, starting on December of last year, which proved to make a difference for this team.
“Just trying to figure out the game,” Westbrook said. “You see how can you help your team, help yourself improve, and that's what I try to figure out throughout the season.”
This has resulted into more open shots from the better marksmen in Paul George and Alex Abrines, while opening up opportunities for Westbrook to drive and do his damage in the paint.
“As long as he's taking good ones, and they're ones that are on balance and uncontested, I feel confident with him shooting 3s,” head coach Billy Donovan said. “He understands that a lot of these teams are trying to load up and protect the deep paint, and they want him taking those shots. Because you're not going to take everything away, so you're going to have to live with something.”
