Russell Westbrook’s legacy is a complicated one when considering the entirety of his career. Russ is a former MVP, someone that was a perennial All-Star in his prime. He also competed for a championship in the NBA Finals in 2012 alongside Kevin Durant, but they fell short against LeBron James and the Heatles. They were one game away from making it to the Finals in 2016 and Kevin Durant famously left after that season.
Since then, Russ’ playoff career has been less than stellar. He won his MVP in 2017 and enjoyed a historic individual season, but the Thunder got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. This trend would carry on for the remaining part of his stint with the team, with them getting knocked out in the first round each time.
After he teamed up with James Harden in Houston, they did make it to the 2nd round but lost against the Lakers, before he was traded to Washington where the first round was all the team could muster. That brings the story to 2022, where a disappointing 2021-22 season saw Russ and the Lakers miss the playoffs entirely.
This has highlighted an interesting stat, showing how much more success Westbrook enjoyed in the playoffs as Durant’s teammate than he did after.
Russ has managed just 8 playoff wins since KD left the Thunder, while the duo together led the team to 47 wins in the most important leg of the NBA season. This is not even due to a lack of stars around him. Russ has played with Paul George, James Harden, Bradley Beal, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis since then.
While his legacy as one of the best to ever do it cannot be denied, the latter part of his career has been dominated by talk of his inability to deliver in the playoffs. His inefficiency and high turnover rate are both blamed and Westbrook will need to step it up next season, whichever team he is on, to make a significant dent in this record.
