NBA MVP Watch: Breaking Down Russell Westbrook’s Unbelievable Season

In a four-part series of analyzing each top NBA MVP candidate, we take a closer look at Russell Westbrook’s unbelievable season

Russell. Westbrook.

The man has been on an absolute tear this season. He is averaging a triple-double. Let me reiterate. HE IS AVERAGING A TRIPLE-DOUBLE. Unbelievable. The only other player that averaged a triple-double was the great Oscar Robertson during the 1961-1962 season. Crazy stuff, man.

This is not old news, though. Everyone has been talking about Westbrook’s historic season since the beginning of the season. But, there are other elements to him as a whole player other than his triple-doubles. Westbrook is carrying his team. There is no doubting that fact. Even though he has a few supporting cast members, none of them can ever be the star of the show.

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The intrigue of Westbrook is not how he has performed this season but rather how he is doing it.

For starters, Brodie has a career high in points (31.4) and rebounds (10.5) this season. Those numbers are bigger than last year’s numbers where he averaged 23.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. While the points are impressive, the rebounds are the key factor here.

Most guards are not good rebounders (i.e. John Wall, Steph Curry, etc.), but Brodie’s rebounding numbers are the highest among guards this season. If we look at his per 48-minutes numbers, they increase to 14.5 rebounds per game.

Patrick Beverley of the Houston Rockets and Rajon Rondo of the Chicago Bulls are the next point guards on the list and their rebounds per 48 minutes are nine. Westbrook is in another class when compared to his fellow point guards. Let’s look a little bit deeper though because Westbrook is not as good of a rebounder as he has been esteemed to be.

Westbrook’s rebounding numbers are inflated. Now I’m not trying to diminish what Westbrook has accomplished this season whatsoever, but he collects so many uncontested boards that it is ridiculous. He gets 7.7 uncontested boards per game. Only 1.1 of his rebounds are actually contested.

This may be due to a coaching tactic to getting Westbrook the ball as quickly as possible in order to let him fly down the floor and get an easy transition bucket. When Westbrook grabs an offensive rebound, the Thunder have an effective field goal percentage of 55.3, which is five percentage points highers than when anyone else grabs the defensive board.

Seventeen percent of the Thunder’s offense is based on transition and Westbrook pushing the ball makes their attack way more lethal. As you can see, Westbrook’s increased rebounding numbers do not correlate to him becoming a better rebounder overnight.

Since Kevin Durant left in the offseason, the brunt of the workload has turned over to Russ. He has obviously embraced the change and is producing high numbers. With no surprises from anyone, his usage rate his increased to 41.9, up from last year’s 31.6 usage rate. His assist percentage has also increased because of Durant’s departure. He is up to a 56.5 assist percentage mainly because the Thunder no longer has another ballhandler on the floor.

Let’s touch on his usage rate really quick. Russ has a 41.6 percent usage rate, which is insanely high. He is on pace to have the highest usage rate in NBA history. Right now, Kobe Bryant has the highest rate at 38.74 percent. Russ will beat that by an insane amount. The Thunder can’t function on offense without Brodie which is shown through his massive usage rate.

Westbrook generates 23.2 points per game off of assists. Combine that with his points per game (31.2) and you get 54.4 total points generated from or through Westbrook while he is on the floor. Compared with the other leading MVP candidate, James Harden, He is only two points shy of matching Harden’s total produced points, which is 56.2. Both players are equally important to their respective teams.

Must Read: Analyzing The Western Conference's Rookies, Team-By-Team

Without Durant on the team, Russell Westbrook has had to step up his game. He is averaging more points, rebounds, and assists than he ever has. He is even attempting about three more 3’s per game this season, up to around seven per game. Westbrook has shown us all why is deserving of the NBA’s MVP award.