OKC Thunder/NBA Power Lunch Chat with John Rohde

Todd, just an editor's note -- the Perkins post is syndicated from Berry Tramel's blog. The comments are open over there. We just try to keep the conversation in one place. Henry, we have Power Lunch Chats every day at 11 a.m. Hope you're able to join one soon. --LH

@Todd-How can the Thunder do ball movement when your adoring Westbrook ball hogs the ball and shoots it first with no passing even later? If you can answer that, mabe there’s a chance in winning. LIKE I TOLD YOU TODD, THE LIST IS BELOW FOR YOU TO READ. YOU DON'T EVEN THE RIGHT SUGGESTIONS TO LEAD THIS TEAM!!! In playing the Heat, first no double teaming LeBron instead let the big Thunder fellows jump in front of LeBron, second, take care of guarding the perimeter Heat players, third, Play honest defense on Dwayne Wade by Westbrook, no letting Sefolosha take care of him. Durant should also do the same to any guard assigned to him by Brooks and lastly, Let the bigs (center and power forward) punish the Heat by scoring in the inside and protect the rim!

@Todd-right tell it to Wesybrook that is now shooting the lights of 3-11 shooting in the first half of the game with the Spurs. This kind of point guard I don't like. The best player should have more shots than himand right now at half time, Durant only shot 5-6 from the field with the Thunder down at 50-57. If only Westbrook points to the players his plays, if instructed by Brooks, maybe I can be a believer, but unlike you, Todd, you will never admit that he makes lots of mistake. You are enamored with Westbrook that everything he does is good basketball. That's just foolish on your part. Foolish people just ignore the obvious faults because it doesn't bother them!

Steve, look, I'm sorry that you can't see straight when someone says "Russell Westbrook," but that's a problem you have to deal with. You do realize though, that this "ball hog" as you call him is in the top five players in the league for assists per game, right? And just outside the top five in points per game at the same time? There are three players in the entire league in the top ten for both of those categories. One is LeBron James. Another is Tony Parker. Can you name the third one? Here's a hint - His first name begins with "Russell" and his last name begins with "Westbrook." That's it. No one else is on that list. He's also the #1 rebounding point guard in the league. You know how you get those kind of numbers, Steve? By playing your aspirin bottle off to help your team win. And in case you missed it, OKC tends to win a hell of a lot more than they lose, and Westbrook has been the starting point guard all through that process, save the early says of the first season. Most people realize how important he's been to the team's success, if they stop and think about it a little. Others never figure it out or simply refuse to see the obvious. Westbrook's not perfect, but he's also not a finished product. And the progress he's made in five years is remarkable. That's something else most people will realize if they step back and look at things a bit. But other folks just don't care. It's like I said yesterday, some people will see only what they want to see rather than what's there. Westbrook could put up 30-20-10 for a solid month, and someone would still come on here and call him a ball hog and say that he's shooting too much. Not because it's true, but because they read it elsewhere and just go around repeating it without checking.