Russell Westbrook More Than Ready To Take On Challenge Of Leading Oklahoma City Thunder

By Nathan Grubel @The_Only_Grubes on October 12, 2014

Devastating injuries are, by nature of the term, something to be feared for by every team, but it’s that much worse when the player going down is a franchise superstar. The interesting thing here for the Oklahoma City Thunder is that their loss of Kevin Durant to a fractured foot allows the team a rare opportunity to showcase and test the talent of another potential franchise superstar.

The team may be without arguably the best player in the game for quite some time, but Russell Westbrook is more than ready to accept the challenge that is in from of him.

For years, some have actually crowned Westbrook as the alpha dog of the Thunder, and now he is going to get a chance that he has probably secretly wanted for a while — to have the spotlight completely on himself. When Westbrook missed significant time last season, Durant had that same spotlight and flourished in it, putting up ridiculous numbers while carrying his team to the expected number of wins even without his star point guard. The question is, can Westbrook put up the same kind of numbers while doing it efficiently enough to get his team the wins?

Westbrook has always had the numbers throughout his career, scoring 20.1 PPG to go along with 6.9 APG and 4.9 RPG, but he will have to significantly increase those numbers if this team is expected to outperform the top teams in the Western Conference. With the double-teams now being placed on Westbrook, a much smaller player than Durant, it will be interesting to see if the claim really is true that Westbrook can get his own shot at any given time.

Defenses will certainly key in on him, and it will be intriguing to see how he responds. Will Westbrook look to shoot the ball out of pressure more, or will he continue to force himself to the rim in hopes of scoring or drawing a foul? Westbrook has passed the ball in his career, but he is a scoring point guard at heart; so, whether his teammates will be even more involved will also be another thing to keep an eye on.

Westbrook is not the same type of player as Durant. Durant is a long and gifted scorer who has no problem getting his shot, and can shoot the ball with range just as well as he can get to the rim and finish. Westbrook can do a lot of those things, the only problem is that he tends to force things way too much because his mentality has always been to make the spectacular play.

Now, Westbrook will have to learn that flashy plays may not always be the winning plays, and he is going to have to make  a real decision regarding what kind of player he is going to be over this stretch.

Nathan Grubel is a Memphis Grizzlies writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @The_Only_Grubes, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.