OKC’s Steven Adams and former NBA coach Reggie Theus during the opening of the NBA 3x in the Philippines.
Oklahoma City center Steven Adams said there’s no one way to slow down Russell Westbrook’s frantic style of play and what they can do is to make things easier for their prized MVP.
“The only way to lessen Russell’s workload is that everyone plays together, but it’s really not draining on Russ, he’s just a freak right,” said Adams during the opening ceremony of the NBA 3X Philippines at Mall of Asia Music Hall on Saturday.
Westbrook is the second player to average a triple-double for a season after Oscar Robertson as he put up 31.6 points, 10.7 points, and 10.4 assists en route to his first MVP award.
Those numbers, however, came through Oklahoma relying too much on Westbrook as the 6-foot-3 point guard led the league in usage rate.
As per basketball-reference.com, Westbrook had a usage rate of 41.7 percent, which was the highest in the league.
The next most used player in the OKC roster is Adams whose usage rate is at 16.2%.
And even though OKC just got four-time All Star Paul George, Adams doesn’t see Westbrook would try to slow his game down.
The best the Thunder can do, Adams said, is to make George feel welcome in a franchise that already lost its former cornerstone in Kevin Durant.
“All we got to do is make him feel welcome, make sure he’s comfortable and the rest comes down to working hard and getting better,” said Adams. “The team has to do the right things to make everyone’s job easier.”