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It’s funny how the story around an NBA team can change when they advance deep into the playoffs and the national press corps descends. As thousands of journalists attempt to find some unique angle in the middle of a pack of their peers so tight that you can barely elbow your way into the huddle to get a question in, stories arise that would never come up otherwise. In the case of the Western Conference Finalist Oklahoma City Thunder, one of the strangest stories to pop up out of nowhere surrounded point guard Russell Westbrook.

The predominant story about Westbrook this season has revolved around his meteoric rise to the status of All-Star and perhaps even MVP candidate. He jumped from 16.1 points and 8.0 assists per game as a sophomore in 2009-10 to 21.9 points and 8.2 assists in 2010-11. His play, more than any other factor, helped push the Thunder from an eighth seed team that lost in the first round to a fifth seed team that made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals. Teammate Kevin Durant was a serious MVP candidate in 2009-10, but this season Durant’s eligibility was somewhat diminished because he had such a stellar teammate helping him win games night in and night out.

Coming into the playoffs, Westbrook was one of the great stories surrounding the Thunder.

Westbrook continued to be a focal point as the Thunder advanced through the first two rounds of postseason play. His efficiency took a hit, but he shouldered more of the offensive load as teams keyed on Durant, and he was a big part of why the Thunder were able to defeat first the Denver Nuggets and then the Memphis Grizzlies. He attacked the rim relentlessly, made huge plays in crunch time, and never backed down from any challenge. Along the way there were questions about his shot selection and periodic indecisiveness in the paint, but at the end of the day Westbrook was the same driving force in the postseason that he was during the regular season.

Once the Western Conference Finals started the storyline around Westbrook changed a little bit. More and more people were calling him out for being too much of a scorer and not much of a floor leader. The one game the Thunder won in the series came when head coach Scott Brooks opted to go with backup point guard Eric Maynor for the bulk of the fourth quarter, and many took that as vindication of the Blame Westbrook hypothesis. The truth, however, is that Westbrook didn’t do anything differently in postseason play than he did during the regular season, and his teammates couldn’t understand the criticism he was suddenly receiving.

"It’s kind of crazy how this series happened and these last two series, with all the stuff he’s had to go through," Nick Collison tells HOOPSWORLD. "It’s kind of hit everybody by surprise because for us it didn’t seem like anything was different. We love Russell and we love what he brings. We realize that without him this year we wouldn’t be a playoff team, we wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as we are. I think this has been a good learning experience, but I think he handled it great. I felt back for him because it seemed like he couldn’t win. He was trying to do what he does out there and sometimes people want him to be something different from what he is. He’s a guy that’s a scoring player and he’s aggressive and that’s what he does. That’s what we want him to do. Four or five years ago he was barely getting recruited to play Division I basketball and now he’s a point guard for a Western Conference Finals team, he’s an All-Star, and he’s been great for us. I think it was difficult for him to go through that, but it will make him tougher and it will also help all of us to realize that we can’t listen to what’s going on outside our locker room. We know what’s real and we know what’s going on and I think it’s good for us to see that the other stuff doesn’t matter."

To his credit, Westbrook was able to set aside the criticism from outside and continue to play his game. In last night’s Game 5 he poured in 31 points, grabbed eight rebounds (many over taller Mavericks players) and dished out five assists. He committed just three turnovers and was the primary reason why the Thunder had a chance to win right up to the end. The Mavericks were doing a brilliant job of denying Durant the ball, meaning Westbrook had to take the initiative, and he didn’t hesitate.

"He was great . . .he was great all year," says Durant. "He’s been a guy that we’ve relied on to be a good point guard, but he scores the basketball very well. He can get to the rim, shoot the pull-up, he can do a lot of things. It’s kind of frustrating to see how much criticism he’s been taking because he led us all season by playing the way he’s playing now. That’s what made him an All-Star and second team all-NBA. It kind of baffles me that people start throwing criticism out when that’s how he’s been playing the whole season and he got us here as our point guard. He led us here. But I can’t control that, he can’t control that, but one thing about Russell is that he kept playing his game all season no matter what people said and he did a great job. I was proud of how he kept his composure, never let things get to him, and was one of our leaders on this team. He was great all season, he deserves all the accolades he has received, and he had a great year."

Does all of this mean that Westbrook has no room to improve? Absolutely not. He has to cut down on his turnovers (4.6 per game in the playoffs), he has to get better at making decisions in the paint, and he can’t shoot 36% from the field, as he did in the WCF. In other words, he’s a young player who has to learn from the mistakes of his first serious playoff run and come back stronger and smarter next season. We could say the same thing about 2011 MVP Derrick Rose, who has struggled to adjust to the defensive schemes the Miami HEAT are employing against him. Also like Rose, Westbrook has plenty to be proud of as he looks back on 2010-11.

"Just the stuff we overcame," says Westbrook. "I think we did a good job of staying together through the trade, and a lot of different things that happened throughout the year we did a good job of staying together. … Just how tough we are. We stuck together, and most of the time it didn’t go our way but we stuck together and that shows something to us as a team."

The Oklahoma City Thunder may be out for now, but they have many more playoff runs ahead of them. They are one of the top young teams in the NBA, and their young core is only going to get better as they continue to play together. Russell Westbrook has a lot of room to grow as a player, and that’s a positive sign. When you consider how well he played this year, just his third in the NBA, it’s scary to think how good he might become with a few more deep playoff runs under his belt.

Up Close: Jon Leuer

HOOPSWORLD continues our in-depth look at the 2011 NBA draft class with this exclusive interview with John Leuer. The Wisconsin power forward tells HOOPSWORLD he really patterns his game after Dirk Nowitzki, while also realizing he has a long way to go to warrant that comparison, talks about working on shooting the NBA three, the importance of staying hungry, and more in this exclusive interview:

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Changing Of The Guard In Utah?

When the Utah Jazz traded All-Star point guard Deron Williams just before the February trade deadline it was very much a reaction to Williams inspiring head coach Jerry Sloan to step down mid-season. The franchise had to respond, and the response was to send Williams to the New Jersey Nets in a deal that landed point guard Devin Harris in Utah. Harris does have All-Star credentials of his own, but he’s a significant step down from Williams and represents an entirely different kind of floor leader.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Harris is really at his best in isolation situations, as he is quicker than most of the players he faces at the point and his first step is as quick as anyone’s. Unfortunately, the Jazz aren’t a team that often clears out a side and just lets someone go one-on-one, and Harris isn’t particularly efficient at running Utah’s preferred style of play. He’s OK in the pick-and-roll, but ranks in the 58th percentile among NBA ball handlers in the pick-and-roll, and for all of his quickness he isn’t very good in transition, where the Jazz also like to live. This season Harris ranked in the 27th percentile in transition, which is dismally low, and the transition game was Utah’s second-best way of scoring this season, second only to spot-up situations.

Compare Harris’ numbers to Williams, who was the pick-and-roll ball-handler 29.5% of the time this season, and was really at his best in hand-off plays. In his last full season with Utah, Williams was the pick-and-roll ball handler in 19.4% of his offensive plays and was ranked in the 76th percentile in converting those opportunities. He scored in transition 17.5% of the time, putting him in the 54th percentile. In short, Williams was the type of point guard who was tailor made for Utah’s offense, and Harris’ inability to play the style had a lot to do with the team’s dismal play after the trade. It’s also why we’re hearing Harris’ name come up in trade rumors.

Meanwhile, the Jazz believe they can find their long-term solution at the point in this year’s draft, with BYU point guard Jimmer Fredette.

Fredette would set the Jazz back a bit in terms of experience, but when you think about the kind of point guard who would flourish in the pick-and-roll culture of the Jazz, you can see how Fredette would hold a lot of appeal. At BYU he ran a lot of pick-and-rolls, in fact pick-and-roll plays constituted 21% of Fredette’s offense while running the team and he was very good at running it. His top three offensive players were isolation (29.5%), transition (22.6%) and pick-and-roll, and those are also the plays that have defined Utah Jazz basketball for several generations.

Don’t be surprised if the Jazz move Harris, possibly to a team like Portland that’s looking for a new floor leader and has appealing pieces to send out in trade. Fredette could very well turn out to be Utah’s next great point guard.

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