You ultimately have to allow Russell Westbrook the occasional condescending chuckle. It’s a byproduct of unforced confidence, the kind that doesn’t require having to talk about how good you are, because you wouldn’t talk about the sky being blue or ovens being hot or other obvious facts. When you try to imply that Steph Curry can defend him there isn’t any subtext to his chuckle. He’s not trying to say anything with that chuckle. He’s chuckling because he doesn't know what he would actually say to such an implication.

While so many players try to communicate so much with their style on the court and their self-representation off of it, Westbrook’s fine with the fact that his game can be summed up with a an exclamation point and his personality with a smirking emoji. It’s fitting that his only break of silence since Kevin Durant’s departure from Oklahoma City was a short Vine of him laughing condescendingly at the mere mention of his former teammate’s name.  

Whatever factors led to Durant’s decision to take a new job in a nicer city with more accomplished co-workers are all fair enough. Life’s short. Do what you want. The unfortunate consequence of his career change is that it involved him seemingly spurning the one man in the NBA that you don’t want on your bad side.

Westbrook’s game seems rage-fueled, whether or not it actually is. His emotional state is Search-And-Destroy. His recklessness or inability to perfectly juggle his repertoire of skills might stop him, but you surely won’t; you’re either not fast enough or not strong enough. So it’s hard to imagine a world where Durant chooses Curry over Westbrook, creates a front-running super team, and takes Westbrook out of title contention, and doesn’t land a bulls eye on his back and awaken a monster the rest of the league has to deal with. 

But while everyone is preparing to watch Westbrook go Scorched Earth on the rest of the NBA, they might be disappointed when what they get is a more effective, slightly more contained version of Russ. Westbrook has played every moment of his NBA career under scrutiny for taking shots away from Durant. His decision-making has always been scapegoated as the duo’s Achilles Heel.

If Durant has been liberated to grow his game without Westbrook, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to assume Westbrook will become even more unhinged without Durant—even if we all might want to see what that looks like, for spectacle’s sake.

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Durant has been either the second or third best player in the NBA for the last five years and the tired, if remotely plausible, argument has been that Westbrook’s shot selection might be what has kept Durant and the Thunder organization from making the jump from ‘great’ to ‘the best.’

Because Durant is considered slightly the better player than Westbrook, the duo has always been seen through the lenses of how Westbrook complemented (or didn’t) Durant. No one much takes the time to consider that Durant might have taken something away from Westbrook. 

It’s nearly impossible to suggest that anything Durant did on the court made Westbrook a lesser player. But there is something that Westbrook can do better than anyone in the NBA, and it doesn’t involve giving the ball to Durant and letting him shoot. It doesn’t involve a player like Durant at all. It involves a physical center who can maneuver and finish under the basket. A player a lot like what Steven Adams seems to have developed into.

A point guard/center pick-and-roll with someone as explosive as Westbrook (note: “someone as explosive as Westbrook” means Westbrook, full stop) is virtually impossible to contain by anything less than a dominant defense. An enormous screen setter and above-the-rim threat is the weapon he needs. Coincidentally, Adams might be the best Westbrook complement in the NBA. Enes Kanter fits very nicely into that role as well. Rookie Domantas Sabonis might too.

Durant didn’t stop Westbrook and Adams from running pick-and-rolls. They did it extremely effectively in the postseason. He merely prevented them from maximizing its usage. Durant had to get his, too. That’s not a bad strategy, but we’re focusing on getting the most of Westbrook’s game.

Westbrook’s reputation as reckless was certainly earned, but this too might have had something to do with playing with Durant. Whether implemented by Scott Brooks or Billy Donovan, the Thunder seemed to run an offense pretty conducive to Hero Ball.  A two-man, my-turn-your-turn strategy is almost impossible not to implement when you have offensively gifted athletic freaks like those two. Even if it seems totally structure-less, it’s the type of barrage that grinds down and overwhelms opponents, and very well could have won the Thunder a championship during the Russ/KD era had a few breaks gone differently.

But Westbrook’s skillset is not totally void of system building. He might seem like the Tasmanian Devil, but he has definable talents that an entire offense can function around. Donovan is surely spending the offseason reminding himself everything that Westbrook is capable of and what that could lead to.

A lot was made of the 2015 stretch when Durant was injured and Westbrook put up super hero stats that were accompanied by an unimpressive win/loss record. But that team wasn’t just missing Durant. It was missing Ibaka for stretches. It was totally dependent of both those players being healthy. Westbrook wasn’t playing with a developed Adams, or Victor Oladipo. 

Anthony Morrow and Ersan Ilyasova will need to provide reliable outside shooting. If they do, the pick-and-roll will be such a force that Westbrook may well lead the league in assists next season. He is also capable of playing much smarter defense, if he’s willing to make that the next focus of his career.

We all want to see the Westbrook Revenge Tour, but for Russ, the best revenge wouldn’t be for him to tell Durant “I’m more dangerous without you.” It would be for him to say, “I’m more effective without you.”