Is Russell Westbrook Is Better Than LeBron James?

"Russell Westbrook shoots against Cavs (cropped)" by Erik Drost from United States - Russell Westbrook. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons.

Both Russell Westbrook and LeBron James are athletic all-star players at their positions. Both of these players are given a lot of hype due to the teams that they play for and their fan base. However, if someone was to ask who was the better player, chances are that most people would say LeBron James as most people call him "the best player in the world". Lot's of people would say it's unfair to argue which one is the better player since they both play 2 different positions but both of these player have the same style of play. Not to mention that James is handed the Point Guard role most of the time. So which one is better, Let's dive into the stats to find out.

Lets' start out by looking at their scoring abilities. They are about the same, James averages 25.8 ppg while Westbrook averages 25.5. Can you really say that LeBron is the better scorer though? No. Westbrook is a second option on his team to start with, LeBron is the first option. We saw last year what Westbrook can do as the first option; it's scary. It is impressive that Westbrook can average those numbers with a guy who averages 26.5 PPG.

While these two are similar in their numbers for scoring, they both score in the same ways as well. By getting to the rim. However, Westbrook does spread out his scoring more. 53.6% of LeBron's points come from the paint while only 42.6% of Westbrook's comes from the paint. While you think both of these guys just take layups all game, you are actually wrong on that. While LeBron shoots layups more than any other shot, you may be surprised that Westbrook shoots more jump-shots than he does layups. Now you are probably saying that I'm crazy, but Westbrook has made 163 jumpshots and only 130 layups. Now, you could include dunks in this but if you included bank shots also, then Westbrook still has more jumpshots. The reason why is because Westbrook takes tons of pull-up jumpers, and he hits them at a pretty good percentage (comparing them to his other percentages). He shoots 50% on pull-up jumpers and 34.7% on 3-pointer pull-up jumpers. He has made 78 pull-up jumpers this season, so I'd say he should keep shooting pull-up jumpers.

Both of these guys have about the same shooting numbers as well, Westbrook shoots 45.8% from the field while LeBron shoots 50.1% from the field. Both of those players also shoot very poorly outside the paint and beyond the 3-point line. Westbrook is only shooting 30.4 from three point land while LeBron is shooting an even lower percentage of 28.8% (he has seemed to be shooting a lot better of late though). Russell Westbrook is clearly the better Free Throw shooter though, which has never really been LeBron's best thing. Westbrook shoots a pretty good 83.1% while LeBron shoots 71.7%.

Now, what do these guys do besides scoring. LeBron doesn't have the reputation of being one of the best players in the league just because of his scoring, because in that case, James Harden would be the best in the league right now. LeBron is well known for his rebounding and passing along with his overrated defense. Let's compare LeBron's numbers to Westbrook's.

Russell Westbrook is a 6-3 guard. LeBron James is a 6-8 forward. Westbrook somehow is averaging 7 rebounds while LeBron is still averaging a great 7.4 rebounds. Both of these numbers are great, but Westbrook is 6-3. That is shorter than Troy Daniels, Matthew Dellavedova, and Ricky Rubio, and he is averaging 7 rebounds. LeBron is still averaging great rebounding numbers, but Westbrook's are astounding. In fact, Russell Westbrook leads all guards in rebounding this season, and that includes guys like Nicolas Batum (who should be listed as a forward, but plays the guard position this season).

Not only that, but while Westbrook is averaging over 25 points, he is averaging 9.5 assists as well. LeBron averages 6. That is still a good number, but 9.5 is a great number, especially when you are averaging over 25 points.

Defensively, who is the better player? Russell Westbrook averages 2.5 steals to LeBron's 1.5. LeBron has Westbrook in blocks, but not by a lot as it is only a difference of 0.5 and neither of them average over a block. Both of these guys aren't great defensive players, mainly because most of their effort is contributed to offense, however, Westbrook seems to put in more effort on defense. However, defense is more than just getting steals and blocks. In PnR, LeBron is the better defensive player by far. Same with Isolation. The better on-ball defender is probably LeBron, while the better off-ball defender is most likely Westbrook.

As you can see, both player are very talented and are very similar in there style of play. To me, Russell Westbrook is the better player, but it is really close. They're really close in numbers which does make it hard to see which one is better, but considering that Westbrook is the number 2 option while LeBron is the number 1 option, Westbrook seems to average great numbers still.

So next time you are comparing LeBron to Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant as the best player in the league, add Westbrook in there. Most people say he is overrated (which is somewhat true) but he IS underrated compared to LeBron. Which one is the better player is a close call and you can make a case for either one.