Russell Westbrook out until after All-Star break, undergoes knee surgery

The team announced on Dec. 27 that Westbrook had surgery on his right knee and the Thunder star was expected back sometime after the All-Star break without a specific return date. Spears reports that Westbrook will be re-evaluated on Tuesday, leaving him enough time to return for the Thunder’s game against the Heat on Thursday.

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The latest setback, expected to force Westbrook to miss a huge portion of the season, is linked to the initial injury when “a player” crashed into his knee, in Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti’s words. The Thunder took the long view by repairing his meniscus and ruled him out for the remainder of last year’s postseason. There were no reported setbacks through the summer and he was on track to be available for the team at the start of the 2013-2014 season.

Until Westbrook underwent his third right knee surgery in under nine months.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti announced the team discovered an “area of concern” they were unaware of in previous procedures, though did not specify what exactly was their latest finding.

This is the third knee surgery in under nine months for the Thunder’s star point guard. Westbrook is averaging 21.3 points and seven assists per game. Reggie Jackson will likely move into the Thunder’s starting lineup.

Right off the bat, Westbrook made it a point to show that he was healthy, splitting a pick-and-roll and exploding to the rim on the drive. Westbrook didn’t finish the bucket, but he drew the foul and split the free throws. Later in the game, he did this:

Westbrook was key in the Thunder’s 36-point fourth quarter, although it wasn’t all because of his scoring. Westbrook, who often gets criticized for not passing enough, tallied three assists in the final frame to help Oklahoma City build up a lead. He also knocked down four free throws to salt the game away.

Oklahoma City has split their first two games without Westbrook. Reggie Jackson has started in his place, averaging 11 points and 3.5 assists per game, but teams have continued to focus their defense around Kevin Durant. Durant has averaged 19.5 field goal attempts, shouldering the load on offense without Westbrook.

Westbrook averaged 23.2 points and 7.4 assists per game through the 2012-2013 regular season.

How could Ibaka benefit? There’s a huge scoring hole to fill, and I’m not sure Durant can soak it all up. KD already uses about 20 shooting possessions per 36 minutes. (Shooting possessions incorporate free throws, but not turnovers or assists leading to baskets by other players.) In the playoffs, for which Westbrook was unavailable for nine of the 11 games, Durant used 22 per game. That might be his upper limit over an extended stretch, especially when you consider how many of KD’s shots come from Westbrook set-ups. Jackson used just under 13 shooting possessions per 36 in the playoffs and the same number in the regular season.

Similarly, Ibaka is a low-usage player. Even as his star improves, he’s pretty allergic to taking shots that haven’t been explicitly set up for him. This is an unabashed good thing most of the time, because he plays with the game’s best scorer in Durant and its top creator in Westbrook. No one benefits more from Westbrook’s aggression than Ibaka. And the fact that Ibaka has become a really good mid-range shooter helps Westbrook’s assist numbers, of course. Last season, Ibaka hit 48 percent of his shots from 10-23 feet, which is basically Nowitzkian. Of Ibaka’s 194 makes in that range, 87 percent of them were assisted.

So, now what? Here are five follow-up questions we have:

Westbrook was experiencing swelling in his right knee after undergoing successful surgery to repair, not remove, his torn lateral meniscus. The decision was made to perform arthroscopic surgery on the knee to find the cause of the swelling, and two things were discovered:

Westbrook has previously never missed a regular season game, but will now miss a month at minimum.

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I don’t think so, and in fact I think the Thunder can get pretty deep still. It’s just going to take some real adjustment time.

So, Westbrook has been creating a huge portion of OKC’s shots through his own aggression and passing for five seasons now. He’d never missed a game before last week. Every time KD has stepped on the court since October, 2008, Westbrook has been right there with the ball largely in his hands. All those scoring titles? Russ was there, feeding. The epic shooting numbers? Russ was there, feeding. All those wins? Russ was there. That run to the NBA Finals last year? Russ was there.

No official timetable has been set for his recovery, and general manager Sam Presti refused to speculate on the situation until the surgery occurred. Oklahoma City’s star point guard is expected to undergo surgery some time in the next two days.

However, he returned to the floor and logged a total of 37 minutes in the game, so the immediate impact of the play was not known. Westbrook is still “irate” at Beverley, according to Wojnarowski’s piece. The angry responses fans are sending to Beverley on his Twitter account are not for the faint of heart.