Russell Westbrook, Scott Brooks Talk Impact of Kevin Durant Injury on PG's Role

The Oklahoma City Thunder are Russell Westbrook's team now. Kevin Durant's Jones fracture in his right foot is expected to keep him out no less than six weeks, leaving Westbrook with the temporary keys to his own kingdom.

So, what does this all mean for the polarizing point guard's role? Not all that much, according to Thunder head coach Scott Brooks and the man himself.     

"It's not about me. It's about our team. I can't win games by myself. I can't do anything by myself," Westbrook told ESPN.com's Royce Young on Monday. "I kind of want to take the attention off me and put it more on the team. Everybody keeps asking what I'm going to do and how I'm going to change. I think it's more about our team and what we can do."

Durant, the reigning NBA MVP, was diagnosed with the foot fracture Saturday. He is still considering a course of treatment—mostly related to whether or not he has surgery—but similar injuries have kept players out between six and eight weeks in the past, Thunder general manager Sam Presti said in a statement.

Without Durant, who has led the NBA in scoring four of the past five years, much of the scoring burden is expected to be placed on Westbrook. 

The situation runs parallel to the one Durant was placed in last season, when Westbrook missed most of the first half while recovering from multiple knee surgeries. Durant responded to his co-star's absence with an offensive tour de force, most memorably averaging 35.9 points per game in the month of January. Westbrook's absence in many ways allowed Durant to take that final leap and knock LeBron James off the MVP perch he's owned for most of the last half-decade.

But where some believe Westbrook's injury unleashed Durant, the verb takes an entirely different connotation with the enigmatic guard.

Westbrook, himself a three-time All-Star and one of the NBA's 10 best players, is also one of its most highly critiqued. His shot selection ranges from free-wheeling to utterly befuddling, his whirling dervish playmaking from captivating and awe-inspiring to cringe-worthy. As John Schuhmann of NBA.com pointed out on Twitter, Westbrook shot 35 times in the 41 minutes he played without Durant last season. 

A possibly months-long Durant absence left some wondering if Westbrook would succumb to his worst impulses. While we're still a little more than two weeks away from the Thunder's season-opening tilt with the Portland Trail Blazers to see their plan in action, Brooks and Westbrook have gone out of their way to downplay the latter's responsibility. 

"We're not asking Russell to be a 35-point scorer," Brooks said, per Young. "Obviously, he's going to be a scorer because he can, and he does that at a high level. There will be games he might have 20, there will be games he'll have 30, but there will also be some games where he has 15. He just has to continue to lead like he has been and that's good enough.

"Everybody has to step up. It's not one guy. You're not going to replace Kevin with one guy. It's the team getting better as a group is what I'm looking to replace him with."

Words aren't the only reason for optimism, either. Grantland's Zach Lowe made the astute point Monday that lineups featuring Westbrook without Durant outscored their opponents by 9.5 points per 100 possessions in 2012-13. That would have been nearly a point and a half better than the Spurs' rate from last season, per NBA.com.

The point being: Russell Westbrook can play. His and Durant's constant pairing was more about Brooks' desire to keep them together than an indictment on Westbrook.

The Thunder are going to be worse without Durant, but to pretend they'll be some unmitigated disaster ignores the remaining talent on the roster. In Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City still has two of the league's 20 best players and a supporting cast that held water without Westbrook last season.

Plus, Westbrook's role is going to change. Public bluster or not, Westbrook will be blowing away his career scoring average by the time Durant returns.

He's the only player in Oklahoma City's projected starting lineup—assuming Brooks replaces Durant with a wing over Reggie Jackson—who can create an open look for himself. Westbrook, Durant and Jackson were the only three regular rotation players who were assisted on less than 60 percent of their field goals, per NBA.com.

Broken possessions are going to be a way of life without Durant. In most of those cases, it'll be up to Westbrook or Jackson to use their off-the-dribble skills to make something happen. If Westbrook's role truly doesn't change—if, say, he's averaging numbers right along with his career averages—then the Thunder are in trouble.

Oklahoma City needs Westbrook and Brooks to say the things they are now. In reality, they'll need Westbrook to step up the way Durant did in his stead a year ago.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter