NBA Rumors: Could the Oklahoma City Thunder trade Russell Westbrook?

Entering Sunday night’s game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season is on the line. Although they rallied to defeat the Spurs 4-2 after dropping the first two games in 2012, the first two games of this series have barely been competitive. [category-related]

If the Thunder do indeed lose, point guard Russell Westbrook will take the brunt of the blame, as he seemingly always does.

Bill Ingram of Basketball Insiders wonders if it is time for the Thunder to trade Westbrook.

"Of course, there’s also the fact that the Thunder played a stretch of games without Westbrook while he nursed a sore knee and replacement Reggie Jackson guided the team to a 19-6 record (including a win over the defending champion Miami HEAT) while playing like a true playmaker at the point guard position. When Westbrook returned and much of the ball movement stopped, the Thunder lost three straight and five of their first eight with Jackson back on the bench. There is a strong case to be made that the Thunder should trade Westbrook to a team with a lottery pick in this summer’s stacked draft pool and move forward with another young stud to groom alongside Durant.All of this talk goes away, of course, if the Thunder can get back into this series with Serge Ibaka back in the lineup today. The Thunder have been backed into corners quite a few times this postseason and yet found ways to advance. The Spurs are their biggest challenge to date, and it’s a stretch to see them coming back even with Ibaka in the mix, but it’s not over ’til it’s over."

Westbrook averaged 21.8 points, 6.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game this season and is putting up 25.7 points, 8.1 assists and 7.6 rebounds per game in the postseason.