Kelly Dwyer on Yahoo! sports ranked Russell as the seventh best point guard in the league and had this to say:

"I hesitated putting him this high for a good reason -- Russell is still figuring this game out, and he shot the Thunder out of some games last season. But his defense keeps him in the mix, consistently. Westbrook can defend and contribute in other areas (rebounding, even screen setting) that a litany of other point man just cannot. He averaged 16 points, eight assists and five rebounds last season, and the guy doesn't even turn 22 until mid-November."