In 2008 Russell Westbrook was drafted high in the NBA lottery at least partially because his skill set was somewhat comparable to Rajon Rondo, who had just played a key part in helping the Celtics win the 2008 championship.  Two years later, who would you prefer on your fantasy team?  How about on your real team?

This is what their stats look like on the year.

Before I looked at the numbers, I really thought this was going to be a better matchup.  I don't own Westbrook on any of my teams, but it seems that every time I see a Thunder highlight he is prominently featured and I know that he has had a recent string of near triple- or quadruple-double type games.  My impression was that Westbrook was the better scorer, Rondo the better distributor, and that they were likely similar as rebounders and defenders.

Though Westbrook does score more points, he does it at a much worse efficiency as only a 40.5|PERCENT| shooter from the field.  The other big surprise to me was that he only averages 1.2 steals per game.  In order to rate well in the Yahoo! system a player needs to do well in at least one of the three rarer categories: steals, blocks and/or treys.  Westbrook doesn't shoot the three hardly at all, and his steal numbers aren't enough to make an impact.  Combine that with the poor shooting, and even with his solid averages of 16 points, 7.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds he ranks only 118th by average on the Yahoo player rater.

Meanwhile, Rondo is quietly having an amazing season.  Consider he is ranked #30 on the Yahoo! rater despite shooting only 59|PERCENT| from the free throw line, when usually a stat-killing percentage is enough in itself to sink even the elite (consider that Dwight Howard and his 60|PERCENT| free throw percentage ranks #81 on Yahoo! despite him leading the league in both blocks and boards).  But Rondo doesn't shoot a lot of free throws, so the poor percentage doesn't hurt as badly as it could.  Then, you factor in the other stuff...only Chris Paul averages more assists and fewer turnovers than him, no other point guard that scores as much as he shoots a higher percentage from the field, he is among the leading rebounders among point guards, and he is the overall NBA leader in steals.  To put it simply, Rondo has a killer free throw percentage, doesn't block shots or shoot the three at all...and he still ranks out as one of the best point guards in the game.  That is a testament to his other contributions.

So it is clear that, for this season anyway, you would rather have Rondo than Westbrook on your fantasy team.  But what about in real life?  Westbrook is still just a second-year player that is learning his position, while at this point Rondo has to be considered a young vet with four years of experience including a championship run.  Both really need to work on their long-range shot, but Rondo is much smarter about his shot selection.  Two years later the comparison actually still seems appropriate...Westbrook does seem to have similar talent and a similar skill set to Rondo, but Rondo is further along the continuum so, until further evidence surfaces that Westbrook has caught up you have to give Rondo the edge in real life as well.