The Washington Wizards should consider Russell Westbrook's stated desire to play his game a courtesy—more than they had a right to expect from a force of nature that, when unconstrained, simply does what it always has.

Rivers rage. Waves batter shorelines. Lightning shreds the sky.

Westbrook attacks the game his way: tirelessly and without compromise. The forewarning was unnecessary. Everyone knows what he's going to do.

Westbrook has been in the league now for a dozen years, so Washington can't plead ignorance. To trade for him now, after Westbrook's style proved irreconcilable with James Harden's similar need for total control of the game, is to welcome the coming storm.

Washington's most important incumbent, the NBA's second-leading scorer in 2019-20, Bradley Beal, must also have approved of Westbrook's acquisition. But it's one thing to observe how Westbrook operates from afar and conclude you're into it. It's another to live with the phenomenon up close.

Just ask the Houston Rockets, who acquired Westbrook at least partly because James Harden wanted him and then had a change of heart a year later after both stars recognized the on-court relationship was untenable. Even in an age of player empowerment, where teams coalesce and dissolve more quickly than ever, that courtship-to-breakup arc progressed at light speed.

The Wizards can take comfort in the fact that Westbrook will feel familiar—a lot like Wall in some key respects.

Both point guards have thrived without reliable jumpers. Both depend on speed and athleticism to be effective. Both spend heaps of time with the ball in their hands.

It will still require massive teamwide adjustment to incorporate Westbrook. Although he and Wall are similar from a distance, a closer inspection shows the challenges Wall presented are far more extreme in Westbrook.

The last time we saw Wall on the court for at least half a season was 2017-18, when he shot a career-best 37.1 percent from deep. Westbrook has been under 30.0 percent on threes in five of the last six years and has never sniffed an accuracy rate like Wall produced in that abbreviated campaign.

Wall's poor shooting was always an issue. Westbrook's total lack of a jumper is straight-up historic, per ESPN's Kirk Goldsberry: "Of the 50 players who have launched at least 2,500 jumpers the past five seasons, Westbrook ranks last in shooting efficiency, logging a putrid effective field-goal percentage (eFG) of just 42.5 percent. That's on 4,814 attempts."

Fortunately for the Wizards, not all of the differences between Wall and Westbrook are unfavorable to the latter.

It's tempting to ascribe Westbrook's style of play—frustrating to so many over the years—to intractability. To stubborn confidence. Even to selfishness. But maybe that's not charitable enough. Maybe we don't give due consideration to that idea that Westbrook knows he can't play another way because he's not good at the stuff you'd want from a player who "fits in."

His shooting numbers clearly indicate he has no value as a floor-spacer. He's not a plus defender. He's never been the guy to make the pass before the pass that produces a bucket. It's possible Westbrook deserves credit for self-awareness, for knowing how he can best contribute to winning.

It's not like Westbrook would be more helpful if he shot 10 catch-and-shoot treys per game. Maybe he understands this better than we do.

Or maybe it's not even a choice. Wind blows. Rain falls. Westbrook matter-of-factly rockets himself at the rim.

Forces like him just do what they do.

Last year with Houston was instructive. Westbrook struggled early but was best when he abandoned his jumper and attacked the basket with renewed commitment. Even that surge was revealing of just how difficult it can be for another star (Beal's ears should perk up here) to coexist with a fully actualized version of Russ.

The Athletic's Fred Katz and Kelly Iko noted:

"During Westbrook's mid-season hot streak, things were fine. He swapped out the contested mid-range pull-up jumpers for relentless rim attacks possession after possession. It was working. Following January, he looked like a surefire All-NBA player, flirted with a 32-8-7 line over a two-month span, had the ball more and more and essentially became the offensive focus during that time, with Harden being a 1B to his 1A."

Harden hadn't been 1B to anyone for almost a decade, and we can draw a direct line between Westbrook's "playing his game" for those two months and his subsequent departure from Houston.

It should be much easier for Beal to fit with Westbrook than it was for Harden. Beal developed as an off-ball weapon alongside Wall, and though he broke through as an unassailable top offensive option last season, he has more experience playing second fiddle than Harden.

For this to work in Washington, Beal will have to be the one to make accommodations.

Westbrook—an MVP in 2017, an All-Star in nine of the last 10 seasons and a third-team All-NBA selection despite a poor fit in Houston last year—has every reason to believe playing his game works. At least for him. Beal, as great as he is, can't expect to succeed in changing Westbrook where Harden and the Rockets failed.

Don't expect head coach Scott Brooks to restrain Russ either. The pervasive criticisms of Brooks' Oklahoma City Thunder teams were that his offense wasn't inventive or strategically opportunistic enough. That he didn't organize his talent as well as he should have. That he rolled the ball onto the floor and let Westbrook and Kevin Durant sort things out themselves.

Maybe Beal and Westbrook can come to an understanding, but history suggests the more likely outcome will involve Russ being Russ and Beal adjusting as best he can. Ditto for the rest of the lesser Wizards, obviously.

Complications aside, the Wizards are in improved shape with Westbrook. Compared to Wall, he's a superior trade asset, has been historically healthier and is simply a better overall player—even if we assume, unwisely, Wall can return to the form he showed in his last full season, way back in 2016-17.

But the notion that Westbrook will fundamentally change how he plays a dozen years into a career that will land him in the Hall of Fame isn't grounded in reality.

Can Westbrook finally fit in? You might as well ask whether rivers can flow uphill, or if the ocean's tides could just cool it with those incessant swells for a while.

Forces of nature do what they do. Cyclones don't stop spinning on command. And so Westbrook will do what comes naturally, just as he always has.

The Wizards are in the whirlwind now—by choice. We'll see how good they are at riding a storm.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Basketball Insiders.