I truly believe that the offense and chemistry between Russ harden and the rest of the team will be a pretty easy transition. Part of it is all these guys but Clint and house are around their 30s and just want to win and also harden and Russ being extremely close will do wonders. You can genuinely see how excited Harden is and Russ seems very calm and at peace with his decision to force his way to houston. But I think this team being the favorite out west is going to come down to rebounding. We’ll be one of the best offenses in the league if not the best. The defense will hover around 8-15 so good enough but the rebounding has to improve otherwise it’s going to be more of the same from last postseason were every taken is close we get stops but can secure the board and it costs us a close game we gave the other team extra possessions.
Playing off ball is "more" to Harden only because he doesn't like it. I don't see how spotting up at the 3pt line is "more" than trying to dribble against your defender on every play. I do agree that they should stagger Harden and Paul as much as possible. And CP's injury proneness is the biggest weakness of his game. FIFY. If you still can build a team around him, why did OKC want to trade him after they lost PG? Nobody wants Westbrook as the centerpiece anymore. The hope is that in the few games when Harden plays like crap, those will happen to be the few games when Westbrook plays like a bona fide hero. He does have those games.
Perhaps I could have been more specific haha. I wasn't disagreeing, just emphasizing more the difference between the the first year we had cp3 and the 2nd one because a lot of what we're comparing as his weaknesses to WB's strengths happened only within this year. CP3 not only was a better fit than WB would have been, but accomplished a lot of what we're hoping WB will bring. Prime for prime, cp3 I think is not only the better fit but the better player, was what I was trying to state. But yes, definitely 100% agreed that as of now, WB is better for our team because as you said, cp3 lost his ability to dominate/take over this past year. Without that, Harden can never truly "rest".
Playing off ball doesn't just involve camping the perimeter. That was what Harden was already doing to provide CP3 a 4v4 matchup unless you believe that Harden can't get his shot off from where he usually is. CP3 wanted Harden to be more active off the ball, meaning setting screens and looking for cutting opportunities. They traded Westbrook to the Rockets, because that is what Westbrook wanted. They traded for CP3 because his contract is not as bad as WB's and they had planned to flip him only to discover they couldn't without giving up picks.
