Yes Cant even play thru the wcfs and much. Less the reg season with his old declining injury prone self he should have taken less money
But atleast he can dribble dribble dribble and get pass a man. Nvm everything else he doesn’t do well
1. Why do people keep parroting this idiocy. Rockets FO does not hate the midrange shot. We hate when players bad at it try to shoot it. There is a very clear distinction here. The Rockets offensive philosophy is all about taking the most efficient shot or to put it in more simpler terms, the BEST shot. That is rarely a midrange unless a player like CP3 (usually, he fell off a bit last season) is taking it. Everyone is fine with CP3's elbow fade because it's usually money. We are NOT fine with Tucker try a long range 2 however since there is almost always a better shot than that. 2. Uh no... CP3 has always been a PnR player so it was up to CP3 to figure out what his new role in the offense should be. We can blame it on MDA for not trying to help out more, but at the end of the day CP3 is the player that had to adjust. He didn't and therefore couldn't even maximize on the 4v4 matchups that Harden gave us when parked 30ft out. Now if CP3 had transitioned into an off the bench Ego role, he would have fared a lot better. Problem with that however is his shot was pretty off most of last season as well due to his tendinitis issue.
Most likely Miami given CP3’s contract. OKC’s ownership is cheaper than Tillman even, and Miami has the Dragic expiring to work with. In the end it might be a wash for OKC in terms of moving Russ for assets when they probably give up picks to move his contract. No way LAL can get that done like Miami can.
I think this trade boiled down to Morey not wanting to ride out Harden's prime with a declining Chris Paul. It tells me that CP3's decline was something the front office was really worried about. It was going to be difficult to win a title when Paul could no longer be a 1B superstar on that contract. Russ is four years younger -- it's a risk on the court to see if it will work, but you've bought yourself 2-3 more years of possible contention. Realistically I think this coming season with Paul would have been our last chance.
Not a big fan of Westbrook. As a person shows absolutely no self awareness and I just don't think he'll change his game to be a plus on the rockets system. I just don't like this trade for the rockets. The mental side is so under rated to winning basketball
If Russ plays like he did last year it's a downgrade. If he actually runs the offense and focuses on attacking the basket and passing out to open shooters it's a huge upgrade. The Rockets system will minimize the most inefficient part of Russ's game which is wild mid range jump shots and long 2s.
I slept on it. It's still not clear to me. Russell Westbrook is the worst volume shooter in basketball and we added him to the team that shoots the most threes. Over 30% of his shots are mid-range and his mid-range shot is the least efficient shot in basketball. He can't even hit free throws (65% last year). It makes no sense. I agree with Zach Lowe who described Westbrook's contract as the second worst in the league behind John Wall. So glad we gave up our future for that.
The future where Chris Paul at age 35 and 36 was making over $40m annually, likely playing 50-60 games at most and not producing anywhere near that level? It is hard to see Russ fitting into our offense, but the mistake wasn't trading for him -- it was giving Paul that contract. This is Morey giving this team a chance beyond this year. It's a gamble, but the odds are better this way.
Let's not forget that CP3 was the lead player and #1 in Rcokets best ever series vs GSW where we took them to 7 games. Harden as #1 has seen game 6 vs Spurs embarassment, record turnovers and 2/11 games while regularly being beaten by GSW
This hate is strong with this one... And this one... And him... And that guy over there... I low key hate most people on this website and basically use it for the Astros page nowadays but I might have to make a return to the GARM now that we got Brodie just so I can see all these nerds lose their minds on the daily.
I think a lot of you don't actually watch Westbrook play and get too enthralled by the clips of his explosiveness. For all the struggles getting by his man that Paul had, he was still more efficient in one on one situations that Westbrook was. This is the ultimate style over substance. Westbrook looks better doing it, but he's simply not better. He's a worse shooter, he's worse in isolation, he's worse at the rim, he's worse in the mid range, he is worse at limiting turnovers, he's worse at getting his teammates involved...he looks ferocious so you won't get frustrated by his lack of ability to get by a big on a switch, but unfortunately he's far more likely to miss the shot or just turn the ball over. Here were his +- scores in the Portland series: -10 -27 +15 -17 -4 He was dreadful.
It’s not idiocy. It’s a known fact that Rockets’ front office doesn’t like the mid-range shot. The only difference is the they were forced to adapt somewhat because Chris Paul is elite at hitting mid-range jumpers. But, still, it’s not like he was taking 10-15 of them a game as Rocket. I’ll say it again: The Rockets’ ISO-heavy offense that asks you to beat your man off the dribble became a poor fit for Chris Paul the moment his athleticism declined. As for Paul taking over the Eric Gordon role, that’s not his game. He’s never been an elite catch-and-shoot player. Paul is nicknamed the Point God for a reason, yet the Rockets had James Harden initiating the offense more often than not. Also, not being able to take advantage of 4-on-4 situations in a ISO-based offense doesn’t mean Chris Paul is a done as an effective NBA player. It means he needs a different system predicated on man movement, ball movement and set plays to succeed. That’s it. Also, a coach’s job is to maximize the talent of their roster. Turning Chris Paul into a glorified spot-up shooter with some occasional ball-handling responsibilities isn’t doing that. It was on both him and D’Antoni to figure out how to make things work around his declining athleticism. Some options were setting more screens for him to attack his man, allowing Paul to post up more, or running more set plays when Paul was in the game.
Adding to your point, the Rockets now have the two highest turnover per game averages sharing a backcourt together. (Harden led the NBA with turnovers a game, and Westbrook was second with 4.5).
