he is a decent on spot up threes from the corners..... but this may be a different type of offense. Mike D will adjust to the skillsets of his players
The offensive system is going to have to change for this trade to work out. Russell Westbrook shooting open threes is what every Rockets’ opponent wants.
Yes younger and more athletic Now we can have some real fast breaks from time to time. Problem is his shooting and his decision Bricking and being hot headed won’t be a good thing in close games. But he does have a lot of energy. Also Harden and Russ go for steals which can be a bad thing. And both of them aren’t that great to staying with their man in defense. So pro and cons
I actually envision Harden playing more off ball and involved in the play while Russ can still blow past his man. I'm already picturing Harden behind the 3 point line feasting off catch and shoot plays.
I think we’ll see a better offensive team as crazy as that sounds. Paul was a great point guard for us but he was bananas when he opted to score first in his first year here. That put the opposing defense on its heels because now they’re dealing with a guard that scores and distributes. Injuries unfortunately took that scoring element away for Paul. With Russ we have that 2nd threat again and that opens doors for the other players too. My hope is that Morey finishes his lines of coke with Tillman soon enough tonight and go get Iggy, Covington or Love. Can you imagine on the offensive end if we are able to have Tucker at one corner , Covington at the other, Clint at the top of the key ready to set a screen with Russ and Harden up top? That’s insane.
To the haters, When's the last time we had 2 MVPs in the peak of their prime on the same team? Exactly. Especially considering these two are best friends since childhood and have played multiple years together before and reached the finals. All I see is a much safer gamble than relying on 35 yo CP3 to suddenly get better. It's up to Morey now to add another defensive wing or PF that can shoot the 3 to this team. Then we've had a good off-season.
I don't really see it as an upgrade in win production. I think its potential is +/- 10% in win production. Which is to say, we are roughly in the same place but have made the likely outcomes slightly more volatile propositions. The reason I'm happy with this trade despite disliking Westbrook's game/progress: 1) This give us 1 or 2 extra years of the same thing at the price of a couple of picks. It doesn't make sense to do that in a vacuum, but it does make sense to do that when you are at the tail end of Harden's prime. 2) Westbrook has had 2 coaches who were absolute morons on the offensive end. Granted MDA is not a big believer in a lot of ball movement, but I see it highly likely that MDA/Morey will shoot for the stars in terms of improving Westbrook's shot selection, and realistically WB will play along with 20-30% of that recommendation. That 20-30% combined with the practical certainty that Westbrook would not have a worse shooting/FT season tells me combined with lower usage for him gives me hope that we will get a better Westbrook. If that improvement shows postseason results he likes, we might even see him acquiesce further each year, just as he did in his final season with PG13. 3) CP3 was done. It was unacceptable that a person with chronic injuries shows up out of shape, whines, plays poorly in the regular season and then the biggest failure of all was failing to show up in all but 1 or 2 playoff games. Given his extreme competitiveness, it tells me that while he might have ended up having a better season than last, he is still declining rapidly and knows it and is pointing fingers rather than looking inward. CP3's contract was the biggest, darkest cloud hanging over this franchise. WB's contract is slightly less of a problem, with higher potential for return. I don't think we became a prime contender with this trade, it was more like a good restructuring to possibly rejuvenate the organization. I will always love CP3's first season with us, he brought us to the edge of the promise land and did it with style while putting young Curry in his place. I wish we had gotten him 2 years earlier, we would have had at least 1 trophy. I didn't appreciate his b****ing and moaning recently, but I still hope he ends up in Miami where he can at least have the illusion of competing.
I'm not seeing Harden and Russ having a conversation about getting together where Russ will be a volume shooter. Russ will drive and dish with a spread out floor. Harden will catch and shoot more but still do Harden things. Capela will run PNR with Russ and Harden. Gordon and Tucker will be ready to catch and shoot.
I agree with what you are saying. The problem with acquiring anyone else via trade is that the only first-round picks the Rockets can trade are in their 2022 and 2028 first-round picks, now.
Either the rockets run back a team we KNOW wasnt gonna do shyt, or they swap an aging hof point guard for a younger superstar point guard with a little juice still left in the tank for a better chance at winning a title. Im just glad we have some hope again.
How do you work that out? They just lost 2 of their best players.... and they're getting a 34-year-old point guard who barely manages to play 60 games a season.
GS was clearly out of the picture. the only team that continuously stood in houston's way. so no we dont know for sure how that was going to turn out. and well never know now
Haha ESPN is stoking our fire... extended harden/WB best plays countdown from their OKC days, teamwork makes the dreamwork. I'm playing right into their hands, can't help it...
Rockets would have lost to the Raptors even if they got past GS. The west has a bunch of 2 superstar teams now and the only way the rockets are going to do anything is with 2 superstars playing like superstars and cp3 is done being a superstar.
Chris Paul is not done as a very good NBA player. For the Rockets system, however, he’s wasn’t the best fit moving forward. That’s because for Paul to be really effective as he ages, he needs to utilize his elite court vision and high basketball IQ to be a great pure point guard. With James Harden in the same backcourt and unwilling to relinquish the majority of the ball handling duties, it wasn’t an option here.
i wouldnt say someone who is the worst 3 pt shooter amongst qualifiers, horrible decision making, and incredibly inefficient qualifies as a higher ceiling but hey if you say so triple doubles though right. the same thing this board hated him for. hooray
thats great. then right after that he'll take a terrible shot or make a horrible decision right after. but hey you got beat off the dribble. hoooray. it worked out well for him getting punked by a rookie or becoming lillard's toy, the last few years
