People just want to blame James Harden for everything. I always said it was funny how it wasn’t any problems with Harden’s style or the offense the year before when the Rockets won 65 games (probably would’ve won 70+ games if CP3 didn’t take his yearly 20+ game mid season vacation) and were up 3-2 over the Warriors WITH Durant. Same Offense, Same coach, same players, yet CP3 simply couldn’t do what he did the year before. That’s on him. Lost a step, looked heavy and Slow, struggled to beat his man off the dribble , struggled shooting the ball (from 3 and the mid range), made more uncharacteristic unforced turnovers than usual. That’s on him. The worst thing CP3 did was show that he could be brilliant in this offense and alongside Harden, so that when he looks less than stellar you know it’s on him and nobody else but him. If CP3 was still this guy, We would be laughing at the concept of trading him for Westbrook.
Agree with you OP CP3 is obviously nowhere near a superstar anymore. This season I would rate him as slightly above average NBA PG
For Real, I thought CP3 was fine in the reg season when played but in the playoffs vs Jazz I became very concerned in how he couldn't get around their bigs. Quite shocking tbh.
This this this. Great post. Too busy pouting over the treatment of his pal Melo. CP3 checked out mentally early on last season and wasn't able to get his mind back on track when it counted. Add the physical decline and the obvious tentative play to avoid hamstring injuries, plus the lifelong tendency to bark at teammates and you have a recipe for disaster. Only Harden's amazing season got us as far as we went. A fully on-board CP3 would have gotten us into the finals. For that alone, I'm okay seeing him go.
History is interesting. Chris Paul used to be one of the most hated players on CF. After he became a Rocket and had a good season with us, he was raved and thought of as the piece we finally got to beat the Warriors (if only he didn't get hurt). Then he had a mediocre season, and his monster contract looked worse than Ryno's. CF thought we needed to get rid of him at all cost. Russell Westbrook used to be one of the most hated players on CF, perhaps even more so than Paul. Now he has become a Rocket by dumping the once hated-loved-hated CP3... Let's see how CF treats this once hated guy a couple years down the road.
Wow, not good. But don't you think CP having harden out there on the floor sometimes helped him boost that ranking?
If you're going to talk **** on how CP3 shot in the playoffs in defense of the trade for Westbrook then I'd recommend you go take a peek at how Westbrook shot in the playoffs. Spoiler alert. Game 2 vs Portland - 5-20 FG and 1-6 from 3 Game 4 vs Portland - 5-21 FG and 2-7 from 3 He only had one game with a positve PER. He was -17, -10, and -27 in three of the games.
A lot of how CF reacts to star players is due to their effort (real or perceived). T-Mac was loved until he stopped trying. In his case, it seemingly happened in one game. Yao was loved throughout his career because he NEVER didn't give it everything he had. Guys like Chuck Hayes and Tucker are loved before of their effort. CP3 was loved last year because he played hard. This year, he didn't. We may never know all the reasons why that happened, but anyone who watched the games could easily see it. Westbrook is known for his effort. I can't see the fans completely turning on him unless he stops trying. Hell, there are some folks here still willing to give CP3 the benefit of the doubt after last year.
40mill player who can’t shoot sounds like CP3 right now. And he’s 4 years older. This was like Rynos contract but worse.
I can guarantee these Westbrook shooting numbers will go up because of the system, pace we will play at and the spacing we will have due to way better shooters we have than OKC. Gordon, Harden, Tucker, House, Green are all very good shooters. Westbrook - Capela pick and roll will be insane. The number of open threes we will get in transition will be insane. This will be like when the Cp3 trade happened, everybody said it won’t work and we will get the no1 seed. This was an amazing trade. Cp3 is done and his decline and the fact he is injury prone would make us too much Harden dependent. Forward position can be adjusted via trade or the buyout market.
DAntoni made CP3 better in his first season with Rockets, he can't make Russell better?!? We may have some really bad games, but I take an angry player like Westy over passive players like Capela. I dogged Westbrook calling him #*%&÷>, but I love when players who wants to play for Rockets by choice. All the GMs would do this trade, this is about the present and future of the Rockets. No bad decisions here, we have a golden opportunity. Until he isn't Rockets... Go #0.
I respectfully disagree, he might not be a great shooter, but this man can get to the basket whenever he wants, I would argue he is even better than Harden in terms of beating his man to get to the basket.