The Ringer | Russell Westbrook Is a Rocket, and the Sky Is the Limit for Houston

Plus I hear Westbrook is really involved with the community. I mean really involved. To bring a city and people together as a whole means more than the sport. To bring support to fill seats means to put in work as an influence. It starts in the city. Let's do this!

 

He is a kind and loving person, that is why I like his persona off the court. Also a family guy.

 

That’s pistons team had 4 all stars. Didn’t Billups Rasheed Hamilton and Ben Wallace all make it? I just find it interesting you called it Billups pistons. That was just a good team.

 

Yes, because Billups was the unquestioned leader of the team and won finals MVP when they won the championship.

also, yes, I know that they had 4 all-stars but all of them, including Billups, weren't dominating offensive players. They were just a really great fit and built team. None of those guys were elite top 5 players at any point in their careers. It was really the best example of a team built around defense first winning a championship in probably the history of the NBA.

Billups only made 2nd All NBA (never first.
Sheed never made an All-NBA team
Wallace only made 2nd

What kept them going was they had several guys on All NBA Defense, even Prince who never made an all-star game but several times all-nba defense.

Was a great team, one of my favorite NBA teams especially since their finals series with the Spurs was just great basketball.

 

I think that Harden is a guy that plays worse the more stress he feels. He has often played below expectations when the pressure ramped up (San Antonio). But there are times when he transcends that (the GSW over-time game last year) through getting fired up enough that he forgets the pressure and just plays ball.

I believe that CP3 was a stresser for Harden. We saw it a lot last year where the team blew late leads and looked like they expected bad things to happen. I really think that Harden hasn't had as much fun playing ball since CP3 showed up. The team was better overall, but Harden's stress level went up and his ability to relax into big moments wasn't improved by having Paul around.

Westbrook is fun to play with and he's a huge energy source for everyone around him. I think that this Rockets team will be a lot more chill than they've been in the past due to Russ's influence. And that might unlock a whole new level of play for Harden. Like imagine the overtime GSW Harden every night...

 

I agree, just givin ya a hard time. KOC’s podmate is the only one that I remember being distinctively anti-rockets.

 

The Athletic had something about Faried not coming back. He rubbed his teammates the wrong way apparently...

 

Oh really? I hadn’t seen that story. He hasn’t been picked up by anyone so I wonder if there is a market for him out there. I thought he helped us and having him for a full season I thought would be a good thing. Maybe that’s why we signed Bennett as a little insurance for PF?

 

you beat me to it.

 

from the live chat, Iko isnt Faried isn't coming back unless there was "some sort of mutual apology."

 

This is very fair and solid analysis. The pairing of Harden and Westbrook can work. It’s up to the coaching to have them play to the strengths as illustrated in this video.

Question is, are the two players willing to do this? Will the data be provided to coach and can he get it out of the two stars? Hopefully.

 

1.4 points per possession where he cuts!! Heck, if RW keep up that efficiency, he never needs to shoot a 3 pointer ever. Just consistently cut from different sets and all. This may require the Rockets to add more off ball screens and action then they typically have in the past, but I'm pretty sure D'antoni did some that with his Phoenix teams.

 

They were a great team for sure but they only one the title because Karl Malone got hurt and the Lakers lacked depth

 

The thing here is you have to realize people have talked to him about this stuff before and he didn’t want to change. He had a press conference after the season before last where he pushed back against questions about making changes to his game.

Maybe that’s changed

 

Ok, I’m officially sold on the Westbrook trade thanks to your thread @DreamShook and the video you posted.

Guessing the Rockets are going to trade for a wing defender like Covington or Iggy to counter the poor defense
of Westbrook/Harden/Eric Gordon (if still with team)......excited for the season to start. Stoked !!

 

Yeah I watched ESPN for the first time in months on Friday and I thought the coverage was way more positive than expected. The only people that didn’t like Westbrook were Rockets fans and that’s flipped. A lot of talk about Houston being the heel now but the media LOVES Westbrook. Not quite Curry level but he’s up there.

We’ll see what happens now that he’s teamed with the enemy.

 

And because PJ Tucker is the only actual power forward on our roster.

 

Worriers were a galactic team, sky is the limit ain't enough.