We're just lucky we have Harden and not Westbrook. This is why I don't care who teams up with JH. He flat out knows how to make players better and get them easy looks. I was never concerned about cp3 fitting in with harden because James is one of the few (Lebron,curry,KD) who can play with anyone. Cp3 will flourish on the court in a way he never has once he gets back. The numbers might go down but the impact will go up. When you play with harden or Lebron be ready to shoot. On a different tip. I hope Harden doesn't win MVP this year and gets 2nd again. That way he'll have been the 2nd best player in the leagu 3/4 years and still will be ranked outside the top 5 in the media player ranking. Hell espn rated him 8 the last two years. What a travesty. And Lebron needs to come here. Starts Tom with harden showing him up again and letting him know there is a new sheriff in town.
OKC will eventually figure out it. They key is, in the meantime will they dig themselves a bit of a hole to cost them the #3 or #2 seed. If they end up #4, they are on the GSW side of the bracket. That's the bottom line.
Did you guy see, in the first 10 games. There big 3, are all 20.1 scoring avg. They are 4-6. Is it no bench?, or is it, Westbrook is not trying to take over games anymore, which got them all those wins?
Look at their shot attempts. None of them are efficient or make each other more efficient. The problem is none of their big 3 are facilitators.
I think Russ and PG13 are a good match, but more depth would be better instead of Carmelo.I still think they will be a 4-5 seed
WB can facilitate. The biggest problem IMO is none of the 3 is used to playing off the ball on a regular basis. Another issue is all 3 have the green light to take any shot they want. That ain't working right now. The solution is to let Billy D coach the offense until it becomes second nature to everyone.
I think Coaching is a major issue here. KD even said that coaching was a reason for him leaving, it is very apparent here having this type of roster with 4 max guys and not really looking in sync. It was also apparent that Donovan mismanaged the playoffs against Houston to even casual fans. They had a shot at making it a series.
Stayed awake to watch the thunder game knowing that them losing is the only thing that could make the win today even more satisfying. Woke up to check the score and wasn't disappointed!
I never understood how this trio was gonna make it work...especially considering how selfish Westbrook is down the stretches of games. He looks to be a hero instead of making the best basketball play. You need your point guard to make sound decisions at the end of games. Part of why the Thunder look hapless is that they havent figured this out...When to let PG get his, and how to mesh Westbrook and Carmelo's poor shot selections...This all is a product of a poor offensive scheme and poor spacing. As a coach you have to breakdown players strengths and minimize weaknesses. Donovan hasnt been able to reign WB's recklessness towards the end of games. The Thunder need a new coach to get this group playing good basketball or this will all end badly...
The coaching and offensive system is trash. Just really bad. Everyone has the green light to play however they want and it's led to inefficiency galore. While Roberson is an elite defender and part of the reason they are #2 defensively, they really need shooting right there. They need a spot up guy to catch and open look and shoot and instead they constantly rely on the big 3 to ISO instead. The reason melo was thought to have worked here was because he would be in catch and shoot situations, and if defenses closed out he could create his own shot or put additional pressure on defense. That's not the case in OKC. They are swinging him the ball and asking him to create rather than letting the game come to him. I think George is fine and a good fit with westy as a defensive wing and secondary creator. But at this point, I'm not sure morey even trades for melo using just Ryan. Of course it seems like an obvious upgrade, but paying closer attention it appears morey is trying to avoid the luxury tax this year and thus the repeater tax going forward once cp3 and capela get paid. This offseason we where able to move the needed filler contracts with NG scrubs but now we would have to include a player and add salary, and imo he's not worth it to even include a guy like Tarik or troy.
If Melo came to the Rockets, he should probably come off the bench and take a Jamal Crawford role. On a contender, that's where he belongs. But his ego wouldn't allow that. If he weren't such a mental weakling, Melo would already be here.
Totally agree on the coaching stuff. He's a college coach, not NBA material. But this style of play is the same one OKC has been doing since they got a team, lulz.
Westbrook with Durant is awesome. But replace Durant with George and Anthony and now they look terrible ..What the hell?