For some reason, I questioned Melo's fit in OKC but not Houston. OKC's style has been ISO heavy going back to Durant. Now they have 3 ISO players, and suddenly there isn't enough ball. I get that there's an adjustment period, but it's not really obvious who should adjust more than others. While Houston has 2 ball dominant players, it's different because they are both efficient and premier distributors. It seems like Melo would have fit into his role playing off of Harden and CP3 better than he will with George and WB
Hey, yea I remember reading an article that after KD left they were going to try and break records with WB. I'll try and find it when I get off
Russell Westbrook is not a point guard. Sure, he can get 10 assists a night, but he doesn't understand the fundamentals of playing point guard in this league. He can't run an offense, period. That's why Durant left. Now, add George and Anthony to the mix, and no surprise why they all struggle mightily together. I bet if you add those two next to Harden, they would tear up the league. Because Harden has learned to play the point guard position properly under D'Antoni. He knows when to attack and where the ball needs to move on the floor to take advantage of defenses. Westbrook doesn't do any of that. He can move a few defenders around, but not shift the entire defense, which is an important quality of an elite point guard. For example, how many times have you seen this: Harden drives into the lane, draws 3 defenders, reads the rotation and passes to the weak side of the floor, which triggers a chain reaction of ball movement from Gordon to Anderson to Ariza, etc. Westbrook won't do that. He might draw 3 guys and possibly find a open shooter, but he won't make the defense dance around in rotation limbo like a true point guard needs to. Plus, Westbrook and Anthony don't even pick and roll, which is a huge wasted opportunity. It's all iso-ball with 3 guys taking turns at jacking shots -- a recipe for disaster.
Player only meeting success! It only took a hell of a game from PG13 and an under control WB to beat a hobbling clippers missing 3 of their starters.
120-111 with Clippers starting a rookie SG and Rivers as their PG is like a L to me. Proves nothing but media was prob going crazy (haven't watched on YT yet)
Some injuries during the season among their big three would probably improve team chemistry of they were really trying.
i can't figure out why westbrook continues to get his knob-slobbed by the likes of espn while harden gets trashed regularly... westbrook's game, while gaudy as hell, is absolutely incapable of leading a team. he is, without a shred of doubt, the reason durant left and while his stats are other-worldly, has shown zero desire to address his glaring deficiencies in accepting a more team-oriented offense. other world talent without the intangibles a team needs from a leader.
Russell Westbrook is like John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and James Harden is like Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. With A Love Supreme, it's going to blow your mind with its sporadic energy. But with Kind of Blue, you're going to get a smooth, consistent sound with occasional bursts of crazy energy. It's like uncontrolled brilliance vs. controlled brilliance. At times, the uncontrolled brilliance is so good that it overwhelms everything else. But overall, the controlled brilliance will be better than the uncontrolled brilliance. Westbrook is great, to be sure... but Harden is better.
Playing against the Bulls next. Dafuq? Will they play 82 games against bottom feeders? They haven't played a real team so far. NBA trying hard to give them the best chances. Build your chemistry against bottom feeder and play the real teams later on. Lol.
The Thunder Diaspora players season update (last season): Oladipo: 21.2 PER (13.6) Kanter: 25.3 PER (23.7) Sabonis: 21.2 PER (6.9) Russ had no help though.
Yes, but if you believe some people, they're on bad teams therefor are irrelevant and the Thunder were right that they're scrubs who couldn't help Russ. O LAWD. I'm in the camp with the vast majority of people like you however.
I didn't compare him to Coltrane. I compared him to A Love Supreme. Brilliant, but a notch below Kind of Blue. Because Westbrook is that, whether you want to believe it or not.
I think Melo in Houston would be similarly bad. As many have said, we would use him in catch and shoot situations, which he is very good at. I agree with this, but then i imagine how it would really go...Harden passes the ball around looking for an open man. The ball gets to Melo. He stops and ISOs and never passes the ball back out. I think it would be more detrimental to our offense than the additional scoring that Melo would provide.
Oh... can't believe I didn't notice this lol. Would be great if it ended like this. It would make Westbrook's MVP look so silly. I know people that voted for him and rooted for him will still claim "It was just an amazing season ha durr! You can't take away from that!" All while the main argument for Westbrook was that he had 0 help and was playing with Garbage.
