It's Westbrook - this is 100% a how do we fit his game in scenario

Agree to disagree. No biggie.

 

Harden still has the ball all the time...his usage rate is even higher than last year, and his shot attempts are only slightly lower down from 24.5 to 24.0 attempts a game

Harden has just been bricking shots...that has nothing to do with Westbrook...the same stepbacks he was hitting last year are all bouncing off the rim this year

1st you’re talking about Russ ego issues when he’s clearly put his ego to the side, and now you’re talking about him preventing Harden from having the ball all the time when his usage is even more ridiculous than last season...stop reaching

 

Yeah I don't buy this about Westbrook. He has changed his game to fit with Harden. His shots are down, his percentages are up, and he definitely defers to Harden. He doesn't have a false sense of reality like Melo. He also plays hard every night and does dirty work. Melo never did any of that. His game is a lot more than just scoring. The problems on this team are a lot bigger than Westbrook. We knew Westbrook couldn't shoot when we got him, what we didn't know is that James and Eric were gonna absolutely fall apart in terms of shooting, they are playing epically terrible atm. And no one is playing defense.

 

Maybe Westbrook should be the primary point guard and Harden the primary shooting guard. If nothing else this are their roles when they both play together.

 

the labels of pg/sg don't matter when it comes to actual play on the court

 

i think you are being a bit harsh, don't you think? Westbrook doesn't fit in any way? cmon.....Giving the ball to harden the whole game may work against some teams, even a lot of teams, but in order to beat a great defense, we need another gear....Russ can puss the ball in transition before the other defense gets set. That's what we're trying to do...granted, that doesn't always work either, but having both options is a good thing, regardless of the difficulties to the half court offense and defense it also brings.....

the issue is capela....Having all three on the floor is not a good thing in the half court against any good defense like the heat. the russ capela pick and roll is not as dominant as a harden capela pick and roll...

we need to replace CC with a center who can shoot the three and defend at least the 4 and 5 well... And we need to add a really good forward...

we are two players short.....

It is worth restructuring the roster for what russ brings in the open court.

 

they’ve been playing fine when on the court together IMO...the problem is that neither one can hit shots from the outside, and they are both undisciplined defensively

 

Meant to say Miami. My mistake.

 

obvious terrible hot take because we beat a terrible memphis team without westbrook. reminds of people trying to scapegoat melo last year even though we still sucked about 10 games after he was gone and ended up getting embarrassed in the playoffs

 

the problem is not the offense it's the defense. I think it's time to ditch the switching everything and man up and funnel everything into the middle. the switching is leading to open corner 3's and Capella being out of position to guard the rim and/or rebound. I'm really tired of seeing him defending a guard on the 3 point line only to get burned by a pass to a cutter for an easy basket.

 

Russ is shooting the ball at a career high percentage and hasn’t played this well in 3 season. He and Harden are playing well together.

 

What negative effect? What are u talking about? Harden has changed nothing from last season. His usage is even higher, his shot attempts are the same, and he still ISO’s whenever. Westbrook has fallen right in line as the 2nd guy on the team. U said this is a classic case of “whose team is it” which really has me wondering what games you’re watching as if there has been any question since game 1.

 

Westbrook has done things to help get us across the line in every win so far. he has had some huge offensive rebounds late in games to help. Don't look at the net rating as a be all and end all argument

 

Its not hating if he has proof.

 

I don’t deny that he has done some very positive things. Rebounding has been huge and his shot selection has been better, but all that doesn’t change that in the totality of his time on the floor, so far, we are getting beat badly.

It’s still really early. And 1 game, which still counts, really torpedoed his net rating, but for now it just is what it is.

I’m in the camp that believes our defense is no where near as bad as it has appeared and I only expect RW to continue to get more familiar with everyone and improve.

 

Youre forgetting that those guys do worse without Harden as well. Thats why ITS NOT BLAMED ON HARDEN.

 

How did you make the word "proof" look like a subjective word?

 

problem with stats like that is, it isn't 1 vs 5, just the same as the +/- stat. you could have 1 great player on the court with 4 players who don't contribute anything and it will kill your +/- stat if they don't help.

The only stat that matters is the win/loss stat