Where would we be now if we never traded for James Harden?

Based on the 1 regular season game where Harden didn't play and the Preseason games, I'd say we'd be around 25-17 right now.

 

Undefeated because we would have the best player on the planet finally unleashed, the one-and-only Jeremy Lin!

 

Aren't martins numbers (mainly 3's) inflated due to others players double teaming Durant and Westbrook leaving Martin wide open for the 3? I wouldn't expect Martin to have those kind of numbers with us if he had stayed

 

We'll have our PFs camp out at three indefinitely.

We'll throw a player who was doing well out of the rotation for no reason and without giving him an explanation, even though he was our best 3-point shooter and all we do is shoot 3s.

We'll let Martin do whatever he wants, because he's our star so we need to let him get whatever he wants, he's even got dibs on Morey's girl.

We'll forget that we have a stud PF who played great in the off-season games and is killing it in the D-League, and instead continue to feed rotation minutes to a net negative.

We'll get our two slashing point guards to sit in the corner and instead let our 3-point specialist with shaky handles and decision-making to run plays and our sophomore SF who will throw the ball out of bounds on his drives to the rim.

 

Of all the speculation, yours is the most factual.

 

My guess is we would have 5-6 less wins at this point, which is a substantial difference.

 

Yes and no. There's a lot of offensive attention on Westbrook and Durant, but they don't usually double them (though I concede I haven't watched that many OKC games).

Basically Durant will be on one side of the court, either fighting for position or just chilling while his boy Westbrook does some work. Perkins or Collison will set a pick for Westbrook who will blitz down the lane and then everyone crashes in and he kicks it out to Martin or Ibaka for the jumper.

Martin does get some ISOs though, and he still has to work for many of his threes they're not always ocean looks.

The key here is that the Thunder have an offense that plays to their strengths. Their shooters shoot, their bigs pick, and their slashers slash.

 

If you actually believe Hollingers analysis from the nba trade machine, and we do the same trade ack then we would lose 5 more games and the thunder would win 5 games. But you also have to consider other factors like Lin getting a chance to take over, we would have more assets to trade, and etc.

 

Lol this is funny. We would be right there with the bottom-feeders and would be all-out tanking at this point for a guy in the draft that's not even at Harden's level.

 

Lin would be much more evolved with averages above 20/10 and Houston playing better basketball
Now the question would be, Lin playing much better would also be responsible for wins?

 

Very pissed.

 

LOFs believe that the team would excel with Lin as the primary option. Never mind he'd still be 2nd fiddle to Martin.

 

Best Record in the league. Lin in the lead for MVP.

 

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll, is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample.

 

Actually, Hollinger had us winning 10 extra games because of Harden. But that also factored in the fact that we would stop tanking, which figured into the formula.

I'm going to say -3 games, with Kevin Martin beasting again.

 

We would still be looking for a superstar to build the team around. Still lost in the wilderness, without a direction, without that key piece that defines a team. The Rockets would be another NBA team with nothing that lifts them above average, except for a glorious past. Getting James Harden has changed that. Now we are in the conversation when the talking heads discuss the young teams with a future, and we can thank James Harden and Daryl Morey for that.

 

This would be a 9 or 10 win team with martin being the main guy. Anyone remembers how bad those martin led kings teams were? Maybe someone is gonna sell me on the rebirth of linsanity .

 

We would be under .500 most likely. Kmart would be averaging around 20 and, for the people that care, Lin would be too.

 

I don't think martin would be the main guy, and he would probably be fine with that.

 

I'd like to think that, without Harden on the team, Lin would have been more comfortable in his role, in his ability to run the offense, and that would have led to better numbers for him.

But the problem this season isn't just Lin's ineffectiveness in the Rocket's system, it is how hesitant he's looked out there, from weak finishes at the basket to weak shots from beyond the 3pt line. Lin needs to toughen up mentally (if he can) to improve his play. Whether or not he needs to adjust to having a superstar on the team is a much smaller issue.