It's not revisionist, we've been flipping out since the trade happen. It doomed this team for the better part of this upcoming decade, and that was clear the day the trade happened.
Too bad CP3 couldn’t be friends with Harden. We would still have him. Our team with CP3 this year would be unstoppable imo.
Look, even if I grant that CP3 would be more effective than Russ in the playoffs, the fact is that we wouldn't be playing "small ball" with CP3. We'd have the same old iso offense with CP3 and Harden taking turns on possessions, with the goal of getting by their man and throwing a lob to Capela. We would never have acquired Covington or Green, and would be running with JH, CP3, Gordon, PJ, and Capela against LAL's five. Whatever you think about CP3 vs. Russ, it is my feeling that the five I described would have failed worse than the Trail Blazers, and not because of CP3, but because it would rely on trying to beat the Lakers head-to-head with a vastly inferior team, especially a starting center who annually underperformed in the playoffs. Our primary backup center would still be Hartenstien and he'd give Capela a spell every now and then. Setting aside how great CP3 was for us and the moments he gave us in that one WCF run to game 7, I don't see how anyone could have actually have wanted to continue see us playing basketball like last season and think that it offered us a better chance at postseason success than the current roster does.
I mean even if we end up losing, if would still be the same result as last year so I don't see what the big deal is.
if harden and cp3 could friggin' get along or chris paul's damn hamstring wasn't always an issue. with no warriors around, this year is wide open. the point god and the iso god on the same team would scare the crap out of everyone. oh you wanna double james harden all 4th quarter? well here's a few 3's for you. instead we watch westbrook shoot almost impossibly badly for long stretches and he can't drive because that's an automatic turnover or brick as well unless there's no one underneath.
We could have still traded for Covington and we could have used the assets given up for Russ to get some other pieces.
yeah let's not let cp3 off the hook here either. dude claims to want a ring for his whole career, gets dropped into the greatest situation possible, and can't make it work with the straw that stirs the drink and gets himself traded. how's that first round exit taste when you could be beating lebron right now?
capela basically massacred everyone who wasn't the small ball warriors. ask KAT and gobert how much he underperformend. the lakers big lineup would be much more suited to capela than the warriors were.
because we lost to an all-time great lineup last year. the caruso/morris/rondo lakers aren't all-time great. this team is beatable with last year's team. might be beatable with this year's team but much less likely.
unfortunately the only good version of westbrook is the mid-season version that attached the basket relentlessly and was putting up 25+ like it was nothing (including an ass-whipping of these lakers). westbrook coming back from injury doesn't seem like he can be that guy. and the lakers big lineup isn't going to leave him room at the rim anyway. thus we get to watch "please somehow make 30% of your jumpers and turn it over fewer than 5 times" russ.
Russ is not in form also he passes those ball to Gordon also missing. No one will defense him if he keeps missing.
A lot of us completely expected this nightmare scenario. Tragically our owner and star weren't among them. Maybe we get lucky and he reverts to midseason Russ, but I'm not holding my breath.
