I just think the Lakers out skilled and sized us. I mean we won game 1 pretty convincingly. Then they put their "small" lineup in and Russ couldn't out athletic LeBron and Davis and the rest was history. I think even if Russ was 100 percent, he will always trouble going to the rim against LeBron and AD. And when there's no plan B because he can't shoot we had no offense when Hardens doubled
Nah. 2nd unit meaning the lineup when Harden rests. I consider any lineup with Harden the 1st unit because I know it will be successful strictly because he's on it. I'm excited to see a 2nd unit ran by Wall and Boogie when Harden is resting. Lots of potential. Wall will definitely be a starter...not sure about Boogie yet, but I hope so. I would love a twin towers starting lineup with CWood and Boogie.
If they can restrict Wall and Cousins minutes we can be successful. With the moves made Rockets are slowly moving into a position of strength when it comes to players and trades. Let’s play 25 regular season games and then reassess.
That's not the reason we traded him. In fact, trading him while he was injured lowered his trade value. The fact was, they needed to get another D&3 guy BADLY because Westbrook could not shoot and we could not afford to have two non-shooters playing with Harden. Capela was the only valuable asset we could use to get a good 3&D like RoCo. Give me some source to show that Capela trade talk was serious before last season. That does not mean we could not play a center. Capela was effective with Harden until he got hurt. Even when Harden was playing ISO, he was still very useful as a lob threat. Ask Draymond. Why didn't they trade Capela for a shooting big man? (BTW, while Cousins is a much better shooter than Capela, he is a low post scorer. Not a floor spacer.)
Ibaka could shoot. Adams was not relied on scoring on offense. Any player could play with any player. The question is, how you maximize his strengths and hide his weaknesses. And more importantly, how you avoid his weaknesses from getting in the way of Harden. I don't know why you Russ apologists can't accept the fact that we played full-time small ball because of him. It was an openly available knowledge. Only diehard Westbrook fans would deny it.
It was part of the reason though, which is my point. We've needed another 3&D player regardless of WB, we needed one after Ariza left. This was before the WB trade and I'm not sure how serious it was. Like you said above, Capela was our only valuable asset to get better...seems like common sense that he'd be in talks. CBS: Rockets trade rumors: Houston has held preliminary trade talks involving Chris Paul and Clint Capela, per report Well sure, but we were relying less and less on PNR. Ask Draymond? Pretty sure Draymond had Capela's number during that series..... In fact I remember this forum crapping all over capela. Seriously....... ? You don't think they tried upgrading the PF/C position?
Capela had s heel/plantar fasciitis injury..... how important is walking, running, and jumping in basketball? Capela was a shell of himself once he got that injury.
Lol no he cant. What a ridiculous narrative clutchfans have come up with. Next you will say james will no longer be doubled because of the amazing shooting of john wall.
I still can't believe where we're at with the roster in 2020. John Wall?? Good lord, what on earth are we doing lmao.
More than just Wall and that pick attached to it. Wall is the gamble, not Westbrook. So get something to offset the gamble on whether the incoming player will even hold up. A pick that is so far away from being usable is not it. Like what do people not get? Russ is better than Wall when Wall was healthy, which was two years ago. I have no problem if they felt they had to make this deal, but you’re stupid if you think a pick at best will be a non lottery in 3 years or 9th in 6 years makes it a wash. That’s not doing much for the Rockets in a trade. “Russ wanted out” doesn’t excuse this horrendous pick. Wall also wanted out. Use that to negotiate. Wall was throwing up gang signs. Know that. WALL HASNT PLAYED IN 2 YEARS, Russ made All NBA. If this is how Stone negotiates I really hope Harden forces his way out for the sake of his career. EDIT: I love how people on here pretend to know basketball and act like trading Russ for Wall is us being able to offload Russ’ contract. We might be the dumbest fans in the league.
It's not an amazing trade, but a Westbrook trade never was going to be. The only two teams interested were the Wizards and the Knicks, and the Knicks were only interested if we were attaching assets with Westbrook. We had no real leverage in negotiating with the Wizards because they knew Westbrook wanted out and the Rockets wanted to move him before camp.
