CP3 isn't the Suns version anymore. His legs are cooked. He might bring some order to the team but that team has zero talent outside of Wemby and zero offensive talent overall. Wemby is good for putback dunks and that's it. CP3 has never been a lob type like Harden was. Also the Spurs don't get to play the East as much as they have to play the West. Wemby was 1/9 from 3 and 7/21 from the field in his two pre-season games. Defensively he's definitely a talent. Offensively he's going to be Dollar General Durant at best.
CP3 has never been a lob type? WHAT?! I refer you to his team being called "Lob City" in the most successful part of his career. You seriously just make up nonsense and pretend you know what you're talking about tbh.
I don't think the Spurs could compete like the Rockets. They might compete because Wemby is that good, but I don't think they had the contract/cap space to add $80M in salaries (FVV, Brooks, Jeff Green, Landale, and Holiday) like the Rockets did last season. Agreed
It was a beyond awful trade. The thing it did do those was give the rockets a forced timeline in which they kept their own picks. So they tried to draft high for the years that were available. They lucked into the jalen green and reed sheppard pick as well. Sengun Eason & Whitmore is amazing as well. A lot of good fortune (no luck with a number 1 overall pick) after that trade. Along with being forced into that timeline. With all of the things considered since that trade I would give the rockets about an 8.5 since that point. With a chance of going higher with the Rockets 7 young guys are able to do together these next 10 seasons.
I think this has to be mentioned - That last year of CP3 here, he looked finished, he was damaged goods and his contract was massive. It really didn't appear that the team could contend for championships like it had in the recent past with CP3 and that contract on the roster. The consensus was that he had to go .... and Westbrook was a former MVP still playing at a high level - even if his game was flawed and not a good fit. I'm not sure what other options were out there at the time that extended the Rockets championship window. I'm not saying that I think the trade was a good one, it wasn't. Just that I don't think anyone could have predicted the total remaking of his body & lifestyle that CP3 did that offseason to come back looking 5 years younger and still very useful. With that contract, $39.9m average over the life of the deal and a salary cap of $99m ..... the options were limited. They had to try 'something'. That trade was a last ditch effort to swing for the fences ...
Agree with most of this. On the "They had to try something", I was in the trying to do nothing would have been better. This trade killed most of the hope I had left for the Harden era, and basically killed hope for the following rebuild being short.
The hell it was, CP3 even in decline was an extremely effective player. At his worst back then he was what FVV is now. Plus he was 33 not 43. Anybody with the slightest clue knew that Westbrook would be a bad fit with Harden and create huge problems with roster building. They didn't "have to try something" Morey still had assets and flexibility to make changes with CP3/Harden, instead they wasted all those assets to bring in Westbrook. Of course the front office and coach knew it was an awful idea, but they got vetoed. Do nothing was 100 times better than do something stupid. Once KD went down with the injury and the Warriors were out of the picture we would have went into the next season as strong contenders for a title, maybe favorite. With improved CP3 we almost certainly win it. Instead dumbass Tilman panicked.
It was unfortunate, Westbrook actually played well under MDA and the micro small ball actually worked during the season just not in the Playoffs. But Westbrook started to decline rapidly after that. Not a contract for the ages. In this case a rental for Kevin Durant would have been better.
Once they stopped the insanity they still sucked ass. They might be a lot better this year but last year no way does Wemby deserve to be called a top 10 player with only 22 wins.
That bolded is straight up delusion. That is an insult to how good FVV has been on this team. Maybe you forgot the Rockets lost to GSW missing half their team due to injury? Maybe you forgot Harden and Cp3 couldnt stand each other by that point? Contenders but lost to GSW missing Klay, Cousins, Iggy and with KD ans Steph playing injured? LMAO! Gimme a break man stop drinking the kool aid!!! Like that sad sack team would beat a fully rested Lebron and AD. "Dumbass" Tilman made the right choice going for the rebuild as that ultimately stopped Harden from signing the supermax and dooming this team. We are right back where we started before Cp3 got traded except we have a bunch of 23 yr olds instead of a bunch of 33 yr olds. If you think Tilman is dumb the dumb one is you.
The trade was a last ditch attempt to see if Harden era can still win a championship. Of course it backfired as almost every "all in" trade Morey has done apart from the Harden trade but unless the Rox were bowing out it had to be done. The Harden Cp3 pairing had zero chance after they lost to GSW with half their team missing.
It did not have to be done. Maybe the need to trade CP3 had to be done. Acquiring Westbrook and giving up assets for a negative move did not improve the Rockets odds. If one viewed the Harden-CP3 pairing as having zero odds, basically breaking up the team would have been wiser than acquiring Westbrook for what the Rockets did.
Harden is the reason CP3 was traded for WB. He no longer respected CP3, basically pushed him off the team and wanted his buddy WB instead.
Of course with hindsight just rebuilding would be wiser. But at the time Morey has been trying to build around Harden for almost a decade and the new owner bought a team expecting to contend. They wanted to try one last time. Harden and Cp3 had zero odds but maybe Harden and WB might have better odds. As for the massive amount of assets thats on Morey getting fleeced/not trying as he was already looking for a new job. In retrospect it wasnt that bad at least compared to other trades that came after like KD trade, Gobert trade and Mikal Bridges trade. What have we given to OKC so far? Just the 2024 pick. We owe them a 2025 pick swap that can be from other teams and a 2026 pick that should be a low pick unless something went horribly wrong. So in the end all we are gonna pay is the 12th pick and two low frps for one last ditch effort at contention. Not exactly franchise destroying.
