Dwayne Wade doesn't pretend to be a PG, neither does Dwight Howard. Also, Wade knows that he's a terrible 3 point shooter, so he doesn't launch over 3 per game like Westbrick....also, has Dwayne Wade ever taken more shots than Lebron in a season while they've played together? Nope, has Westbrick ever taken more shots than Durant for a season? Absolutely. If the Thunder were a smart franchise, they'd have traded Westbrick and kept Harden. Thankfully they were cheap and foolish and they'll never win a championship as a result.
Harden is less of a hothead and he might defer to durant but on the basketball court you have the same problem.. both durant and harden need the ball in their hands to be effective. Just not enough basketball to go around.. but yes Harden + Durant > Westbrook + Durant
Well you could have some of the same problem, but it would be much less pronounced. Harden isn't the ball hog chucker that Westbrook is and it would be a lot more like the Wade/Lebron kind of thing when now it's like having a less talented version of Kobe out there pretending to be a PG. You'll always have SOME problem when you have a superstar with another star, but when that lesser star is a ball hogging chucker like Westbrook, it's a serious problem.
OKC is considered as one of the "top organizations" simply because they had the good luck of drafting KD. They are just average or above average IMHO, take away KD on that team and are they even good enough to get a playoff spot? At least Houston already got in the playoffs without DH, OKC right now is cleveland before LBJ left. You are giving OKC the same level of respect as an org like the Spurs or Dallas, however Dallas has had decades of playoff performances and the Spurs have 4 rings on their name on just 1 rebuilding season. OKC's brain trust aren't exactly infallible, they made two horrendous mistakes: 1) Signing Perkins to a major deal and 2) Choosing WB over Harden. Why is KD and WB's fit not a concern? It's pretty clear WB is dragging the team down offensively, they were winning games without him and now lose 3 games with him. Considering his max contract why the hell is his effect on a team remotely negative?
Tonight they kept Westbrick in check, and the Thunder easily won. If they can keep him under control like that they'll be a lot better. I honestly didn't think he had it in him.
OKC is considered a top organization because they have built from within and have risen to a level of dominance in the West over the last five years. They draft exceptionally well and would have the dominant team today in the NBA if the owners had been willing to spend the money to retain Harden. Ibaka, KD, WB, JH, Steph ...
Um what? 1) Wade plays the SG role, this allows a true PG (Chalmers or LBJ) to facilitate the offense instead of him trying to be something he's not just to pad stats. This is even more admirable when you consider Miami is "Wade's town" before LBJ got there, while KD was firmly the franchise guy when WB got drafted. Wade is the antithesis of what WB is doing, sacrificing his shots so his team can win. WHen was the last time Wade took more shots than LBJ when LBJ was putting up historic efficiency figures? WB does this on a nightly basis. 2) DH is a big man, and as a big man his contributions extend to defense and rebounding. Plus, check out his stats, DH isn't exactly Westbricking it out there on the post
Lots of orgs rise up over the past 5 years. Your list of "top orgs" will include teams like the Clips, Indiana, GS, Miami, Spurs and of course the Rox. Do you think all these teams are infallible and never make wrong decisions? Even Detroit has done a great job of drafting well, Detroit drafting Drummond is worth pretty much all the guys OKC drafted apart from KD. I'm also not sure why you differentiate "building from within" to building from without, who cares as long as the team becomes good as a result of it? OKC had tons of top draft picks, no wonder they can build from within. Also OKC signed Perkins as a FA, does that still count as building from within?
I don't know if it's Perkins not being at least on the bench or what, but if OKC doesn't start playing defense, they can forget about the Finals. Even when they were up 18 on the Grizzlies, I thought they looked shaky. Something isn't right with them and it goes beyond Westbrook. When you allow the Grizzlies 2nd unit to shred you mercilessly the entire 4th quarter and almost completely blow a big lead, that indicates major effort and intensity problems. They collapsed the same way against the Clippers and Cavs and if the Grizzlies hadn't blown a breakaway layup that would have cut the lead to 2, this one might have ended differently. Three games in-a-row they can't seem to get a stop in the last 4-5 minutes. Fortunately they have 20+ games to get their mojo back.
Drummond is worth Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, Steph and the rest? Do you understand how foolish that sounds? I do love Drummond but he may one day be worth what Harden currently is.
Hasn't Perkins been out a few games? I'm hearing their lack of interior defense, in his absence, is more detrimental to the team.
... They are obviously not a the same situations, but near the same ridiculousness of a statement such as Westbrook hurting the Thunder. That was what I was comparing. Those two statements were absurd, just like Westbrook hurting the Thunder is. Instead of this small regular game sample size, go look at before he was hurt and the playoffs last year. This shouldn't even be an argument.
I guess I'm in the minority then, OKC had like 4 top 5 draft picks so picking guys like Harden etc. for me was as expected. If you look at their roster now, that team is still pretty much dependent on KD, if he gets injured I'm not sure they even make the playoffs. Drummond is pretty special, JTR says he might one day be worth what Harden is but at the end of the day Harden's just a wing player, you can find similar if lower qualities guys like that in the draft every year. OTH, getting guys who are healthy and can play the C spot is a rare commodity so I think he's worth more than Ibaka and WB, because you can get someone in FA who can do what they do but guys like Drummond can only be drafted, they are automatic max contracts and only leave their franchise when they want to.
How are WB and Wade not in the same situations? They are both undersized SGs, if anything WB right now was Wade before Shaq came to Miami. The difference is Wade quickly figured out he was an SG and deferred playmaking duties to a real pg instead of mooching off the pg spot like WB is doing. If you're a pg you better be a great playmaker (like Rondo) or a great shooter/scorer (like Tony Parker), because as a pg you're gonna handle the rock more than anyone else. WB is neither, and the only reason his selfish play isn't costing OKC is because KD is one of the most efficient shooters in the game. Again, how do you justify WB taking more shots than KD? If WB doesn't have ego issues he would've adjusted his game by now, but I guess proving that he's the "alpha dog" is more important than winning games.
Westbrook - 22 points, 9-10 FGs, 3-4 from 3 Durant - 19 points, 5-18 FGs, 0-5 from 3 DAT ONE GAME SAMPLE SIZE
KD TS% 0.598 (0.636 this season), 17.9 attempts a game (19.2 this season) WB TS% 0.521 (0.534 this season), 16.4 attempts a game (17.1 this season) So lemme get this straight, WB is scoring a full 10% less than KD, but he's only taking 2 less shots a game. For comparison's sake, Stephon Marbury is considered a selfish ball hog and he took less shots and was more efficient career-wise than WB....and this includes his last season where he averaged a putrid 33% TS. Like I said before, the best thing that ever happened to WB was getting drafted by OKC, he got paired with the best scorer in the league AND he gets to play with 3 other guys who have limited scoring abilities. OKC's faulty lineup allows him to take all the shots he wants to put up the standard 20+ pts a game and KD's efficiency makes up for all the shots he does brick up.
