Maybe that's why he's not the best player in the game. He needs his team to find ways to give him the ball in the spots he wants.
It's obvious where Harden learned his ISO moves. Carry-over from OKC Idiotic to not get Durant moving off screens. Idiotic to keep giving WB the ball to shoot them out of games. But the genius of CP3--slicing up the defense with pnrs successively. How come Rockets keep going away from that play?
100% disagree with this sentiment. Russ is basically a smaller Lebron. Eric Bledsoe is cut from the same cloth. He can score, pass, rebound, defend; he's the total package. KD gets a ton of touches a game, and today helped prove that he can't run the OKC offense.
Would it have helped if Brooks ran some off the ball screens to help Durant get open to get the ball? Yes. Would some kind of curl or hand off from a big to Durant help? Yes. But the bigger problem was Durant simply had trouble getting open to get the ball AND he was guarded by CP3 a 6 foot pg. CP3 was able to deny him the ball for 10+ secs on the wing 1on1 which shouldnt be possible. CP3 was forcing Durant to catch the ball near the 3 point line and wasting tons of time just to receive it and Half the time Durant couldnt get even get open, forcing WB to go 1v1. Durant simply has to be able to post a pg in the post or atleast at the elbow. I can understand to a certain degree Durant having trouble getting open in those spots with tony allen a terrific defender or a bigger defender, but a 6 foot pg???? Durant shouldnt need to have brooks call plays to get him open or screens when hes is guarded by a pg. That just doesnt make any sense. You want Durant to get the ball in the post or the elbow and be doubled, so he can swing it to the open man. Problem was, when Durant did actually get open and the ball, he was doubled at the 3 point line, and made terrible passes which led to turnovers.
Rivers said during the post game that he was trying to get Durant to post up to get him out of his comfort zone. Funny thing is that he refused to post CP3, and instead, just struggled to handle to ball at the top of the key ultimately leading to turnovers. OKC will definitely adjust to this after watching film. I would say Brooks should have called better plays, but I'm pretty sure Westbrook and Durant would just ignore those plays anyway.
The loss is on Scott Brooks for being a dumbass and Durant who somehow couldn't post-up a 6ft PG (reminiscent of Lebron vs JJ Barea). Westbrook playing out of control and throwing bad shots is very much a product of the simplistic and iso-heavy offense of Scott Brooks. And that's why the chances of OKC winning a title with Brooks are very slim: you just can't expect to grind through an exacting Western conference by relying solely on feats of skills or elite atleticism.
Everyone is smashing Westbrook for that last shot, but once he had the ball in his hands everyone knew he was going to shoot it...& he's made it in the past. Thabo Sefolosha should've passed it ahead to Durant, who was wide open for either a shot or drive to the basket.
2 guys were converging on Durant there. Westbrook got a great look. Should have took one step in closer. But they didn't lose the ball game there.
The Thunder wasn't deciding between Westbrook and Harden when they dumped Harden. They were deciding between Harden and Ibaka. Because they already have two guys that are better scorers than Harden, they felt Ibaka was more important to the team as a defender. It would be nice to have Harden as a sixth man, but not at a max contract. The Rockets biggest problem right now is that they have a max contract to a sixth man calibur player who plays no defense and another max contract to a former superstar who is a shell of his former self. Yes, Howard's stats this year are even worse than last year with the Lakers where he was crucified as finished. Before the Rockets move towards a championship, they need to dump both Harden and Howard. Both are fools gold right now so they can fetch some value from some sucker franchises. Blazers would probably laugh at an offer for Aldridge, but maybe Sacramento would take Howard for Cousins. And I think Harden is a sell high candidate right now. Maybe he can fetch a guy like Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love.
Laughable. You want to trade Harden for a guy like Love or Irving, when both of them have done nothing to get their team in the playoffs and the knock on both of them is the same knock on Harden, his defense. Also, do you think a team of Irving + Cousins with this current line up is better than Harden + Howard?
I laugh at this post. You are saying that we are overpaying Howard? He stepped it up big for us in the playoffs.
Look up LBJ's efficiency and compare it to WB. Just cause the dude chucks 30 shots a game and scores 25 a night it doesn't make him a devastating scorer. I hope this WB love fest keeps going and KD gets all the hate, maybe then he can go with his buff Harden and play in his home state of Texas. Come back home Kd, obv OKC thinks you're Mr Unreliable and WB is the man.
When he is on his A game, Russell Westbrook is the second best player in the NBA. James Harden is not close. The issue was between keeping Harden v. Ibaka.
This thread is about Harden and Westbrook, not about Durant. I don't think people's opinion about Westbrook has changed much. But people's opinion about Harden has dramatically changed after the playoffs series.
