This isn't a thread meant to trash Russ, I think he can add a lot of value to many teams in the league. He certainly had some good moments with the Rockets too. But at 40M, playing alongside Harden, we're not getting the best bang for your buck from him. Not even close. What reasonable player(s) can we trade Russ for?
Trade harden to brooklyn for the boston package. Let westbrook retire a rocket and build him a statue outside of toyota center
Maybe our best bet to find a trading partner is to look to a team that's just happy to make the playoffs. Clearly, Russ' game doesn't lead to wins in the playoffs, but not every team is trying to win a title. So which team would take Russ just to sell some merch and some seats? Think: Griffin to Detroit. I would say Orlando. Gordon + Ross works salary-wise. Westbrook Fournier _______ Isaac Vucevic That's actually a good lineup, and I think Westbrook would like playing with a stretch 5. Westbrook's contract sucks but it's not like free agents ever go to Orlando, so what do they need the cap space for? PS - I don't think we are gonna trade Westbrook so this is just a fantasy.
btw: the guy I responded to is an actual, "retired" '99er that we all loved and miss. @thacabbage, right? I probably don't do that this time except to target both more easy, in one bit of effort. fwiw: Twitter's formatting is superior, and vastly easier for images and videos. You might see me do that a lot. Treat it as a formatting tool rather than cfnet's clumsy images and video abilities requiring 3rd P sites anyhow. But, I will filter myself to require both social networks being actual targets of the conversation
The only possible Russ trade is for an equally overpaid and ineffective player. We have no assets to attach to his contract because we gave them up to get him in the first place. Nobody is gonna take him on without dumping something on us or getting something back. Plenty of us were furious when this trade happened for this exact reason. CP3 is certainly grossly overpaid now, but he's still an extremely good 2 way player and has one less season. We gave up assets for a worse player with a longer contract, and now the franchise is at a dead end with no real way to make meaningful changes to personnel. On top of that we have an owner who is still gonna nickel dime whatever few moves we can make The only glimmer of possible hope is that we bring in a new coach who can somehow utilize Westbrook, but many coaches have tried and he just isn't a dog that learns new tricks. We can get a ton for Harden is we decide to nuke it, but aside from him the only players with positive trade value are Tucker and Covington, and they are both role players who won't bring back an impact player. Gordons contract is underwater, and the rest of the team is fringe rotation guys.
Agreed a trade at all, let alone with Orlando, isn’t going to happen. If it did, give me: Gordon/Bamba/Ross. Two young bigs that can hit corner 3’s and help resurrect the Harden PnR. Ross is a borderline elite shooter. Orlando gets a big name they could never land via free agency while keeping their core intact. We just have to live with the disappointment of knowing the best player we turned CP3 into was Aaron freaking Gordon.
