The clippers need a point guard. The Rockets Could use a player that can play defense and shoot the 3. A trade of Westbrook for Paul George makes a lot of sense. I doubt the Clippers would want Westbrook but you never know. Despite some of his recent decline he’s still a guy that can get you a triple double on any given night.
I know it wasn't his whole career, just a year or two but he has had it before. Unfortunately for him they went against this ridiculousness of artificial stacking:
I would say it was 70% Scott Brooks insisting on playing Kendrick Perkins significant minutes in the NBA Finals and 30% going up the Miami Big 3 that led to OKC losing.
Maybe.... but still feels like that's selling him short. He's not Lebron or Harden where he can run an offense on his own.
It might be a poor analogy but this is almost like a Manning vs Brady argument where Brady has been labeled as a system QB while Manning has been credited as being his own OC during his days as a Colt. The truth might be somewhere in the middle where Brady became great because the system New England ran heightened his strengths and masked his weaknesses while Manning's greatness in reading defenses and adjusting at the line of scrimmage created way too much pressure/stress on him to act as both a QB and an OC thereby lowering the ceiling on his performances in the playoffs. LeBron or Harden can run on offense on their own because they have an innate skill to be a playmaker while Kawhi lacks in that department but, in the right system, he can excel which is what we saw in Toronto where he showed us he was a pretty good ball distributor when needed. I have no doubt in my mind that if it was Popovich or Nurse sitting on that bench instead of Rivers the Clippers would have eliminated Denver in 5 games.
I agree, I just wouldn't call Kawhi a system player like I wouldn't call Hakeem a system player due to the nature of their game's and the nature of basketball (that favors ball handlers). I'm not saying you are calling Kawhi that, just adding an example.
2014 Spurs was a very deep and balanced team. Everyone contributed.He earned that MVP but he was still super raw and the way people talk about it, you'd think he carried the crap out of that 2014 team. Like i said that team was great with multiple players being touted as the best.Spurs would not have gotten a championship if it was only Kawhi. That Golden State team was riddled with injuries.Fully healthy GSW would have beaten that Raptors team in 5.Hell, even before Klay went down in game 6 Warriors were winning that game.After Klay went down Steph was getting triple teamed and it was all downhill for GSW Besides;Lowry,VanVleet,Siakam,Gasol played great in that series.It was not all Kawhi.If i recall correctly, at some point in the series,Kawhi had like 2 or 4 points in 4th quarter and rest of the team had to carry him. So yeah, context matters.
Totally agree, that series was much closer than the 1-4 result. Game 2, 3, 4 were all very close, and were decided by the last few possessions. I guess that's why many people blamed Harden for the loss of that series, because had Harden played like himself in the Spurs series, they probably would have won regardless of the poor coaching job by SB. But Bosh spoke publicly that their number 1 focus was to shut down Harden, so I think that's a pretty good coaching job by Spoelstra. This tactic indirectly led to Thunder trading Harden, and the destruction of what would have been a Thunder dynasty. Back to Perkins, he was abysmal that series, and Battier killed them because of that. SB should have put Harden into the starting lineup, which would perfectly match Heat's Bosh center lineup. I know part of the reason why they traded Green for Perkins is Green's heart problem. But imagine if they have kept Green, Ibaka, Green, KD, Harden, Russ, this will be a perfect small ball (not midget ball) lineup.
Kawhi is a great player, definitely top 5 in the league. Hit a great shot last year. But a lot of things went right for him in last year's run, especially with GS's injuries. The West is different.
The crazy part is that they didn't need Green. If Brooks would have played a "small" ball lineup of: Ibaka Durant Sefolosha Harden Westbrook Together more that might have worked. Brooks got outcoached in that series by a mile. I was in total disbelief that he got another coaching gig after OKC.
Yeah, if they didn't trade Green, Green would miss the entire 2011-2012 season, but Brooks would be forced to not use Perkins in the final which would give them a much larger chance to win. If they won, they would pay Harden, and they would have a dynasty.
I mean Dame's right if we're talking about whether or not Kawhi has proven to be a future HOFer and/or a top 10 player in the league. But to whatever fanbase the Clippers have he should/need to prove it to them that trading 427 picks for Paul George was the right move to make. Kawhi's so wishy washy that I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves the Clippers next summer.
If he wants to stay close to home, there is only 1 other destination not counting the Worriers. And he doesn't even have to move.
Stars want to play with Lebron, and they don't want to play with Harden. Like it or not, that's on Harden.
