Knowing what we know now, would you still make the Russ trade?

Duh. Russ is having the best season of his career. The best season of Russ' career is certainly worth more than Paul's remaining years.

 

I guess I just don’t understand how anyone could objectively call this season one of Westbrook’s best...

Win shares: 2nd worst of his career
Win shares per 48 : 2nd worst of his career
Offensive bpm : 3rd worst of his career
Defensive bpm : 4th worst of his career
Overall bpm : 3rd worst of his career
Value over replacement: 2nd worst of his career
True shooting % : 6th worst of his career
Offensive rating : 4th worst of his career
Defensive rating : 2nd worst of his career
PER : 4th worst of his career
538s wins added metric has him tied for 4th on the team with House at 2.4(Harden leads the league at 14.9!)

He may have had the single best 20-30 or so game stretch of his career during this season, but as a whole this has been one of his worst. The first 30 or so games and the first 3 in the bubble have not been good, especially compared to his scorching streak.

But the glimpse we have had at how great he can be in this system we have created for him is very promising and deserves optimism.

 

It will all be worth it if we get to see him play against the Thunder and Paul In the playoffs. If you think his effort level is high now just wait lol

 

Nyet. Too costly to give up the salary and the picks. One or the other maybe, not both.

 

Have you ever seen Westbrook in the playoffs?

Its...not good.

 

I wasn’t a fan of the trade at the time because of the cost from a draft-pick perspective and Westbrook isn’t demonstrably better than Paul. It also forced the Rockets hand regarding Clint Capela, but I think it was time for Capela to go. He wasn’t the same defender on perimeter players and he never developed offensively. He had plateaued as a player, and Robert Covington is much more valuable than him in today’s NBA.

All that said, Westbrook has played better than I expected, and he has adjusted his shot selection and game to fit D’Antoni’s system more than I ever thought he would. He finally bought in and listened to a coaching staff that told him to stop jacking up threes. I give him major credit for being willing to humble himself.

I don’t think this version of the Rockets is worse than the 2019 team, and they have as much of a chance of winning the Western Conference as they did last season. The only way the 2019 team would be better is if Morey would have still added Covington at the trade deadline using the draft picks in the Westbrook/Paul trade.

 

Because you're looking at all the stats that are irrelevant when the two data sets are:

1) Brooks and Donovan's defensive teams with stupid offense; versus,
2) MDA's offense with stupid defense.

Think of Russ overall. At this point we know per 100 he is roughly an 8 rebound, 8 assist, 2 steal guy who is excellent in transition. His defense is poor to mediocre - that has not changed, except that he has no one to clean up for him now (hence looking even worse defensively).

Offensively however, he is averaging the highest EFG% and one of the highest TS% of his career (4th best, almost identical to his 2nd best). That's INCLUDING the pre small ball offense which was arguably his worst ever. The stats you have listed here are based on the average of the two, which is irrelevant. What's relevant is on this microball team, Westbrook is murdering it offensively for a period long enough to not call it a hit streak (25+ games).

That makes a HUGE difference and I'm firm believer we are STILL going to see him improve slightly.

 

What are those numbers since Capela/RoCo trade?

 

It would appear you are one of the only ones...

Flopsy Paul, never liked him until he was a Rocket. Happy to not like him again!! Shame we didn't win with him, but too old and that window closed.

 

I hated that guy while he was in LAC always .... I tolerated him as a Rocket.


Glad Felicia is gone ....

 

yeah, that is what is most important because that is the environment he will be in for the forseeable future

if u look at his cumulative advanced stats, they won’t be good...that’s what happens when u start off the 1st 30-40% of the season playing like garbage for numerous reasons that have been mentioned while having a very high usage rate...u can only climb out of that hole so much in the span of just 1 season

since the trade, Russ has averaged 30, 8, and 6 on 52/35/69 shooting splits and 57% TS which is solidly above average

we can take it back further to January 1st...since then he’s averaged 31, 8, and 7 on 57% TS

let’s see his WS/48, BPM, VORP, and all these other advanced stats during this prolonged period of play, and I challenge somebody to name 5 players that were playing better...Russ was even better than Harden from January 1st to the start of the bubble

 

Russ isn't cerebral as Chris Paul, but his speed and size is bringing another dimension to the team which was badly needed. He is making Harden's life easier. Chris did that too, but he wasn't the same last season after coming back from injury.

 

We do NOT want to play OKC. When Russ gets in his feelings about the opponent in the playoffs it never ends well for him.

 

I see a lot of members doing the old flip flop now that Westbrick is wearing a Rockets Jersey.

If you need a reminder on how you or other posters truly feel about Russ look no further than this as a refresher.

https://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/wc-first-round-3-portland-vs-6-oklahoma-city.297706/

WB is trash. He always has been. You can kid yourself and pretend he’s not.... just prepare to be disappointed when we lose in the first or 2nd round cause of Russ.

 

I think

this team has good chemistry now. Russ and James get along.... the whole team gets along and play well together. We’ve won against Bucks and Lakers (w/o Bron w/o Westbrook and EG.).

 

Rockets in 5

CF being terrified about OKC is like a sad tradition at this point...it happens every time

 

Capela would have played by now. I would trade him for Covington for this particular team. Covington is the better fit.

If we had held onto CP, maybe we didn't extend Eric and we traded him for Covington instead.

CP3/Harden/Covington/Tucker/ Capela. That team is better than what we have now.

We weren't a contender before and we aren't now.

We are a team with such volatility now, we could lose in the first round or win it all.

It's interesting but most likely won't come out with a championship.

 

When someone claims this is the best SEASON of a players career, how in the world could it be irrelevant to look at the SEASON long statistics for that player?

If you want to say that during this year we have unlocked the best Westbrook can be, that’s very likely true. And as I said is very promising and deserves optimism going forward.

But when you claim “best SEASON ever” I don’t see how it’s rational to only point to the games where he was great and ignore all the bad ones. They happened. If he was scorching all season he would be an MVP candidate and make an all NBA team. That’s just not the case.

Best stretch of games of his career? Probably
Do I consider a stretch of a season a whole season? No
Do I still believe Westbrook can really fu** things up for us? Yes
Do I like this trade way more than I did initially and prior to the commitment to better utilize him? Absolutely

 

I've been through this with you dude. Ok, I replace the word "best season of his career" to "best offensive performance of his career". I don't get why you enjoy living in technicalities.

Russell Westbrook in microball is the best offensive Russell Westbrook vs any OKC season. That's the point that will matter when we're making an assessment of how we'll do in the playoffs.

 

I disagree. I’m all about creating memories. And beating the Thunder would be a good one haha