Again, you can't bring Curry here without trading Beverley. Things could get dangerous. However, a Bev and MacKawli match might work.
Westbrook is overrated. As a basketball purist I hate the way he plays what I do like about him is his highlights there really fun. iv never understood the hype. I don't understand what is so appealing about "angry Russ" I like his passion for winning I respect that. But the guy plays fully off of his athleticism. He has zero basketball IQ when it comes to the understanding of actually making the right play and simple pass to get a great shot. I'll give him this, he's prob the only player I've ever seen at the NBA level play that elementary game in terms of getting assist. He doesn't know how to make proper reads he uses his ability to get in the paint and jump in the air and just pass it to the big or a three point shooter. It's the same thing we hated Jermey Lin for, but Russ makes it work. If Westbrook is on your team you'll never win a championship, and frankly I only see the thunder getting worse with teams like Denver the timberwolves and maybe the pelicans getting better. I think players and coaches in the NBA respect Russ and feel sorry for him that he lost KD as a teammate but if you polled them anonymously, my bet is 90% of them if not more would choose harden to play with and coach. Westbrook is not elite at anything other than rebounding. The metrics back this up. Harden is elite at a lot of things he sucks defenders to him like gravity and opens up easy looks for bigs more than any player in the league. He also for the past 3 years produced more open threes for teammates than any player in the league. He's assisted on more threes than any player ever. He's producing the most ppg off his own scoring or assist than anyone in the last 30-40 years of im not mistaken. Lebron is the goat but he's never produced over 50ppg and harden is producing 55+ nightly. I don't think ppl understand what we're watching with harden. He's a top 15 offensive player off alltime right now and you can make a legit case he is already top 10. He's special and is truely a generational guy. Harden without question can be the best player on a championship team Westbrook i know for fact can't even play a major role on one. Like Lebron you can put harden on any team and he makes them a threat and wins 50 games. There the only two guys that can do this. Iv seen harden win 50+ games in houston 3x and each one he has different players and style around him. His first year leading a bunch of scrubs at age 23 he won 45 games his worst year on a toxic roster that had mutiny still won 41 somehow and made the playoffs. Harden might be the best player in the game over Lebron nobody else in the league can say that. He's definitely the closets to replicating winning the way Lebron does and I don't think that can be disputed.
Harden took Tarik black, Joey Dorsey, Jason, Terry, Kostas pappanikola, , Trevor Ariza and Nick Johnson to the 2nd seed in the west and the current team to the third seed so I don't think it is unrealistic to think if you give him the current OKC team he would have them in the 3rd or 4th seed conversation. Harden can make people around him better. To put it in perspective, Nick Johnson, Joey Dorsey and Pappanikola are not on any NBA rosters anymore. Tarik Black cant get any minutes on the lowly Lakers and Terry is a 3rd string guard with the Bucks.
Adam is a bit under rated. He can create on the post, hustles on every play, and can defend very well.
Both teams would be worse. Harden cant do what Westbrook does for his team and Westbrook couldnt do what Harden does. Westbrook would need to score less and not go after stats, on the otherhand Harden would have to go after every single rebound every night, he would only be able to last 30mins per game.
Harden wouldn't need to do what Westbrook is doing in order for the Thunder to win. His much more efficient scoring and overall smarter play would elevate the team and his teammates. Look at what Harden does for Clint Capela. Imagine what he could do for a guy like Steven Adams?
