There was, if not an expectation, then certainly a hope, that Westbrook would take the opportunity of playing alongside James Harden to develop into an off-ball cutter. That is how Dwyane Wade circumvented his shooting deficiencies to play alongside LeBron James, and given Westbrook's athleticism and finishing ability, he should have been a natural fit in doing so. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...xcept-for-the-houston-rockets-thought-he-was/
I largely agree with the article, Westbrook is very flawed and the hope/assumption (outside the organization) was that the Rockets would try to change him by having him be a cutter or better 3 point shooter... however that isn’t what the Rockets staff expected. If he were going to change, he would have years ago... instead the Rockets tried to double down on what he does well and limit the exposure of what he struggles at. The article is largely right, Westbrook hasn’t added to his game... and the Rockets are not the favorites (although they were really close to the two seed before ending in a slump pre Covid)... but it may not matter because by highlighting what WB does well, he is playing at an extremely high level... well enough that he and Harden have a chance to upset and win the title. The last 2.5 months of the season he averaged 31 points on 50% shooting from the floor and 8 rebounds and 8 assists... Not sure how he hasn’t “improved” by doubling down
S'all good, mang. In comes fun factor Gordon, wondered whether they had a 'predictable' article on him.
Aside from the fact that it focuses solely on the negative and omits the good things happening with Russ, I pretty much agree point-for-point with the article. It's nice to have juiced our transition game and Westbrook has saved some games for us with his late-game energy and aggression. But ultimately we're going to need both our shooting and our defense at their best to win a title, and no one should have expected either to hold up extremely well with Westbrook in. Defensively, it's very hard to sustain both Westbrook and Harden out there together - everyone else has to work overtime to make up for their shaky fundamentals. Offensively, Russ is a downright bad player in the halfcourt according to all available data. He covers for this by still being an absolute monster in transition. No defense wants to see him running downhill at a scrambling last man back. But in the halfcourt, you see guys cheating off him every play to get a head start on stopping Harden, and every halfcourt set run through Westbrook instead of Harden is a big win for the defense. If there is a way out of this trap for the Rockets, it's the return of Peak Eric Gordon, who spreads the floor out for Westbrook more and can capitalize on the attention drawn by our stars. Eric's horrible play this season has made the Westbrook experiment look a lot worse than Russ deserves.
Russ leads the entire league in drives per game. He's getting to the rim fine. Literally everything about the article is relatively meaningless, except for defensive efficiency. He says we are 17th and trending down. I'm curious about the trend, especially the trend since the trade to go small ball. In any case, they can't win a championship with an average defense. Either by forcing the other team to change their playing style to match with small ball and then being good at defense, or being good at pestering small ball defense, or whatever, they're going to have to have at least average defensive efficiency amongst the playoff teams, but more likely a top third. The only other way to win a ring is if small ball offense just clicks and dominates like not normally seen for 2 months. That seems unlikely. They should be good and really good there, but SO good to overcome being a below average playoff defensive team? Seems unlikely. Dang... didn't see this in time. Right now they are 15th in DRtg so i guess they trend up slightly in that department ultimately. But still too average.
