Achilles injury recovery in the NBA

cp3 had already started training and that diet before trade rumors even began. That was something he had already mentioned when he said he was preparing for the rockets upcoming season. It didn't all of a sudden happen after he got traded.

 

They were a bad fit because the scheme used for Harden makes *everyone* a bad fit. Everything caters to maximizing him (which makes theoretical sense since he's so good) but it comes at everyone else's expense.

The issue every single year after the Rockets are eliminated is (1) Harden played too many minutes and (2) Harden needs more help / the role players suck. Guess what - Russ should be the perfect solution to helping with that. As was Chris Paul. They both diversify the offense and help get more out of role players. They can lead when Harden is out (or just going into his funks). When the team is going 0-20 shooting 3s, they can do something different. But it all only works if the team uses them properly and the Rockets refuse to do that. They just run the Harden-offense and expect other superstars to fit in when that style is not what made them superstars. John Wall won't fit any better - the results will be no different except that he's already injured, while the others waited to get injured.

That's why I said he was theoretically the ideal partner - he addressed Harden's weaknesses. It never worked because the Rockets didn't do what's needed to make it work. The Rockets will have the same issues as always this year - the role players will look mediocre, the stars won't fit quite right. But we'll add back the problem we that Paul/Westbrook were partly brought here to help address: the team will look disinterested and lack effort in critical moments due to a lack of leadership. John Wall isn't that kind of leader.

 

This is something that people will not understand on this message board. Harden's play style makes almost every star guard a bad fit.

He's still technically a bad fit for CP3 because the ideal for for CP3 would be someone like Curry who can play great with the ball AND WITHOUT the ball. Harden can't and therefore will always be a bad fit for a playmaking guard.

CP3 was just that skilled of a player where he could make it work. He was just an excellent shooter and one of the most intelligent players in the league.

 

That's not true, Harden absolutely can play with or without the ball, he's just the best in the league with the ball, so it's foolish to want to have anyone else do it all that often.

The reason CP3 worked was because he could play off-ball in that he was a decent enough shooter. The reason Westbrook failed is because he shoots about like what you'd expect from Shaq.

Having another ball handler is a good thing, so long as they aren't absolutely worthless without the ball in their hands.....that's exactly what Westbrook was. He was worthless without the ball in his hands, and still pretty terrible with it in his hands.

Since Wall can shoot the ball decently in certain situations, he's a considerably better fit on the team next to Harden. You still won't want to take the ball out of Harden's hands all that often, but why would you want to do that anyway?

 

I actually did not know that. Thanks for the info, even though it makes me hate the trade even more. If CP3 had done it the year before I doubt he gets traded, though.

I still think rolling the dice on Russ over CP3 with the window closing would have been a reasonable gamble with minimal draft assets attached. As-is it was inexcusable, though.

 

This.

So much this.

 

Wait what?

The whole Capela trade was to make it work.

Did you really say CP3 and WB get more help out of role players?

When did that happen for the Clippers or OKC?

That biggest issues with those teams where the lack of role players stepping up.

 

I wish CP3 would have started taking PEDs in his first season with the Rockets instead of spite cycling after his trade to OKC -- Abs, alley oops, and injury free -- just 34 year old Chris Paul things.

 

So with John Wall, the trade was essentially Chris Paul + 1 FRP for John Wall -- once you factor in the irrelevant pick swaps.

That's closer to what you suggested. It's still not ideal, depending on where those FRPs end up, but certainly less bad than how the original Chris Paul trade looked in hindsight.

Obviously the most recent Chris Paul to the Suns trade is a different story once his trade value was rebuilt -- again in hindsight. However I still don't think Chris Paul can stay healthy over an entire, non-interrupted season at his age.

 

I'm no doctor, but everything I've read says achilles is the harder one to come back from.

 

Wall’s shooting has been up and down in his career. He has said the issues with his knees impacted his shoot... we will see. He has shot the 3 adequately in the past 35% to 37% on a high volume. He also shoots well on assisted 3’s and open 3’s... he shoots terrible on pull up 3’s and mid range shots... his game strengths fit the Rockets well. Defensively he is also a lot better than Westbrook.

Wall is more of a pure point guard than Westbrook but he cannot shoulder the offensive load that Westbrook does, but he doesn’t need to with Wood and Gordon on the roster.

With Wall it comes down to health and motivation.

Still, the Rockets are adding: Wall, Wood, Nwaba, Brown, Cousins.

They have lost: Westbrook, Green, Rivers...

This Rockets team has a lot of upside

 

Maximizing Harden maximizes harden, not the team.

 

LOL. Maximizing Harden maximizes harden, not the team.

Which is why Harden needed to play the CP3 role.....AT TIMES.

And Wall turns it over more than WB.

Maybe.... maybe not. The dude hasn't played NBA basketball in 2 years.... lot different than in the gym I hear......

 

No player is "so good with the ball" that having a good off ball game would be a detriment.

This team in a 7 game series is so damn predictable because it's so easy to predict where and what our best scorer in Harden is going to do. It's why there is this trend of Harden in 7 game series doing amazing in game 1s and then having worse statistical outputs later on in the series because teams easily adjust to a one dimensional player.

It's very easy to deny the ball to Harden in the playoffs in late game stages because of his lack of off-ball movement.

It's like asking why the Chiefs still run the ball occasionally when they have Mahomes and that deadly wide receiver corps. Because you have to keep defenses honest and not hedge all their bets on one type of play.

 

Nope, it served multiple purposes. Capela was more than likely going to have a wasted year due to his soft tissue injury.

Woods is a better fit with a WB if we were going to continue to play ISOball, we just couldn't get a non jeff green shooting big man last year.

Have you considered its hard to step up when you have such a specific role because everything is geared towards a Harden scheme?

 

The Rockets tried letting Westbrook create. Defenses stayed on Harden and gave Westbrook a huge cushion because he is terrible at shooting or making decisions on the perimeter.

It didn’t work, that wasn’t Harden’s fault. Harden deferred to Westbrook and even changed his game and the Rockets were not as good.

It was a terrible fit. End of story... also the idea that Harden just wants to accumulate individual numbers is absurd, he played badly hurt last year and cut his shots down so Westbrook could take more.

At the end of the day, Westbrook isn’t someone that plays well with other elite scoring guards and his game is largely neutralized in the playoffs.

 

Two of our most important pieces for next season are coming off of achilles ruptures. I'll be shocked if both Cousins and Wall play more than half the season.

 

He definitely shows signs of this with him staying late in blowout games trying to reach some sort of headline stat such as a triple double or 60 pts. He definitely cares about that stuff. It's pretty obvious. It's not unique to Harden. I'm sure a lot of stars have similar mentalities but denying that Harden does is homerism.

 

Exactly. Nipsey was murdered because of jealously. The killer saw how excited his girlfriend was to see Nipsey and in his drunken, high, already jealous state that’s all it took.