Source close to Westbrook believe he was made out to be a scapegoat for Houston's playoff meltdown

Some of that was having no center and the microball scheme, but I agree that everyone knew what the Rockets were trying to do and especially knew what Russ was about.

Its hard to win when the other team has your playbook.

 

House is worth his contract. Westbrook isn’t.

 

can we also remember that Harden has perennially underperformed in the playoffs too. i'm not trying to stick up for Russ. i think the lack of accountability for max star players is pathetic, but i don't see why Harden keeps getting a pass for underperforming in the playoffs too.

 

I mean it was a mistake to trade Cp3 period. Westbrook is the worse player. But thats neither here nor there. We could have probably upped Westbrook's value this season too. My point is that no one seems to think Harden is making him worse nor do they care about his injuries.

Harden needs to be more accountable yes. But Harden did sacrifice for Westbrook. The dude just sucked. Harden made plenty of sacrifices for him.

PG13 just had a good year, Russ didnt unlock him. And maybe PG13 is a better off ball player. But again...that didnt make Russ any better. Russ has gotten worse every year since his MVP season, he is in decline right now.

No, because giving the ball to a dude who's a worse player doesnt help you. If it were true, OKC wouldnt have gotten thrashed against Portland in the playoffs and then Utah the year before.

 

And I don't disagree with any of this. I just think Harden could have sacrificed more. I remember him going to Curry and saying "I want what you have." but I honestly don't think he realizes how much Curry has sacrificed to get what he has. We always see Curry off ball, we always see him letting other guys take over, fitting into a system, being selfless. People here get on Curry but don't see that's a big reason his teams are fluid, why he wins, why guys play well with him, why he has rings. I mean curry knew once Durant came to that team there would be no more MVPs, dude didn't GAF. He's about winning, watching him in those series opened my eyes to how much he sacrifices and it reminds me of another completely selfless superstar, Duncan.

I think a superstar should do whatever it takes to make the team better or at least try when they know what they are doing isn't good enough.

I think Harden needed to be a pure 2 with Russ on the floor for this to have a chance to work out. We didn't see that. Maybe it's true that Harden can't do that though.

But Harden has gotten trashed with high usage many years ni the playoffs too. I don't think that's indicative of his play, just that his teams were worse.

The first post-Durant OKC year they weren't even supposed to make the playoffs, overachieved.

The 2nd year yes...but people really forget (here at least on this forum because Westbrook ALWAYS has to get the heat) that PG13...embarrassed himself. That whole 'Playoff P' thing happened then. Now after another year of 'Playoff P' showing up people are wondering about Paul George.

 

This. It comes with the territory of being a legit franchise superstar. The franchise part is the team, not the individual. Playing off ball and moving 15%/20%/25% of the time when sharing the floor with WB would have been such a travesty? Could we at least try so we can check it off the list?

 

Klay wishes he could a poor man's Harden for bursts too.

See how that works?

 

Why would Klay wish that when he has nba rings being actual Klay? Doing the hard things in the NBA.... is unsurprisingly hard.

 

Curry is playing in a system that maximizes his strengths, shooting.

Curry is not a traditional past first PG, that is why Draymond is so valuable to GSW.

The best teams figure out how maximize their best player, instead of forcing their best player to conform to a preconceived role.

It's just like real life.

 

Outside of Harden and Jeff Green. I think everyone else played below expectations in the playoffs. Could make a case for BMAC playing well, maybe we were hiding him in the OKC series, but he had some good offensive stretches.

--- Reasons:
* House missing the Lakers series (outside of game 1?). He did OK defense on Lebron, the series may have been closer.

* The ball taps never called by Refs in OKC and Laker series.

* Vogel made more adjustments than MDA.

* Little answer to the double team.

* Lakers went with stretch bigs, but we didn't have the height/wingspan to respond. Deflection and steals while good, in the playoffs Refs got HOU into early foul troubles. In fairness, HOU's effort on Defense was there, even though wasn't always effective.

* In the playoffs, Russ played below average. The feeling I'd describe was disappointment. There's so much hate by some of ya'll. He was still in Rockets uniform, to no avail, but I genuinely believe in his mind, he was trying to take over.

Really not a fan of that smug Lakers clip and posting it here of all paces. Opposing team, brothers. I think I never hated Lakers more than that moment when they did it to our team.

* As far as Lakers winning the 'ship. Nuggets and Portland were also a 4-1 series. MIA probably gave them the most trouble.

 

LOL

Of course this goes right over your head.

 

Thank you! It's really funny that some people try to some slick words like they're basketball geniuses and I'm not for saying Harden sucked. Guess what, he did! Remember him chucking threes at the end of games, getting outplayed by Dort, being useless against the Lakers once double-teamed? Man you guys must have not been around when Olajuwon was here, that's a guy who actually performed when it mattered. Harden is getting paid almost 50% of the team's budget, that comes with RESPONSIBILITY and ACCOUNTABILITY!

We know Harden doesn't own to losing and playing bad, excuses are plentiful, I mean look at fans rushing to his aid everywhere. But I'm just not okay with a guy making that much money, running around like half a GM, refusing to adapt and then doing all this silly one-legged three point shot nonsense while flaming out of the play-offs every year. 2018 was great, yes, but even then there were games where he should've put the team on his back and he didn't.

I just must have different standards to a guy making that much money, forcing the GM to trade your buddy here and what not and then surprise surprise: our hands are tied to make moves. It's a miracle Morey and now Stone have been able to deliver. Granted Morey never got Harden the 3pt shooting support, or MDA wouldn't play them, but still. There's been enough talent to be better and actually own up to your star status.

 

this is pretty corny, but have you heard that Russ is going to wear #4 out of respect for none other than Agent Zero himself Gilbert "ill shoot your eye out" Arenas???

Aaron Brooks Stans of the world unite!! We will not stand for this any longer!!

 

Because Curry is an elite off ball player who can shoot it from anywhere. Curry worked hard on his off ball skills and battled through his glass ankles.

 

Leave it to you to completely miss the point being made.

Hint: this isnt about Curry.

 

It feels like you missed JayGoogles point about Curry which goes to a larger theme we've been trying to discuss about Harden and his role/play.

 

Jeremy Lin would've been a upgrade over Russell Westbrook.

 

I don’t blame Westbrook, I already knew exactly who he is, he delivered as expected, I blame Tilman and Harden for trading for him.

 

What the hell are you talking about? Harden played great against the Lakers. He averaged around 29 points, over 7 assists, nearly 5 rebounds, and he had 1.5 steals per game. He also shot very efficiently. He also did all that whilst getting double-teamed for most of the series. If Westbrook could shoot or could take advantage of a double-team, we would have comfortably won that series. The Lakers couldn't stop Harden.