WOJ: BREAKING Westbrook to Houston for CP3 & Picks!!!

Trading away CP3 was unconscionable at the time. The difference in style, fit, usage, ability and pairing it with our team and how he fit on the court with Harden was super obvious, Remarkable how the FO went with that, even if it was what Harden wanted.

 

My issue with the trade was less about sending out Paul and more about bringing back Westbrook. From even the most basic of laymen's perspective, there was no good way to fit both Harden and Westbrook on the court at the same time without rendering one or the other an afterthought. I didn't see any potential for a two-way/PnR game for them, and neither displayed consistent off-the-ball shooting.

That being said, the little bit of chemistry between Paul and Harden was clearly gone (and there wasn't much to begin with - they succeeded by taking turns running the offense, not by complimenting each other) and Paul seemed washed. Perhaps we could have rehabilitated Paul's trade value with half a season, but it's likely that Harden would have pouted and played worse under such a scenario.

It always seemed to me that the best possible "superstar" pairing for Harden was a three-point shooting, defensive minded 3 or 4 with whom he could run the PnR. The closest we had was Ariza, but he was a role-player at best (and at the end of his tenure here, seemed pretty washed himself). As I said before, the only player who ever seemed to have good chemistry with Harden was Capella - if we could have had a player like him with a legit outside shot, this team would have been much, much deadlier and I think Harden much happier.

I definitely agree with everyone who noted that Morey got way too impatient at the end of his tenure here, and too often overpaid for the wrong people and then wasted draft assets to unload them. It also didn't help that he let way too many valuable assets walk at the end of their contracts. The whole Parsons debacle - while somewhat of a blessing given his later injury history - was a key example of Morey holding on too long to someone that wanted out. The moment his agent demanded we shave a year off his contract in return for helping us get Dwight, Morey should have been on the phones looking for a trade. You can't tell me that Parson's wouldn't have brought decent value at that time.

 

While not everybody wants to be led , looking backward we are so fxxked up in this trade.

 

CP3 trade is why you don't let players Control the Franchise decision-making. A certain QB's legal trouble is another. Teams need to do what is best for the team as a whole and not cater to one player's whim in major decisions.

 

It happened because it’s what Tilman wanted. When you are trading away your highest paid player you better believe the owner asked for it.

 

But somehow many people continued to just roll right along with it right up until the plane hit the ground about 3 weeks after the Harden trade.

 

still have lost folks around here. Amazing when it's such old news. They didn't go with it

Morey said of Harden. "When I let him know it probably wasn't going to happen, he was good. He understood. He said, 'Hey, if there's a way to make it happen, let's do it,' but he understands that you can't just snap your fingers and make things happen in the NBA. No one is out there trying to help us. It's always a dynamic when you're trying to get the deal done."



Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta tells final hours of Paul, Westbrook deal

In a Wednesday interview with Fox Sports 1’s Colin Cowherd, Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta shed new light on the final hours before the Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook trade was agreed to with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, July 11.

When Cowherd asked where the Rockets’ owner was when he decided to make the move for Westbrook, Fertitta responded:


I was in Europe, and so I was six or seven hours ahead of them. So I’m talking at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. And we just decided to do it. They ran different statistics by me.

My basketball ops [operations] got maybe a little weak at the end, and I just said, ‘We’re doing this. We are going to make the change. We’re going to go after it and roll the dice. We’re going to find that 5 percent.’

 

"I know exactly what we need to do".

 

Nothing in your post defeats the premise that Harden wanted to push CP3 out.

Tillman wanting CP3 out and Harden wanting him out are not mutually exclusive premises.

 

it's amazing how you try and continue to quote me when it's been obvious for a long time with no replies from me, I have no interest in discussions with you. Your posts killed that for me a long time ago being so consistently dumb. So it looks like i need to say it one last time. feel free to continue replying though. don't expect anything back

 

So Ayton himself said Chris Paul was teh best thing to happen to his career, beause of him pushing him and being a leader in ways that only a Veteran can.

In Houston, that veteran who ha the respect and ear of both our stars was Ariza. He was not only the leader of our switch heavy defense championed by him, tucker, mbah, and Jeff Bzdelik. He was a former champion, played with Kobe, had the respect of harden and paul. He was the "glue" guy , the ex factor.

Oddly enough everyones blaming anyone they can here. Chris Paulin his own words seen differently:

Former Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul was on the Knuckleheads podcast with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson and explained the impact of the Rockets losing Ariza.

“People don’t realize, that’s the biggest thing that we missed. That was tough when we lost [Ariza] because he sorta was like the glue. He was that glue for our team.”


Sadly, these aren't healining moves. So espn an the casuals only point to the stars, but you can go back anywhere in history be it PAxon, Kerr, Fisher, Kenny Smith, Mario Elie, Horry multiple times, so on and so forth where the role players, non healing veteran contracts, make the vital plays when it comes to playoffs and the margins are small, depth and details matter.

Ariza was a one year contract, we could've matched with no future ramifications. We could've traded him as an expiring that year(he was traded for Kelly Oubre).

Instead we replaced him with Carmelo(cut after 10 games, kept on half the season on a minmum contract so we can trade him tax friendly).

Daniel House( got from gleague, cut in January while playing big role, cut for melo's contract to be traded and also for a tax friendly deal),

James Ennis, in the rotation, original replacement for ariza. Was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder, no player in return.


And that is the emobiement of the LAndry's Rockets. Water down the drinks, cheap out on the margins, but deliver a good enough entertainment experience(the stars) to draw fans and sell merchandise. Focus on profits and margins. This is a great practice and real winning if you're the Fertittas...its terrible for the players, the gms, coaches-who all left money on the table to leave...and most importantly terrible for our fans. But don't worry, plenty of people seem to have their agenda to make sure Tilman doesn't have a smaller Yacht than MBS in the French Riviera this summer on the billionaire travel circuit...and if harden got "everYthInG he WanTed" then given the evidence of our transactions, him an morey may really have just wanted tilman' to make money. How sweet of them.

 

I just cannot do it anymore..... I have done it for so long.

The owner of the Rockets wanted to trade Chris Paul.... his own buddy at ESPN (McMahon) reported that Tilman was telling everyone that Paul was the worst contract in the NBA and regretted listening to the GM and signing Paul.

The owner of the team went on a nationally syndicated show and said that his basketball people were soft on the Westbrook trade, and that he is the one that insisted it would happen.

The GM at the time said that Harden supported a Westbrook trade but was fine with the fact it likely wouldn't happen.

The Westbrook trade happened because the owner of the team was not happy with Chris Paul....... it didn't happen for any other reason.

 

The fact that cp3 is 3 wins away from a finals mvp and winning a ship, while Tilman is worrying about how to just not be the worst team in the league again is such a hilarious situation as the leagues worst owner. and all it took was 2 years

 

Yeah he basically stripped a 65 win team that was a pulled hamstring to Paul away from beating possibly one of the 5 best teams ever and winning a championship. He pushed Paul out the door for a worse player, a worst contract AND gave up a lot of assets to do it..... he let Ariza leave and forced his GM to replace him with basically a minimum salary guy in Ennis.... he had a contract dispute with the coach behind his defensive excellence.... then he had a very long and public contract dispute with his head coach..... he traded away James Harden.... he traded away PJ Tucker...... he lost his entire coaching staff other than Lucas...... he lost his GM and assistant GM......

Now he "rules" over an organization where the best player is a quasi center that cannot stay healthy and was on the waiver wire less than two years ago .... He just appointed one of the most terrible basketball executives in recent memory to be in charge of the scouting department, and he has his unqualified son paling around with the GM and making basketball decisions.......

Only dumb luck kept him from over paying Victor Oladipo....

Meanwhile Harden isn't in the Finals because of terrible injuries to himself and Kyrie.... and CP3 is three wins from winning a title and being remembered as a top 4 point guard all time....... and is doing it on a franchise that has sucked for decades.

 

Quit making it seem like Tilman is 100% at fault for this knowing ultimately Morey and Harden were the ones who created this tension in the first place.

 

I think this thread should never be bumped again.

Actually, I want to forget this trade ever happened.

 

He's 100% at fault for making the actual move and pushing it through. That's ultimately the only thing that matters.

 

The trade wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Tillman. Harden wasn't threatening to leave over CP3 and Morey didn't want the trade.

 

Both parties at fault.