Any recommendations out there? I'd like to see him & House traded for Satorosky Temple Porter & Hutchinson. I think it lets us play traditional lineup Cousins Wood Tucker Porter Hutchinson Gordon Temple Harden Satorosky We will make the playoffs and maybe even compete if Cousins comes back as cousins of old or Wood becomes a star. Otherwise we get cap space or look at a rebuild next season. Westbrook will hold the younguns in Chicago accountable Westbrook White LaVine Williams House Markannen Young Carter Is a good young team with a leader who demands effort and commitment. Oladipo became a star after a season with Westbrook. Chicago younguns will learn what's required.
https://tradenba.com/trades/Qf8vgh8pB Shaq Harrison/Ben McLemore/Sterling Brown James Harden/Tomas Satoransky Otto Porter Jr./David Nwaba Aaron Gordon/PJ Tucker/Bruno Caboclo Christian Wood/Boogie Cousins
Porter on expiring contract and there is already talk of moving him before losing him for nothing. And Russ would make Bulls a legit playoff contender in the East. Russ and Coach Donovan have history. Russ has taken less talented Thunder teams to playoffs in the much tougher West. And Russ-Lavine-Pat Williams lineup would have #1 pace in NBA. Sign and Trade of Shaq Harrison also gives them TPE and a free pick.
just trade him for john wall + draft picks already... i don't care what condition john wall is in... if he can play even at replacement level so be it, anything more is a bonus. getting additional draft picks is gonna hopefully allow the rockets to build a trade package around eric gordon to try and bring in a star to pair with harden and christian wood. john wall's hideous contract doesn't even matter at this point bc we only have about two yrs left of win now mode... and we need a 2nd/3rd option that has higher iq than westbrook
I think the Bulls would rather lose Porter for nothing rather than giving up a first round pick and take on EG's contract just to lose in the first round for a couple years. I could be wrong though.
First unit is 5 Out w/PnR & motion, switch everything defense. 2nd unit is 2-3 zone, inside>outside offense w/motion. 2nd unit: PG - 6'7 Satoransky SG - 6'5 Nwaba SF - 6'5 Brown PF - 6'9 Bruno C - 6'10 Boogie On D - Boogie at the nail, Bruno and Satoransky flanking him. Brown and Nwaba attacking ball. Good mix of volley ball players and middle linebackers. On O - Drop it in the post, wheel of 3ball shooters around the arc, the Dream offense. Mix up PnR.
it's not a signal for a rebuild... it's the fact that rockets draft capital is so low that they can't create enough value in trades to bring in good players. like i said, package those acquired picks + eg + filler (house?) and get some player(s) who can make a difference. i think we've known for the past several yrs that westbrook just isn't it and last yr further confirmed it. trading for john wall+picks isn't a rebuild signal, it's basically a mulligan with signifcant costs... but at least it allows the team a way to reconfigure the roster via acquiring draft picks to trade. at this point, with barely any draft picks available... rockets can't be real players in the trade market no matter how many random trade ideas clutchfans comes up with.
Wall may not be 100% until AS break and playing back to back is very unlikely. On a team with such shallow depth, this would be a rebuild. You trade Russ for complementary players for Harden. Harden is the PG on this team.
like i said, i wouldn't even be counting on wall to provide anything. it's the draft picks that are appealing.. and he's the only player with a worse contract than westbrook that requires the other team to provide us draft compensation. in terms of depth.. we all know rockets have way too many players under 6'6" and only a handful of players taller than that. getting rid of russ is actually addition by subtraction, but we'll need another vet ballhandler to spell harden as the rockets don't have one. but u still have mclemore, nwaba, sterling brown, gerald green, pj tucker to cover the 2-3 spot even if we follow up by trading eg and house. morey said it best when u need stars to win a championship... he had one with cp3 but tilman botched that with westbrook. we need to find a way to get another star to pair with harden who actually fits and can carry some of the load. the ultimate goal needs to be to find a way to get another star... and using russ to get draft capital is the first step in that process.
I think Billy D. would love to have him back. The Bulls will not / aren’t giving a king’s ransom for him, but still have to pay. His presence does a couple of good things for the Bulls. It gives them an identity as they grow in a positive way with a coach that knows it’s superstar well. Cashing in on assets that are about to expire. Westbrook is like a bridge to the new era for the Bulls. They will be fun to watch because of the speed they can play at in transition.
No thanks we aren’t in rebuilding mode just yet. If we trade for Wall might as well just start the rebuild. I doubt wall will bring anything more than distractions for Harden of the court and he seems more chill than Harden plus we don’t know if he is 100% healthy. Idk why people forget we weren’t that bad last season with Harden and Russ. Yes before the trade deadline we moved Capela to try create more space for Russ to work with. We were actually playing well in the bubble. But MDA didn’t adjust, he went back to more isos when we saw a stretch of ball movement. He also rely on just a few guys and everyone seemed pretty upset with their roles. No adjustment against the Lakers, refs always messing our flow and Russ was hurt. Oh and also every one else was a ghost and didn’t help Harden. Rivers disappeared, Gordon was meh, tucker and Roco weren’t shooting well. Oh and Rondo was a 3 point sharp shooter all of the sudden. The Lakers got Harrell but IMO they aren’t better than last year. They had length that bother Harden, but I’ll take Harden iso vs Gasol than McGee or having Howard near the paint. No Rondo so who’s going to bother Russ. And that’s without mentioning our new additions. we lost Roco but we got Wood who can pnr with Harden like when Harden had Capela. But Wood can actually do more than just go for lobs. Both Cousins and Wood will create more space for Russ to go to the paint too. I hope he has a healthy season and come back with a vengeance and hopefully he worked on his shooting. So in short i say let’s run it back or just rebuild it.
Only trades for Westbroke that make sense are Griffin, Sabonis, or Turner. Otherwise, just let him continue to play like an undersized PF that can't hit 3s and design the team around his penetration. All three players mentioned change the dynamics of the team enough to give them a potential playoff run. Westbroke on the team can also make a playoff run but you can't have him and Harden continue to overlap each other unnecessarily. Harden got so used to playing point here that it's hard for him to give it up. In OKC when they played together, Harden was.a 6th man. They're both different players now and similar in that they can both carry a team. However, they need power players that complement them rather than cancel them out. You don't put Brees and Brady on the same team.
run it back or rebuild it? what is it that you're trying to say with that last statement? i never said i'm for rebuilding and trading westbrook for wall+draft picks isn't a signal for rebuilding... how many goddam times do i have to say that?? those draft picks will allow the rockets to retool on the fly much faster this season rather than sitting and waiting for some dumb team willing to give up anything of value for westbrook that may or may not fit with the current rockets roster. and only by taking john wall is there a trade package where trading westbrook returns potential first round picks. any other trade partner and the rockets are the likely ones who have to attach first rd picks for that team to take on westbrook. and having westbrook on the team is a f****** anchor that sinks the team further. yea the rockets beat the lakers, and celtics during that one run before corona but that was with the rockets playing damn near perfect basketball. that wasn't sustainable and we saw them lose 4 straight to bottom dweller teams right after. the lakers playoff series showed how much teams are willing to sag off of westbrook and crowd space for everyone else. if westbrook had the decision making and bball iq of rondo.. then his poor shooting wouldnt have affected the team too much. but westbrook didn't know how to capitalize on that space, nor did he ever make the right reads, and almost always ended up with a turnover or a low percentage shot... we've seen that movie way too many times before even in his okc days. and wall may be done for now.. but russ isn't too far off from falling off a cliff either. his whole game is based on athleticism and he's gonna be 33 pretty soon.. trade russ for wall+picks and maybe even try to pry rui from them... then make a trade package with eg+house and picks for a high impact player/star. russ just isn't it and rockets are gonna have a tough time again if russ is out there playing a significant role in the playoffs as the team's 2nd star. the rest of the team makeup right now is actually pretty good... they just need to find a player that fits next to harden better than russ as the second option if they want to maximize these next two years... and they better do it quick.
