The thing with Westbrook is he's not a good shooter. People are going to have to double team / collapse on Lebron when he penetrates and if he has Paul to kick out to, that's a 40% 3pt shooter, and of course there's also Ray Allen shooting 44% from 3. Then I can do pick and rolls with Paul and Lebron, Paul and Varejao, Paul and Bogut all day every day, with Allen there to toss in buckets and Lebron cutting and slashing. I don't think offense is a problem at all with Paul, Allen and Lebron, and competent big man who can put the ball in the hoop. Defensively, who's going to score on me? I have the best defensive PG in the game, the best defensive SF in the game, a top 5 defensive PF and the best defensive center not named Dwight Howard. That ridiculous defense is going to create TONS of fastbreak opportunities, and who better to run the fastbreak than Paul (who led the league in steals) and Lebron (top 10 in steals himself).
I disagree. Chris Paul is an infinitely better shooter. Westbrook and Lebron is redundant. I think Paul and Lebron would work better together. Paul, Allen provide better spacing. He gained a lot of defense going from West to Varajao. It's not like Bogut can't score in the post... especially with Paul at point. Varajao would benefit from paul's playmaking abilities as well. Westbrook is NOT at the level of Chris Paul.
I think torque's trade worked out for the better. Varajao is a good compliment to Bogut, and having two playmakers and being the fifth option on a team would probably help Varajao score, even if it's just alley oops and garbage points.
Bogut isn't awful at scoring in the post, but he's all he's got now. Varejao is awful on offense--he can only score on layups and putbacks. Neither can shoot outside the post area. A lot of times you need your post man to hit that 15 ft jumper. West could do that. Varejao can't. I agreed that Paul is an upgrade over Westbrook for obvious reasons, but it's not like he's not losing anything--Westbrook puts points on the board easier, and he's a better defender because of his size IMO.
Westbrook/Lebron on the fastbreak would be crazy though. And add Ray Allen spotting up? Torque's team is still great. Bogut last year was pretty awful after that injury. Still great defensively though. I think my teams stronger now. Pretty balanced. Not amazing but solid
To say that Westbrook is a better defender than Paul is laughable. Paul is the best defensive PG in the league, and it's not even close between him and Westbrook. I see what you're saying about a post man hitting that 15 ft jumper - but that's an issue of spacing. With Paul and Allen, spacing is not a problem at all, and I'm going to have Varejao and Bogut place bruising off-ball screens on Paul and Allen's men all day and let them shoot, shoot, shoot, with penetration-pass from Lebron. Then Varejao and Bogut are going to cut to the basket off those screens, defenders will have to collapse on Lebron/Paul's penetration, and what happens? Alley-oop, alley-oop, alley-oop!
