If Harden demanded Westbrook stay, which one of the following would you agree with?

Im still laughing at how 2019 CP3 was better than 2020 Russ in the playoffs.

Way worse on both ends.

And it wasn’t really “working” with Russ. Remember this is a league where Trae Young is doing 30/10 and Bradley Beal is doing prime Kobe numbers. Westbrook wasn’t playing MVP level compared to the league. He was just good, which is why the Rockets only went 17-13 when he “figured it out”.

westbrook was extremely bad for like, half the season. The beginning and the end of the year.

 

All depends on the early record in 2021....if it goes bad, the machinery of change can be accelerated greatly.


Not saying Harden, but WB is the first or second domino to fall surely therefore why many predicted a mid-season Westbrook trade.

And it depends how much Tilman loves Westbrook for sure or is he just means to his end?

We'll see how Beard responds to that.

 

not exactly. the rockets were struggling before the season came to a pause and were in a slump. different teams were setting up all kinds of blueprints especially defensively that bothered the rockets lineups. cp3 was never as bad as westbrick here. not even close. and you didn't have to destroy the lineup and take away an actual big man to play with him for him to be effective. westbrick has been declining for years. he hasn't been any good for quite some time now and many have constantly pointed out not only the numbers but the eyetests and actual on court results support it as well. Now people got a 1st hand look at it. dude sucks and being stuck with him for 3 more years is a horrible punishment for rockets fans

 

Undoubtedly, they were struggling but Harden was getting very tired which increased the burden on Westbrook with his 3 point limitation. Harden is my favorite player and he is better than Westbrook, but the opposition was adjusting to both of them. The break made it easier for Harden to catch his second wind. Westbrook's Covid-19 infection and his quad injury hurt us, but I still feel that the Lakers had the size advantage and the support of the zebras.
@ApacheWarrior

 

I love Harden but we've lost our GM, Coach and direction. The Lakers just showed the world how to beat the Rockets with ease so long as Westbrook shares the court with Harden. Unless Westbrook miraculously develops a reliable 3 point shot in the offseason we cannot win with him playing alongside Harden. So the sensible thing would be to take this opportunity to hire a new GM, new coach and rebuild the team in a new direction. Literally the only way we can rebuild is if we trade Harden and Westbrook. I'd expect no less than 4 future picks + some players for Harden. We might even get lucky and find a franchise that would be willing to give us a few picks back to take Westbrook hoping that his name and frenetic play style fills some seats. Honestly I'll be more heart broken to trade PJ Tucker but if you're going in that direction see what you can get for him, EG, etc. I'm ready to go full blown "the process". Because honestly, I feel like the next 10 years under Tillman are going to be painful any which way we go about it. We might as well be getting high draft picks that delude us into being hopeful for the future.

 

and that in itself was another problem. people believed westbrick took so much work off harden when in reality that was never going to be the case. nobody is taking any kind of load off of harden if they cannot shoot period. and coupled with just terrible iq. they're a pure liability in that case always. The lakers are just better plain and simple. The rockets would have lost to denver likely as well the way they were playing and the improvement of many of their core guys

 

I quoted on right now with How Knicks want to win, and do not want to wait for Rj to develop, because of the fact he might pan out to be a low class all-star not capable of carrying a team. Its a gamble with him, but Ben Simmons you know what your getting with him, why you trade harden to sixers. Now would be the time to get RJ and Ben together and build on these 2. May never have a better time to do so since you have Harden and Russ to trade, and to get back 2 young players like that who could be outstanding together.

They Ben and Rj remind you a bit of like a Danny Granger and Lamar Odom 1 + 2 punch.

 

Ben is talented no doubt, but he has a history of injuries. RJ is not talented enough to be a difference maker in my opinion.

 

I don't entirely agree with this. When Russ started making mid-range shots and started catch/shoot 3's, he did take a fair amount of pressure off Harden temporarily. Russ also was able to finish around the basketball more efficiently and even started paying more attention on defense. The Rockets regular season win against the Lakers on Covington's debut, was mainly due to Westbrook's big contribution.
Harden struggled in that game. This didn't last for very long unfortunately.

 

he never made his mid range shots or catch and shoot. he has sucked for a long time. no he didn't. harden had been seeing crazy doubles/zone shadows all year that have emphasized getting the ball out of his hands. there's games where he couldn't even cross half court without another defender coming to shade and forcing harden to pass

 

I agree with the talking heads at the moment. Let's get our new coach and GM, run it back as is next season and do whatever we can in the draft and on the trade front before the season and at the trade deadline to improve the team.

If we are in the same spot we were this year barely winning only one playoff series or worse, not making the playoffs, then it will be time to blow it up and give our new GM an opportunity to build a team that can compete and reset the team financially from the CAP perspective.

Love him or hate him Daryl was the key to our staying competitive every year and not having to tank and go into rebuild mode.

I did not cast a vote because I am not sure my response fits any of those scenarios exactly.

 

if we could get our hands on cade cunningham number overall pick in 2021 it MIGHT be worth it to trade harden. cade cunningham has harden/luka upside and is seen as a generational talent

(cade's first practice at osu)

 

Always true. The problem is there seems to be an assumption that getting rid of Harden somehow moves the Rockets forward, when it almost certainly doesn't.

Can anyone even come up with an example where it did? When a team traded a top five NBA player and ended up better? I honestly can't think of any. I CAN think of examples where that happened, and the OTHER team improved, often on the 'worst trades ever' type of lists.

 

Never seen Luka dunk that much though.

 

He isn't top 5 (however media have considered him there for years and many casuals) but to answer your question as a recent example, is the pelican's trading AD. The pelicans were on the edge of making the playoffs for that 8th seed before the bubble where they flopped their 8 games.

 

You really don't have a choice but to keep James happy and keep Westbrook. Seems like the Rockets always have had some albatross around their neck since James got here. Now it's James demanding the albatross. A team without a GM, coach, other stars, spending money, a plan on how to move forward, etc. really can either choose to stay put or choose to rebuild. Neither option seems good; one just seems less bad.