the thing that annoys me with westbrook isnt his dumb mid range jumpers, or his dumb plays. Its that you could get similar or if not better production from a guard like rondo, derrick rose or alex caruso at a much cheaper price tag.
There are other things to consider; let's think about them. The first one is that he had a negative impact on the floor at both ends (significantly more on offense) and his $40M contract carries a significant opportunity cost of bringing in other players or having flexibility. Hmm, yes that seems worth thinking about. Are you suggesting that the genius idea is to hold on to sunk costs in the assumption that Russ remembers how to dribble, pass, and shoot - again, for $40M?
For much of the season we were one 3-5 game skid from falling out of the playoff picture and were getting spanked by bottom dwellers. With other teams getting 1 more season of growing young players, it's not a sure thing that holding on to Westbrook and Harden 'keeps us relevant'. Although Harden is basically a contender by himself, our future currently looks a lot like our 2007 limp-to-the-first-round flameout team where only 4 players scored in a game. With Harden and friend making $80M, we're going to have to rely on Kirk Snyders, Luther Heads, and the corpses of Bobby Jackson. Stone inherited a very difficult job.
30-7-8 on 49% shooting for 3+ Months pre-covid contraction & quad injury. Comes back post-covid, post-injury FOR THE PLAYOFFS and we want to say "HE CAN'T PASS, DRIBBLE OR SHOOT!". Russ confirmed as much, but you already know that.
Head/Jackson/Snyder House/Tucker/Covington/Gordon/Rivers/Green Seems a bit different to me. Hell, I like Ben and David too.
The soonest Russ should be traded is at trade deadline. And that is if we had GM as savvy as Morey. More realistic to trade Westbrook after a true offseason to analyse best deals and direction of team. This has been Rockets offseason from hell.
