Source close to Westbrook believe he was made out to be a scapegoat for Houston's playoff meltdown

Who is Carlos Curroso?

 

thats exactly why we had no chance. when they lakers are "small" they arent actually small. the rockets only chance was to play their normal rotation with mcgee and howard. they beat us at our own game being offensively small an still defensively big. it doesnt matter what westbrook did this was going to be a loss.

 

You called?

 

Ahhh I've seen people use it on here and have tried to figure it out for years. Lol thanks

 

NO IT WASNT. That helped the Lakers but the reason we had to go to such extremes is BECAUSE of Westbrook. We were never intending to go full small anways. If we had Westbrook from his MVP season, we could have this.But he isnt that guy anymore. These games werent blow outs except for 1. Our second best player(supposedly) was one of our worst player's out there who's limited offensive game was what the defense based their game plan one. It also works because you can have Anthony Davis SAG waaaay off of Westbrook and protect the paint while dude's doubles teams Harden. He sucked. With Chris Paul, defense like that doesnt happen. With ANYONE who could shoot, this doesnt happen.

 

Caruso or whatever his name

 

He’s Ramon Ranjo’s teammate, duh!

 

Scape goat? F that! Want to know why his game has never improved? It's them not me!

 

He's the G.O.A.T. scapegoat

 

Westy has a lot to do with the meltdown, his play was atrocious, it was obvious that we needed something else from him, but we got the same old low IQ player, occasional hard fought athletic bucket, followed by a couple of boneheaded plays. That meltdown is on West and House more than anyone else.

 

Alex's Caruso's 3rd cousin twice removed.

 

To characterize a team that plays AD, Markieff, Bron, etc substantial minutes as 'small' is rather disingenuous isnt it? Oh, they only played 1 center instead of 2 or 3 (AD is a center idgaf what his preference is)... lol... I havent looked it up... but I'd bet the combined height of the Laker's 'small ball' lineup is equal or greater to avg height among teams with a conventional set...

Height obviously wasnt the only factor - they also had more talent... put both of those factors together and we were already in such a hole we werent gonna climb out of it...

 

Well the point is that no one's size actually helped them against the Lakers, they just got dominated. Our main problem was that our second star tanked our offense and didnt help our defense either.

 

Whatever MDA called it, it resulted in a SF playing center and the Lakers exposed it and Morey trying to find a skilled big proves the point that you need size, doesn't it?

 

Yeah, Dirk was definitely in that mold. Completely selfless, could score 10 for the night and be ecstatic his team won...no, better yet, could average 10 for a season and be happy he won a championship ring.

With MDA all I'll say is he's a good coach but he's not good enough. I feel like we were stagnant a lot of times, no variety to offense, just spammed the same thing over and if it worked, it worked, if it didn't...oh well, maybe it'll work next game.

 

But Rockets did not want to play small, they had no choice but to play their best players.

Just so happened none of the best players were taller than 6'8.

 

CP3, Dwight and Russ as 1st or 2nd options were all more successful WITH James Harden.

That is fact.

 

I have defended Russ but truth is truth.

 

Point being, Lakers may have played smallER but they werent small...

and for us, small ball was just doubling down on the 3s... and you better hit 'em - bc u sure as hell werent gonna get a rebound... lol...
look at the rebounding by game and tell me we had a snowballs chance in hell...
41-41 and we won
35-41
30-43
26-52 - owwwwww
31-50

it was a crackpot scheme to think we were gonna offset that kinda rebounding differential with turnovers against a true contender... it was flawed math from the outset imo...

 

Kawhi had Paul George on his team too...didn't do much good for him either.

Harden has had better complimentary stars than PG13. He got paid what the market will pay him too, his contract numbers should not affect his legacy. A lot of players are bad compared to what their getting paid because a lot of teams overpay. I mean look at what Gordon Hayward is getting paid.

Very likely true, and if Hakeem was paired with Jordan they probably have 10 rings together. I'm just saying, Durant was far from blameless in those OKC runs. People were always getting on him for his lack of aggression which is why he fit so well with GSW because he could just blend in and chill out when he wanted to. I honestly don't think even if he returns to full health and Kyrie does that the Nets will win a title because I also don't think he has that 'thing' that championship franchise players have. He was the cherry on top.

Who is the better player historically is a much more fair question. That's easily Westbrook. PG13 is a better player than Jordan right now, doesn't mean much.

Dame is better right now than CP3, but everyone knows who is historically better so yeah, PG13 is a better player now but Westbrook is quite easily historically a better player.

Lebron has won championships with dudes that could barely stay in the league. Dirk won a championship with old Kidd, Chandler, and some other dudes.

I know that Harden had his shot at the finals, he had 3 tough series with the Warriors, had chances to take them down, didn't get it done.

When people are ranking best all time players they won't care that he didn't have the team to do it. They saw him there with that chance and he failed to pull through. That chance was there against the Warriors game 6 and 7. CP3 is out, yeah, but carry your teammate, get to the finals so he can rest his hammy for a finals shot. Pull your team together, don't let them go 0-27. What was he doing shooting like .200 from 3 for that game? Take your ass to the rim and will your team to victory...and then you have coach after game going "Uh, sometimes you make the shots and sometimes you miss them har har"

Is Harden skilled enough to win a championship? Sure. But I don't see the will and determination, I don't think ANY of those guys lets a role player punk them for a series. We know Jordan wouldn't have. We know Kobe, Hakeem, all those people I named wouldn't have done it. Duncan was once dunked on by Boogie, tells popovic give me the ball and proved his point. We know what Hakeem did to 'The General'

Harden let Dort punk him for a series, it happens one or two games, sure, but at some point he had to put that kid in his place. This, along with the Spurs series where he just rolled over, always stand out for me.