There is a path for Westbrook to be pretty efficient. The answer may be him shooting MORE 3's.

Its funny, I personally liked the trade, yet still agreed with pretty much everything in Clutch's article as well as your thoughts about CP3. I also think he's not "done" and is still a very good (albeit overpaid/aging) player. Westbrook IMO is clearly the much better player now, but CP3 was still the much better fit. Westbrook raises the rockets ceiling, but also lowers the floor.

It's sad to see all the vitriol against CP3, seeing how close he got the Rocket to the top in 17-18. But... perhaps thats to be expected. This board, like most fan sites, often suffer from bipolar disorder when it comes to players on the team vs when the players is no-longer on the team.

Lets not forget how much this bbs hated CP3 prior to him being a Rocket. The admiration, respect and love when he was on the team, especially in 17-18 was a complete 180 from the hate he use to get. Now, I guess its reverted back to the way it was before. That's what we are seeing now on the bbs with Westbook (whom was probably a top 3 hated/ridiculed opposing player). I've barely ever seen anyone on this board referred to Westbrook as a former MVP without mockery or disdain until the countless times this week.

I'm not a huge fan of Westbrook's personality or basketball IQ, but I've always loved watching his incredible display of strength, speed, explosion and will on the court. Dude is just flat out entertaining if not always effective or efficient.

 

Completely agreed. OKC’s offensive efficiency was always very high when they had two legit creators. Once Durant left, Russ and the teams efficiency dove.

That’s the hope for tangible improvement next year. He’s still always going to be brain dead though. No changing that.

 

the answer is most certainly not shooting more threes...Russ is broke from there...his misses are very ugly

4-17 from 3 in 2 preseason games...that’s a huge hell no from dawg

 

someone PLEASE make him stop!

 

RW is almost 30 I don't think he is going to change. Did Dwight change his game, or did kobe change his game. KD shots more midrange jumpers than anyone. Its hard to change what you have been doing it your entire life.

 

Westbrook turns 31 next month.

 

agree, but its a small sample size and hes still raw/ fresh back from the injury

 

2 games might be a small sample size but his entire career isn't

 

that may be the case, but we got years of evidence showing that he’s not a good 3 point shooter at all...matter of fact, he’s 1 of the worst in history

his outlier year is 34% from deep...that’s his best year by far, and that’s still a below average percentage

his threes off the dribble are especially horrendous...those bricks are ugly

11 threes from Russ is something I never want to see

 

The Rockets offense were among the best back in the days when the floor was spread by the likes of Terence Jones and Corey Brewer. Westbrook shooting 30ish% 3s is fine as long as he does the other stuff really, particularly getting to the basket and transition offense.

Not everything has to be optimal. The Rockets can be a great offense with Westbrook shooting and they can he great defense with Harden not willing to go through any screens. It's just a matter of other factors coming through

 

This is going to be a looong season.

Very naive to believe that just because he changed his jersey he will change his game.

 

this isn't true. the rockets offense needed to be corrected because the fact that harden was surrounded by guys who couldn't spread the floor for him or made his life that much harder, especially when the playoffs started. being able to do other things is fine but at the end of the day, the ball is going to be in harden's hands more times than not. harden is going to either have to take it upon himself or guys like WB are going to have to be able to hit perimeter shots at opportune times. whether or not he will be able to fit that part of the team is the big issue, bc his career resume points towards no

 

Rockets offense was 12th and 8th during the years we had bad shooters like Brewer and Smith spacing the floor with their 3 point shooting...Rockets offense has been historically great the past 3 season

Westbrook shooting barely 30% on threes at high volume isn’t fine...it can be offset somewhat if he does everything else extremely well, but terrible 3 point shooting isn’t his only flaw

I don’t want him launching from deep at high volume, especially off the dribble

 

Tilman said that his basketball ops people in the front office got cold feet after they ran the #'s a final time. Tilman told them to pull the trigger anyway. That statement concerned me. Was it his offensive or his defensive advanced #'s that shook the front office?

I think we have to expect a wild ride this year with extreme high's and some frustrating lows at times. I'm hoping that Russ can shoot at least 32% from 3 this year. But it has to be more catch and shoot rather than off the dribble. At one point i think i think he was around 20% on pull up 3's late last season which was the worst in the NBA. If they can convince him to stop with the off the dribble pull up 3's then maybe his overall percentage will improve. I think he is addicted to them for whatever reason, because it seems like he just cant help himself.

I think that anything over 32% will be gravy for team. But he has to be willing to compromise on these pull up 3's in order for this team to win a title.

 

I'm sure this has been posted before because it's hardly an innovative idea but I believe Westbrook's value will be determine on how "fast" (or specifically how many possessions and FGAs) the Rockets can play.

The year before the CP3 trade, the Rockets were 3rd in the league in pace and 7th in FG attempts. The past two years with Paul:

18/19: 26th in Pace, 26th in FG attempts
17/18: 13th in Pace, 27th in FG attempts

The counter argument, of course, is how successful both of those seasons were despite playing at a slower pace with less FG attempts. The other point is that we had to play at a slower pace because the offense has shifted tremendously to being 3pt shooting heavy. Both very valid arguments but it's not as if the 16/17 team was bad. That team went 55-27 and was pretty successfully until they ran into the Spurs in the playoffs. And guess what, that team was first in 3pt attempts and makes.

I think we'll be fine in the regular season. Like the CP3 trade, we need this Russ trade to pay off in the postseason when Harden goes through his dry spells.

 

yeah im anxious to see where the happy medium is. I don't believe everyone on the team is capable of playing at the pace wb plays at. the pace will go up just for the sole reason wb is on the team now but I'm not sure how much and to what impact of houston's normal overall efficiency. We're still going to see a lot of iso ball but the biggest change is the fb's when wb is in the game. when he's off the floor, it may just shift back to what we have seen the last couple of seasons

 

What does WB's 3's have to do with China?
Why are we seeing this thread?

 

In case you haven't noticed, Harden's playoff woes continued into this MDA all shooters era. Because the Rockets had no one to take the pressure off of him and defenses could adjust to him over a series.

Westbrook at least provide a different look

 

There's no doubt going to be a period of adjustment because everyone's been conditioned to plod along the past 2 years, especially Clint. I think putting the right mix of players around WB when Harden is out (assuming MDA is going to deploy the stagger approach he did with CP3) is critical.

Chandler
Anderson?
House
Westbrook
Rivers/Green

That isn't a bad 2nd unit for Westbrook to run with.

 

in case you haven't noticed once the offense adjusted to people who could actually spread the floor, they became true contenders. being mediocre rated offensively means nothing