The Houston Rockets finally got what they needed, maybe

The Houston Rockets finally got what they needed in Russell Westbrook, maybe

We heard some whispers about a potential rift between the Houston Rockets, Chris Paul, and James Harden but all three parties involved quickly dismissed it. I believe both Paul and Harden when they said there are no issues, I think it was just slight disagreements and playing style that forced the breakup.

Two summers ago when the Rockets traded for Paul, there were obvious concerns regarding the scheme and just how exactly this would work. Two players used to handling the basketball A LOT coming together in a top-heavy system? How would this work? This got smoothed over by talks of how Chris would prefer to be able to take some time off-ball, and James as well. They, the team, and D’antoni seemed determined to make it work.

I wouldn’t even venture to say that it didn’t work, would you? They did take the Warriors seven games with Kevin Durant last year, didn’t they? I’m not suggesting it was pretty, because the concentration of offense that was spread between that backcourt along with the number of isolation plays ran was definitely not exactly aesthetic.

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Nevertheless, it worked to a degree and they almost contended for a title. Let’s be realistic though, this team was red-lining to take the Dubs seven games. That’s kind of what winning a title is about, you usually keep a shorter rotation and tighten up the game plan, you know the drill. In some, cases though you can’t help but just be like wow this team is really pushing it. If you take CP3 off that team last year, they don’t get two games off Golden State. I don’t see anything wrong with maxing out and going all in to try to get a chip, but wouldn’t it be much more fun if you could be more…flexible?

That team last year basically had three guys who could get their own shot off the dribble, and you know who they are. Oh, I can hear the Gerald Green and Joe Johnson comments coming in now, ha. Ariza is a very nice piece to have at the three, but you had no other offense in the frontcourt aside from Clint Capela lobs.

That isn’t a terrible thing when you have that starting backcourt, especially considering that yes I know Clint Capela can do a little more than catch lobs, and yes Trevor Ariza and PJ Tucker can shoot a little. It’s not the best, but it works fine when those two wizards are handling the ball. The real issue is just bench depth, you had Eric Gordon who was very nice, and Green who’s helpful and can shoot for you, but…who else? Nene? Ryan Anderson, who you essentially pushed out?

The Rockets didn’t make finding depth any easier on themselves when they signed an aging Chris Paul to an egregious contract. Not to say that that isn’t what the market called for, but it’s really the length of the contract that was the issue.

This season’s roster was actually an improvement. Adding some younger talent (that they mostly didn’t keep) and trading for guys like Austin Rivers, Kenneth Faried, and Iman Shumpert were good moves. They tried, they made an effort at acquiring depth with the cap space available to them, and I’ll give them that much. The problem was just that they never developed any cohesion with the depth aside from with maybe Green and Rivers. Faried filled in nicely for Capela but got put out for the playoffs. They tried to give Shumpert playing time, but it just never really turned into much of anything.

All of this leads to a very hyped Golden State series, only to be beaten in six games without KD even playing some of them. The Warriors don’t have tremendous depth either now, but they did have a better way of using it, and just all-around better fitting personnel.

You know the rest, and rumors started flying from there. I definitely saw the possibility of Chris being traded as real, but a team like Miami seemed much more realistic. The one I did not see coming was OKC trading Westbrook for him. OKC is a small market team that seems to be content to just compete year in and year out, so the decision to blow it up kind of came out of nowhere.

Ultimately, I guess we can thank PG13 for requesting a trade to team up with Kawhi for this move being made. I think it makes sense on both sides. The Thunder were never winning a title with that team unless they added more help, and neither were the Rockets. Russ and James have a history and chemistry, so we can only hope the on-court bond can carry over.

Westbrook is younger, more athletic, and seemingly just likes Harden better than CP did? Not that Chris has an issue with him, but Russ and James just seemed to mesh better together. The argument could easily be made that Westbrook is just as good a passer (insert hate comments about dump-offs to Steven Adams) as CP3, and if not he’s close.

The problem I can see, and everyone sees, is with his shooting. Can he improve (probably not) or make up for it by changing the playing style a bit? Or can they add enough quality shooters to make up for one of your top ball handlers shooting 30 percent from deep?

Aside from all the risks involved, you had to make this move given the opportunity presenting itself. Taking into consideration the level of player Russ is and Chris Paul’s increasing age, there’s no scenario where you don’t make this trade. Ultimately I think the Rockets have a better shot than ever this year to actually get out of the West.

There are a lot of good teams and a lot of variables, but with Golden State’s inevitable slump and some holes in the two LA teams, you have a shot.