[ClutchFans] The Rockets sacrifice their future to get Russell Westbrook

For the record, I didn't like the CP3 trade because of his injury history.

But it is not a "random ass" prediction that Westbrook will decline fast. In fact, most people would agree that it's commonsense Westbrook's game would not age well. His greatest strength is speed/explosiveness. That makes him a great rebounder and gives him speed to attack the rim. That strength is heavily dependent on physical abilities which is heavily dependent on age.

CP was 32 his first year with us and was playing on a very high level, injuries not withstanding. One year later, he dropped off a lot. Westbrook will be 31 when this coming season begins. You tell me if that's "random ass" prediction or not.

Look at Jason Kidd's career. He was also a great rebounder and not a very good shooter. He didn't have the explosiveness like Westbrook but was one of the greatest passers of all time. His game started to drop off after about 32. Kidd reinvented himself and became a respectable spot up shooter. Will Westbrook have the same smartness to do the same? I doubt it. And Westbrook is a worse shooter to start with even compared to the young Kidd.

 

They say 2022 would be a strong draft class, any picks?

 

I think his scoring was about to decline when Paul George joined them.

Naturally he is going to be a Robin but it will be interesting to see how he copes with that mentally, that he can't score 26 ppg at will, at least not efficiently.

Never been about that anyway.

One of the worst shooters last year.

 

I know it has been a minute since I have “contributed” to the board, but I am coming around on the trade. I sports hated Westbrook almost as much as I did Malone & Stockton. It still feels weird that we have Russ.

 

How are we in better shape for the long term without all of those 1st round picks? Even if you're one of those people that believes the Rockets are bad at drafting and so those picks are worthless you have to admit they come in handy in trades. I still can't believe they included two picks for after Harden and Westbrook are no longer under contract. That's a trick I do on NBA 2k GM mode. A good team wants to send you picks? Cool. I'll take the ones as far out in the future as the game allows because the team may not be good by then.

Westbrook may work out here. I don't know. But without all of those picks you're not going to see another major trade in the next 4-5 years. So he sure as hell better work out.

 

They can get the picks back by trading WB.

 

Depends when they do it. I'd say MAYBE this year. If they wait until he's 32 or older it's more likely they'd need to include picks to get rid of his salary.

 

Don't agree with that. If he starts getting injured and missing a lot of games then maybe but unless he craps the bed in a significant way a lot of teams would love to have a top tier player to try and pair with whoever and become relevant.

 

Read @Williamson's post again. He said that it's likely WB would be crapping his bed (to use your imagery) after a couple of years.

No doubt WB's trade value is better than CP's or else we wouldn't have to give up picks to get him. Two years later, his value will likely be worse than CP's now and we'll have to give up even more to get rid of him. The window is small. The assets we gave up is to buy that window, just like we gave up assets to get CP for a window of a couple of years. Now we gave up more assets to buy two more years. After that, we have no more assets to buy more time and Harden's prime will be dwindling.

 

His whole game is predicated on being quicker and more athletic than everybody else on the floor. He is not a highly skilled player (though he does have elite court vision too. Don't wanna sell that short). He's just one of the most amazing high motor athletes we've ever seen. It sounds like you're going to be shocked to see how quickly this guy is going to fall of a cliff. But I recommend you go back and look at the careers of Allen Iverson and Steve Francis. Once their athleticism declined even slightly it was over for them. Brodie will likely be the same thing. Unless he pulls a Vince Carter and learns how to shoot and play smarter (which seems unlikely), his value is going to tank QUICK. Just look at the difference between CP3 from the 65 win season and last year. One single year/injury and he lost a step and it was like watching an entirely different player - and that's despite the fact CP3 is one of the most skilled players in the league. What's Westbrook going to do if he can't beat his man? He even depends on his speed/athleticism to rebound. I just don't see any real worth in the guy once he loses a step or two.

P.S. Zach Lowe has already called Westbrook the second worst contract in the league after John Wall so there are already those who believe he isn't worth trading draft picks for. I still think we could get at least a couple from MIami but that depends on if anybody else would even consider taking him on.

 

I don't give a crap about 2024 and 2026 draft picks. Hell, I might be dead by then!

 

Long term was the wrong way of saying it. The trade helps us contend a little bit longer. The future picks could end up working out terribly for us but moving CP3's contract was always an expensive predicament. It's almost like we paid OKC with picks to deal with finding CP3's giant contract a new home. I can't imagine which team he'll be playing for around this time next year.

 

And neither did James Harden or Daryl Morey because they knew it was pretty unlikely they'd still be here. That's what worries me and every other big picture thinker. Rebuilding post Harden is going to be very ugly.

 

Hinkie would be handy at that point.

Seriously, I have my share of criticism of Morey. But job security for the GM is very important, and Morey is NOT a bad GM despite what a few people here think. You can't let the GM think that he won't be here five years down the road. If he did, he would do things that could hurt the long term well being of the team in order to look good at the present.

 

The strategy works in 2K because future expectations of team performance aren’t a factor in trades. In real life, teams have future expectations.

 

Probably, but isn't that true of every team who tries to aggressively build a title contender around a star? I mean what's Toronto going to look like now? What will Philly look like when they have to reboot from the current overpriced core? Or GS when Curry/Klay/Dray decline?

 

Better because they'll still have picks.

I can only assume that Morey plans to follow the Nets blue print if he's still around by utilizing cap space to acquire draft picks and young talent teams gave up on early. It's still a little tough because you typically don't get lottery picks doing that. It took a while for the Nets to build that way after giving away picks way out into the future back when but they got there. Rough ride though.

 

they look pretty good with siakim continuing on the rise and vanvleet their pg of the future. philly's core is 23,25,27. not exactly going anywhere any time soon.

 

Westbrook will never get us to a title. Not sure why we picked up that me-only ball hog. Oh I know why we got another playoff choker! Thats right, Morey is drowning and he doesn’t know which direction leads to the surface. Westbrook? What a completely ****ed up team this is.

 

I have also reservations myself but I dun think it is all negative, we'll see how it goes, it leaves a team with the negative on Defense and lack of frontcourt options.