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

There's no question, hell it could devolve into a fist fight before the end of the season.

 

Well he was TERRIBLE in the playoffs, teams left him all alone and WANTED him to shoot - sorry he doesn't like the Truth, but like I said on Twitter, love the man, hate his game.

Good riddance.

DD

 

Middleton’s contract is better than Westbrook’s, Wall’s or Chris Paul’s. That said, I was specifically focusing on the type of player to pair with Harden, not whether they have a great contract or not.

 

He had more shot attempts than Harden did. He took more shots than James Harden. Think about that. Harden gave him the ball down the stretch a lot. Westbrook had a higher usage rate here than with OKC.

No, it wouldnt make the team better. That's what Im saying. He's not that good. If he was that good, our bench units woulndt have been trash with him on the court with Harden off. Bradley Beal can say whatever he wants to, when him and Westbrook are competing for a low playoff seed in the Eastern conference and lose in the first round, lets see what he says. And however much better Westbrook is now, doesnt change how trash Westbrook was here and Harden of ball would not have changed that.

Durant also LEFT WESTBROOK. Durant also didnt make Westbrook play better. Not a good example to use. Durant never won anything with Westbrook either. He was also consistently pissed off at Russ because he would do dumb stuff among other things. . Paul George did it and they got nothing but first round exits. And Russ never got anywhere after Durant left him.

Lol dude, we were below them in rankings. His MVP season was nice, but that's the best he's ever going to be. He's declined every year since then. He's not that dude anymore.

Harden was 24 years old and lost off a Lillard Buzzer beater, you put Westbrook on that team and see how far they get. Harden would have so much more success playing next to Durant lol. Like WAAAAAAY more. And WHO did we beat to get to the Spurs....I wonder whooo hmmmmmmm.... Yea, Harden had a bad game, now lets compare all of Harden's playoff games to Westbrook and see who comes out better? Harden the VASTLY BETTER PLAYER. Like idk what you are trying to prove here man? Like I really dont. Harden as a number one option has been vastly and continues to be way more successful than Westbrook who is declining.

HARDEN PUT UP THE NUMBERS. Every advanced Metric has Harden as a positive on the floor. Harden played great defense too. What would you like me to say about him? There was nothing he could have done to make Westbrook not trash. Giving him the ball more just tanks our chances of winning, I dont see why you dont understand that. Okay, fine HE'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH with the production that he gives his team. He's not efficient enough. What else can I say? He's not good and hasnt been good enough in the playoffs. Just because its not all his fault, doesnt mean he's good enough, he isnt. I have no idea how its Harden who's supposed to make him play better.

 

The system was a fluke that was exposed in the playoffs. This was predicted, even by the likes of Barkley. Everyone warned "You need actual bigs though..." and people here swore up and down by small ball at the time and people here were wrong. The Rockets were wrong...and they now realize that by adding actual bigs again on the team. So trading Clint to help out Russ was something that was never going to work, even if it meant him being more efficient, teams with skilled bigs were always going to exploit it in the playoffs. It took the Lakers like one game to figure things out.

I don't think they tried, doing it once or twice or a few times isn't really an honest attempt. They needed to give it the same shot they gave the small ball experiment.

I think It's really quite clear that Russ was a bad off-ball player, so why keep putting him in that position? If we got prime Shaq would we put him out at the 3 point line and hope he hits shots? Like I've seen people want to trade Russ for Ben Simmons, how is that going to work?

 

Actually, that's incorrect! He played great for the Lakers

 

And I'd wager most people here will want Wall gone and will be blaming him for our latest 2nd round exit.

 

Lol yes, Durant should be blamed for those OKC losses. He didn't do enough. Should he get all of the blame, no.

But I guess Westbrook should get all 100% of the blame, right?

 

No, he was a "bad" player WITH the ball, he was a tragically horrible player off-ball. He was really only good as comic relief as he was flexing on people laughing at him while down 30.

 

Only one person played was worse than WB in the Lakers series....And his name is Danuel “hotel room” House.

 

Nonsense, he was a LOT better than Westbrook, even after he got kicked out of the bubble.

 

all of you bashing russ still won't address the fact we were not going to beat the lakers no matter what with this roster. you also won't address the fact the owner will not spend what it takes to put the pieces around the stars so they actually have a chance. surrounding stars with minimum contracts has never been a winning formula. as long as this is how we operate we aren't ever going to win. if you think we lost because of WB you don't see the big picture

 

No.... there you go again putting words into my mouth. I'm beginning to think you are the vile poster with your constant habit of twisting my words to prop up your position.

Why do you continue to lie after I asked you to stop? Please go back and reread what I posted and try again. Or just don't reply. I actually do like a lot of your posts and would hate to put you on ignore because you keep twisting my words.

 

why does this thread have 13 pages?

being a scapegoat means you're getting the blame even though its not your fault.

it was Westbrook's fault.

/thread

 

I’m sure House had a higher plus/minus lol

 

It feels like we are speaking a different language and watching a different rockets team than some folks here .....

 

This years Laker team is much more balanced then last years so yeah you might be right about that. But you can not honestly say if we had Cp3 playing at the level he played last year, and House for the full series that we would of had a chance to beat them.

 

Because one poster is on almost 72 hours and 600 posts straight. That explains a ton

 

I’m not sure what that has to do with knowing and addressing the reality that Westbrook will never work here or anywhere for teams with higher aspirations.

Honestly thats not even going out on a limb at all. A 40 million dollar huge injury question likely being the downfall of our team? It is the most likely outcome.

40 million dollar highly overpaid players getting injured or sucking or both has been our downfall for 3 straight seasons.

I heard an interesting stat today on a podcast and it sums up how I feel about the trade. Over the last 5 years there are 78 players who qualify as high volume shooters. Efficiency wise Wall finished 77th on that list. Westbrook 78th.

I’m not jumping for joy because I know Wall will be injury free and will fit like a glove. It’s because I know that Westbrook is the last player in the league you want if you have high aspirations. Huge salary, demands high usage and shot attempts while being inefficient, negative defender, negative decision maker, declining athlete.

 

I think we were better than we got credit for due to the early-ish exit. With House, we may push the lakers to 6 or 7. I think we were better than MIL and TOR. MIA wouldve been a fight.