@DonatelloLimestone btw, I just reread my response to you and realized the first part sounds like I'm being an ******* to you, so sorry if it came off that way.
Better assessment... Would running it back with Paul last season and keeping Capela turn into a deeper playoff run?
No worries man! Didn’t take it like that. I went on an unedited long winded rant abut a former player, hell I’m not sure I’d read it myself.
Tough question. So let me get the roster as close as possible to the "running it back" version: PG) Westbrook...............Clemons/Mason Jones SG) Harden .....................Eric Gordon/McLemore SF) House........................Tate PF) Covington................. C) Tucker......................... So Austin Rivers and Jeff Green said Bye-Bye in free agency. Covington trade created some available money to bring in Christian Wood. So with Ibaka after Covington trade and no C Wood? Probably bad as well....guy would need to rest. Only clear additions I see would be Mason Jones and Tate.......maybe Gerald Green if Clemons was waived before injury. Team would still be too bottom heavy. Tucker production fell off a cliff from one season to the next. Doing no better with Bucks than he did with us. Rockets would probably be an 8th seed because we had to settle for cheap add-ons like Boogie Cousins and Jabari Parker types. Be operating over the **Luxury Tax. Worse than 8th if Westbrook was saying the heck with this team concept......I got to be me. Tug-a-war with Harden for the ball that wasn't as visible last season (during the regular season). Was obvious in the playoffs. **And as we all know, Luxury Tax Savings is undefeated as a Houston Rocket.
No. Not enough defensive role players or defensive mentality on the team to win in the playoffs. Lebron was just toying with the Rockets out there. It was embarrassing. Westbrook in a Rockets uniform had the IQ of a worm on a hot sidewalk. Ibaka wouldn't have solved our offensive inconsistency or our consistently bad defense alone.
Funny thing though; due to "Play-In" format, Westbrook might be in the playoffs this season as 9th/10th seed
I think everyone on here who feels we shoulda run it back with cp3 should acknowledge and be clear that he had the worst season of his career with us in 2018-2019, as you pointed out. However, cp has made it known in interviews that he knew how bad he was that year and was getting ready for the following season to prove himself again, assuming he wouldn't be traded bc morey told him they wouldn't. He had already changed to his vegan diet and was motivated enough. The trade only added a little bit more fire in him. However, in all likelihood, if we didn't swap him for russ, though I do think he would have been better than the 2018-2019 year, I'm not sure how much of that would show up playing next to harden. That year with okc, and even this year with the suns he's more or less able to be "the man," or at least the primary playmaker running the show, something he has thrived in doing his whole career, but he was losing that role with each season playing next to harden. And understandably so. Maybe SGA and book can take a backseat and trust it, but harden was too good and figured there were easier ways to get buckets. My guess is that if we "ran it back" a 3rd year with cp, and assuming he doesn't get hurt (which he didnt in okc), we end up with a higher seeding, we cruse in the 1st round, win in 6 in the 2nd round, and lose in 7 to the lakers because of AD.
Yeah Harden was minimizing cp3 role and effectiveness with his laying style and how he wanted to play. Harden thrives in Brooklyn because they let Hindi what he wanted to do. It was huge when Kyrie said ok you’re the pg. I don’t n is if it was kyrie kd it the staff but I think they recognized early in that Harden was going t o be the best pamper for that team playing with the ball. Kyrie and KD are jsut more effective than harden without having to dominate the ball.
Yeah, agreed. And it was understandable for harden to do so given cp3's drop in play that year. It was interesting though to see what he'd do in brooklyn. I was wondering if he'd finally move to sg with kyrie going to the pg but instead they flipped those roles and harden gets to stay the primary playmaker which ends up being the best scenario for all three. Kyrie and KD can spot up, create more off the catch and with limited dribbles, while harden likes to bring it up, play pick n roll (he's by far their best pick n roll ball handler) or iso when need be. Happy for cp3 this year too. Hopefully ayton doesn't screw them in the playoffs and book turns it up in the playoffs
Maybe not the Lakers. But as Nuggets and Suns gotten better this year. I would have liked to see a Harden led team to eat them as bbq chicken.
CP3 + Harden + Capela would be a force in the playoffs for sure, whether they could have beaten the Lakers is another question since we will never know what other moves Morey could have been done had that team not been broken up (if they continued with Gordon/Tucker starting at 3/4, they would have lost). I know a lot of people have been doing what-if lineups and there's a lot of Covinginton + Capela in them, but was there a way for the Rockets to obtain Covington without giving up Capela?
This is where we are now, eh? Pass the **** beer, might as well get drunk on the porch while we watch the kids change the world.
No, we wouldn't have won anything, but I wish we would have tried. That was my plan for us: to try for one more and then embrace the tank. In my fantasy scenario, we tried but came up short, then traded Harden for a great 2021 pick and more, then did our best to not lose assets in offloading Westbrook. That way we'd have the '21 pick and our '22 and '23. I figured that would be enough for a decent tank.
They already couldn’t get it done against GSW without KD. You supposedly built your roster to beat one specific team, and then you can’t even beat that team at home without their best player.
I don't think there would be a point with Westbrook. However, if we could go one what if further and say we didn't trade Chris Paul then it becomes interesting. Harden, CP3, Ja'Sean Tate, Christian Wood, and PJ Tucker could have been very interesting.