1. Chris Paul VS Westbrook Since this is basically a straight swap, lets address the elephant in the room first: CP3 is a vastly superior shooter and decision maker when compared to Westbrook CP3’s skillset allows him to be a much better complementary player next to Harden So what about the other way around? Well… Westbrook is a vastly superior scorer when compared to CP3 Westbrook’s explosiveness and athleticism makes CP3 look like molasses Westbrook is younger and much less injury prone than CP3 All of this leads up to the question of “Which is better for the Rockets?” Now notice how I am not asking who is a better fit, but rather who is simply better for the Rockets. CP3 is no doubt a better fit next to Harden as he is a much better shooter and decision maker, but is that what we brought him in for? The answer is a resounding “NO!” 2. The Reason We Got CP3 We brought CP3 to ultimately serve as a redundant backup system to the offensive engine of our PnR ISO system known as Harden. This in turn allows Harden to rest up or cover when he is misfiring. This is where the “48 minutes of HOF point guard play” came from. With this reason in mind, CP3 was clearly not serving his role as the Rockets redundancy system. When Harden is trying to play off the ball because CP3 can’t beat a flatfooted big anymore, that’s not resting and it certainly is not redundancy. In this scenario, it’s asinine for people to expect Harden to then start playing a more off-the-ball role to try and compensate for CP3’s deficiencies on offense. This is detrimental to the Rockets. Don’t forget who this system and team is built around. What should have happened is CP3 assuming a support role to Harden’s playmaking ability until Harden went back to the bench. If CP3 is expecting someone in the 5th spot to play more off the ball and be more active, then: There is a huge problem that he can’t take advantage of a 4v4 situation Harden should not have been out there with him trying to take the lead Point is, expecting Harden to take on an even more offensive burden by assuming additional roles on top of all the ones he is already shouldering is not only stupid, but also detrimental to the system. Case in point, one of the biggest things that LBJ and Wade said about joining up in Miami was that it allowed them each to do less, not more. We brought in CP3 to allow Harden to do less, not have to do more. 3. Westbrook and the Rockets I understand all the deficiencies of Westbrook, evidenced by my multiple posts both past and present, and have my concerns over how he will work out on the Rockets. At the same time, I cannot help but be a bit excited and optimistic about the potential he brings to the team. Going back to the point earlier about CP3, we don’t need a star or superstar to play next to Harden. We need a star or superstar to take the load off Harden. There is a very clear distinction here. Can Westbrook do that for us? Well, that remains to be seen. However, what Westbrook has shown is that he is a bona fide superstar who can carry a team into the playoffs and a player that you can build a team around. Basically, regardless of how much criticism Westbrook gets, he is still a superstar. For as many games where we claim Westbrook has shot his team out of the game (and there are quite a few of them) we forget that there are far more games where he shot or drove the team to victory. At the end of the day, Westbrook has the ability to carry the team when Harden can’t and that is ultimately what we need far more than “fit” and “complementary skillset”. We need a player that when Harden is tired, misfiring, or injured to whom we can put the ball into his hands and say “Go score us points!” As much as I love CP3 and have defended him last season, he was not that player last season. While I was willing to see if he could evolve and bounce back, I am fine with betting our future on another player that has the potential to be that person for Harden and the Rockets.
Another overlooked aspect of the "fit" question is that last year's CP3 was not the center of gravity he once was. Though he still pulled the defense towards him when he had the ball, if Harden was on the court they always seems to sag towards Harden because he was the MUCH bigger threat. Westbrook is such a threat to drive that defenses won't be able to cheat towards Harden when they're both on the court. That will leave us with two giant scoring threats and defenses who will have to leave somebody open on nearly every play.
Agreed. As much as people want to knock on WB's shooting, his low shooting percentages is actually caused by poor shotmaking decisions rather than flat out poor shooting ability. Unlike Rubio or Rondo, WB is actually a credible catch and shoot player. You can't just leave him alone.
on the contrary, teams have done that especially in the playoffs the last several years. houston did that as well. boy was I happy in the okc/hou matchup, when wb had to pull up all the 3s bc they were leaving him wide open. please take those shots wb
The difference is that when Westbrook goes into the lane (which he can do pretty much anytime he wants), he attracts a lot of attention which leaves space for everyone else on the team. In OKC, he only had one shooter on the floor with him, he was playing 2 on 5 with PG13. Look how good PG13 looked when playing with Westbrook. The main question here is if Westbrook will pass out more than he did with OKC.
As a result, he was a 39% catching and shooting from the 3pt line last season during the playoffs. You also seemed to forget how he almost single handily beat us in the 4th on those same pull up 3's, at least until he ran out of gas from carrying his team. Finally, between guarding the rim vs letting him shoot, of course we are going to let him shoot. The point is, when Harden has the ball WB's defender can't easily sag off him because WB will still hit the 3ball way better than the likes of Rondo, Rubio, Roberson, etc
Ok folks let me repeat this. Harden will play off the ball more this year. Facts. That's the way we are better then last 2 years. Harden can play off the ball I repeat this.....people always confuse what a guy had to do n what he can do. It was really no reason for harden to be off the ball with cp3 sucking last year. Year 1 of the cp3 james era he played more off the ball If u guys dont think harden thinks that's Westbrook is a better penetrator then him yall crazy he does...its no shame in that...u have Giannis then Westbrook to me as the best get to the rim guys. N they will stagger. Most times when both are on the court, russ will be the point guard. This is gonna be easier then what most on here n the media thinks lol
Plus when Hayden them basically gonna be old lol. Who gonna care I'm not. At somepointbwe gonna have to build again when harden gone. While he here I can give 2 ***** about picks we will never play anyways
Just a reminder, despite hitting historic low shooting percentages last season WB still shot 36.4% during the season and 39.1% in the playoffs on catch and shoot 3's while recovery from injury and new parenthood. This means WB is a credible shooting threat that you can't simply leave alone and that his percentage hit was primarily due to shot decision making. By virtue of playing with Harden, this should decrease quite a bit.
By the time comes when OKC gets those picks...Harden and Westbrook will both be gone and the Rox won't have any picks, but probably a nice high draft position.
Morey has NEVER had a losing season. What makes you think that will start with the year he will lose his pick? Also, Harden isn't going anywhere.
Ok, and that's why they are Top 4 protected. Are you seriously saying you'd rather carry 34 year old Chris Paul around for THREE MORE YEARS than open the window by acquiring a younger, more explosive player?? Yes, Westbrook has PLENTY of flaws, and this trade isn't a slam dunk guaranteed winner for Morey and the Rockets, but the assets we've given up should not even be a consideration if we're talking about winning a championship with Harden. Risks have to be taken.....otherwise you turn into the Wizards. I think what's getting lost here is unless the Rockets were willing to carry CP3's contract into the FINAL YEAR (meaning TWO MORE YEARS), we were not going to be able to move him without attaching assets. And I can also guarantee you that his contract would get harder to move the more he continues to break down. Right now, there's still hope that a little of his durability has remained.....by this time next year, there's a good chance that will no longer be the case.
In the games Cp3 played well for us, we were unbeatable. The only problem was that it was like 35-40 percent of the time in regular season. He did not show up against Golden State especially Game 5.
I think that Paul is still a little better than he showed last year, but when things got them gut I often saw Gordon have to try to do too much. At the same time Paul often missed games forcing everyone to do more. It’s not Paul’s fault, but everyone of our playmakers needed a little more help out there. The hope here is that Westbrook can rant D’antoni’s trust and get Harden some more rest. I also liked the way he deferred to George last year and hope that he can help create a situation where Harden can play less minutes while allocating a little more energy to moving off ball. Sure it will be a bit of a process, but our team is made up of pretty much all veterans who want to win at this point.
Nothing about the CP3 < > Westbrook trade benefits the team's playoff chances. Most likely it was done/pushed to get more tickets to sell. That is all.