Westbrook To Rockets

Just weird. CP3 is wasting his talents on a team without a couple big-time scorers. He has never been and can’t be the one-man wrecking ball on offense that Russ can be.

Houston has been easily the second-best team in the West over the last two seasons — they were going to win the series against GS in 2018, until CP3 went down. Now they are acquiring a player whose style fits even less well with Harden’s — another ball-dominant point, but one who demands a ton more shots than CP3 does.

This just seems like more proof that superstar players will always get what they want (I’m not so sure this is what CP3 wanted, but Harden likely did).

 This deal looks like it could be good for the Rockets, but I don’t love what the Thunder have done. A core return they got for their two best players are first round picks of questionable value. It doesn’t look like any of the picks they acquired will be in the lottery unless some major things go wrong.

I wonder where CP3 ends up before it’s all over. I have to think he asks for and gets a buyout. If that happens I think he’ll end up with the Lakers.

I saw this deal going down very late last night in the UK so couldn’t comment on it. Houston have an insane amount of draft picks going forward but some of these are 5 or 6 years away. They could be an Ainge like haul but at worse if they are later first round picks then Presti or whoever is running the show will have options.

The late great Red Auerbach always said you can never have enough draft picks and as I always thought about Ainge’s moves it gave him options.

The Thunder are still a good team – CP3, Schroder, SGA, Gallinari and Adams is a decent core.

As regards a CP3 buyout he is due about $123 million over the next 3 years. The last year is a player option worth $44 million when he will be 36 going into 37. He can ask for a buy out but Presti and co aren’t going to pony up all that money and allow him to go on his way to a likely link up with either LA Team. Also with Paul being a big noise in the Player’s association he’s going to want his worth if he is offered a buyout.

I could see the Thunder playing out this year as CP3 will be a good mentor for SGA. This would mean that Gallinari, Roberson and Patterson all expire clearing over $37 million off the cap. Then CP3 would be a year further through his deal so he’d have got another year’s top money and both sides would likely be able to look at a more reasonable buyout.

Also if things didn’t go well at the start of 2019/20 season then buyouts can be worked out around All Star break for the expiring guys and even CP3.

if the knock on Harden is that he dominates the ball, dribbles out the shot clock on fakes and flops, how does Russ get incorporated into that? Another knock on JH is that he wasn’t interested in possessions in which CP3 was attacking–he would drift off or stand around watching rather than screen or cut. How is that going to be different when Russ has the ball?

To me, this looks like an upgrade in talent, a possible upgrade in chemistry, but probably a poor basketball fit.