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2020 NBA OFFSEASON


Dolfan in NYC

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The Ed Davis to Minnesota via the Knicks thing is happening

By acting as the middle man and tossing cash in - the Knicks get 3 second round picks (and a couple of players who will most likely be waived)

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Marcus Morris Sr back to the Clippers 4/$64M

Markieff Morris back to the Lakers on a veteran minimum deal.

But the discrepancy doesn't matter because apparently they're still sharing a bank account:

 

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So, I was looking over the last week or so of posts and I realized something.  Russell Westbrook is officially underrated.  Seriously, you guys are acting like he's completely washed, when he averaged 27/8/7 and shot 47% from the field.  He wasn't great in the bubble after coming back from COVID, but the Rockets overachieved before the season shut down...and he was a big reason why.  Seriously, everybody laughed when they traded away all of their big guys, but you can do that when your point guard can be also be a de facto power forward.  Honestly, there are 30 teams in the league, and Westbrook would be the best player on about 20 of them.  With that said, he's now in that Carmelo Anthony no man's land where you're not very good if Westbrook is your best player, but where do you find somoene better than Russell Westbrook?

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He's good, but he's shown signs of slowing down physically, he can't shoot, he still has years left at supermax level money, and without a second mvp caliber teammate, he's never gotten out of the first round.

He's not a bad player, but it's a terrible contract.

He's got $41 this season, $44 next season, and a player option for $47 the year after that.

Edited by Brian Fowler
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While it's true that Westbrook's ability to play point-center allowed Houston to deal Capela and play the lineups they did, it's also true that Westbrook's skill-set and style requires teams to bend to him. He's an incredibly versatile player if one only considers classic positional parameters; but he's very inflexible as well, and limited to only being the Nth degree version of himself. 

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46 minutes ago, supremebve said:

So, I was looking over the last week or so of posts and I realized something.  Russell Westbrook is officially underrated.  Seriously, you guys are acting like he's completely washed, when he averaged 27/8/7 and shot 47% from the field.  He wasn't great in the bubble after coming back from COVID, but the Rockets overachieved before the season shut down...and he was a big reason why.  Seriously, everybody laughed when they traded away all of their big guys, but you can do that when your point guard can be also be a de facto power forward.  Honestly, there are 30 teams in the league, and Westbrook would be the best player on about 20 of them.  With that said, he's now in that Carmelo Anthony no man's land where you're not very good if Westbrook is your best player, but where do you find somoene better than Russell Westbrook?

He's a fraud MVP who stole one from Harden and after the Rockets traded for him and then molded the roster to placate him he then shit the bed in the playoffs and is now requesting a trade so he can get more touches. 

But he had a pretty good February. 

Honestly if he (and Harden) were willing to run it back I'd be fine with it but he would have to play 2nd fiddle to Harden, not get hurt, not get corona, and play within himself like he did in February.  I think because of the quad injury in the bubble he stopped driving and shooting more pull ups, and when he's doing that he's about as effective as a David (or Duke) Johnson run up the middle.  Just wasted possessions. 

If Russ and Harden sucked it up and wanted to play for broke ass Fertitta, They're top 3 in the West.  Denver lost a bunch, Dallas ain't done shit, nobody is ever worried about Utah, who knows what you're getting from the mental Clips, and, GS is pretty much fucked without Klay.  Yeah, the Lakers probably look better, but who knows if old ass LeBron and AD get hurt. 

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Even when Harden was kinda slumping and Russ was putting up insane numbers in early 2020, the team still had a better net rating when Harden played without Russ then vice versa.

That said, this is the third co-superstar Houston has paired with Harden, and the third one where it didn't work and the sidekick wanted out (although I've heard rumblings that Harden actually asked for a trade first, and that was why Russ did, not wanting to get stuck on that roster without Harden.)

If I'm Houston, I'm at least trying to run it back, because you aren't going to get value out of Westbrook, and your best case scenario trading Harden is that old Bill Simmons "four quarters for a dollar" thing. Christian Wood is intriguing for them, if he plays as well as he did last year. An actual center who has range. And James Harden doesn't seem like the type of guy that was would actually on court sabotage or refuse to play. He's just too much of a hard work player (sometimes too much. His oft stated disdain for load management is likely at least a partial explanation for his frequent post season flops)

Anyway, I'd bring them to camp and try to make it work, and only if it's clearly failing would I try to make a move.

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5 minutes ago, Lawful Metal said:

Honestly if he (and Harden) were willing to run it back I'd be fine with it but he would have to play 2nd fiddle to Harden, not get hurt, not get corona, and play within himself like he did in February.

Most of this is not under his control, and the things that are under his control aren't really realistic with these two dude's personalities.  Russ' biggest strength and weakness is that he's never scared and is always willing to step up and do whatever needs to be done.  I'd love it if James Harden was the type of player who takes charge and leads his team to victory, but he's not that guy.  Westbrook has the mentality that you'd want in the best player in the league, except he's somewhere in the 10th-15th best player in the league.  Not only that, he's always been on a team with someone better than him, who doesn't have the mental make up that is ideal with that player.  Seriously, if you exchanged Durant and Westbrook's brains, they would have won multiple championships.  Westbrook has the mentality that says, "How do I get this done."  Durant has the mentality that says, "How do we get this done."  The second best player on your team can't be the most assertive person on the team, especially when the second best player is Russell Westbrook.  He's too good at everything to not try to do everything.

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