Houston Rockets — Home — What’s Cool?

On July 11th, NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted another off-season move that had fans and analysts completely shook. That’s right - the Houston Rockets have traded for former NBA MVP and perennial All-Star Russell Westbrook, giving up current point guard Chris Paul and two future 1st-round draft picks. This move came as somewhat of a surprise for me, but it wasn’t completely unexpected after Paul George’s recent move to leave Oklahoma City to join Kawhi Leonard as a Los Angeles Clipper. While many think that the reuniting and pairing of James Harden and Russell Westbrook will be explosive enough to push Houston over the hump, I’m remaining somewhat skeptical before I see how an evolved Harden and Westbrook play off of each other in Houston’s Toyota Center.

These two MVPs once nearly made it to the promised land only to have their championship dreams squashed by LeBron James and the Miami Heat. The two (and Kevin Durant, eventually) went separate ways and have been unable to find enough success to get back to the NBA Finals since. Only Kevin Durant who went to Golden State was able to get himself back to, and eventual win, multiple NBA titles. The trio of Harden, Westbrook, and Durant likely wouldn’t have been able to make it past their Western Conference competition had one of them been absent, but having shared championship experience and MVP quality play over the past years bodes well for both Harden and Westbrook’s recent reuniting. The problems I see for Houston moving forward are the adaptations that Harden and Westbrook have made during their time apart and how well their offensive styles will mesh on the court.

Russell Westbrook, to me, is a more of a shoot-first player than Chris Paul is. We all know he’s enough of a facilitator to average and break triple-double records, but that also comes from putting up many low-percentage shots and at times playing too aggressively. James Harden has also developed into a strong ISO player who thrives in man coverage situations. Unless the NBA establishes a new rule that introduces a second basketball into play, the Rockets may have trouble keeping all of their role players and stars engaged and involved offensively. A Westbrook-Harden-Gordon-Tucker-Capela lineup (with the possible substitution of Tucker for Andre Iguodala) is an impressive one, but one that I could see having occasional cold games which could keep them from thriving in the playoffs against other deep Western Conference teams.

This new NBA era of strong player duos will be an interesting one. I think that the best teams will be those that play less positionless basketball with more defensive focus and have the best depth instead of the most superstars and all-stars. While the Rockets will still likely be one of the top-seeded Western Conference teams, I don’t know if they have what it takes yet to win it all quite yet. I’m sure that there will be plenty more to analyze and predict as this wild NBA off-season continues.