Beastbrook

Most teams would make a number of different moves if they were allowed "do overs". (not many for the Ws in last 4-5 years, though)

 

No it doesn’t because the repeat offender clause would have prevented it from happening for long. Harden is water under the bridge and until he shows he would rather be in the playoffs instead of the strip club it’s a moot point anyway.

 

No it's not a hindsight move in regards to actually trading Harden, it was the Thunder not willing to meet his contract requests, which is why they traded him. I'm not simply piling on, it was a legitimate question as to whether or not the Thunder spending now versus spending previous alters your opinion on them.

 

Again, not trying to be an antagonist, just was curious to your view as a Thunder fan on the financial impacts of the organization. The repeater clause would have been terrible, but I believe Presti to be a phenomenal GM who would have found a way to figure some things out.

 

It's funny how the Westbrook haters can't admit they were wrong. They will continue to hate until he gets to old to play then say "See I told you he wasn't any good".

 

It actually is. Harden was a 6th man. He had played 3 seasons. There was zero certainty that he could continue improving and playing the way he had without Westbrook and Durant. Houston took a big risk. It paid off. Good for them.
But to talk about it like he was a top 10 player is wrong.

 

I'm absolutely not comparing him to what he is now. I'm comparing him as a guy who had a significant upward trajectory at the time. He averaged almost 17 points a game that year as a 6th man. Also he was a 6th man much in the way that Ginobili was a 6th man. He was in there during crunch time, so it wasn't like he was a bench player quality. It was evidently clear that at worst, his upside was a quality starter. He was capable of being a guy who averaged 20 points a game.

Yes I agree it's a tough call on upside. I was just asking from a competitive level does it bother you to see the team spend now versus not spending previous?

 

One word answer? No
Long answer:
It would be interesting to know exactly what the thinking was at the time. Also to know what Harden had told them about wanting to stay long term. It also seems like there was a NBA rule at the time about having 2 players on max deals or 2 with 5 year max deals. And Harden wanted the longer deal.
I said at the time that trading Durant instead of Harden might have been the better move. Truth is we will never know what really happened.

 

Appreciate the response. Honestly it broke my heart when the Warriors traded Jason Richardson after the We Believe team, but it was a cap casualty situation. I understood it, but hated it. After that we had another year of success but without a playoff team, then the team was gutted after Baron opted out and signed with the Clippers.

This was under a different regime, so it's hard for me to compare the situation. I do know that if we had the old ownership, there's no way the Warriors are where they are now.

 

IMO Kerr is the second best in the league. I wish we had him.

 

I'm pretty sure they'd like a do over on that whole Kevin Durant fiasco.

What a clusterfuck that turned out to be.

 

I don't hate Westbrook - one of the top five players in the NBA. My only observation was that when the Thunder was a younger team, and had Ibaka at one point, Durant, Hardin and Chandler, that the team was unwilling to give anyone more money. Their explanation was everyone needed to take less money for the benefit of the team. As a result they lost really good talent and then had to over-pay just to remain competitive and lost the opportunity to win a championship. They were really good. My point now is that Westbrook does not have enough help to get to the finals

 

Who is wrong?

I am the biggest Westbrook hater here. He is playing great, right now and he is as talented as anybody in the league. Individually he is awesome.

My issue with him is and always has been that he is extremely difficult to play with because of how ball dominant he is. If he plays as efficiently as he has the last couple weeks, the Thunder can contend. Chances are he will cool off soon. I am not going to assume he has all of a sudden turned a corner and learned how to play team basketball.

I won't believe that until I see him be a facilitator toward the end of close game that matters instead of defaulting to hero ball.

Bottom line, Russ has been on many ultra talented rosters. Guys play better when they leave OKC. That is on Russ and it has held the Thunder back for years. A couple weeks in the regular season isn't changing anybodies' opinion on that.

 

Westbrook has plenty of help. That isn't the issue. The issues are twofold:

1) he doesn't know how to best use the help he has
2) the Warriors are freaking great

 

They had to trade 1. Harden was the easy choice because he was less established. Looking back it would be easy to make a case for trading one of the other two, but not KD. Harden and Westbrook do not fit well at all. It was either Westbrook or Harden that had to go.

My opinion is that KD would have been more likely to stay had Westbrook been the one dealt, but that is just my opinion.

 

I bet Kevin Durant would like a do over as well.

 

Yeah I bet the next time he acts like an insecure little bitch he won’t do it so publicly.

 

I disagree. I believe it's on the Thunder coaching.

 

Having watched them since they came into the league I'm not surprised that kd left and Russ stayed. Kd has always been fake going back to the stupid backpack and having reporters planted to ask about it. Russ has always done exactly what he said he was going to do.