RealGM

I was thinking about this trade a while ago and was wondering if you guys would have done it or not before the draft - Russell Westbrook and your 1st rd pick for Lamarcus Aldridge and the #11 pick.

I read your thread on the Portland board and I understand your original thought but don't agree with it.

You want to tell me that Durant and Westbrook can't play together because they are both "alpha" players despite the fact that they have consistently exceeded my expectations in terms of individual and team results. I just witnessed Wade and James win the championship as alpha players. You want to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

I like LMA and respect the evolution of his game, but no more than I like Westbrook and respect the evolution of his game. The Thunder didn't need any player in the draft badly enough to want to move up to #11. It was also known that Aldridge was injured before the draft, so that wouldn't have been a great incentive even though he is projected to be healthy by the start of the season.

Portland fans didn't want to trade for Westbrook because they are more worried about OKC getting better than Portland getting better. OKC wouldn't trade Westbrook for Aldridge because it wouldn't make OKC better.

i see what your saying, i guess it was a failed idea all the way around. lol i still dont think KD and WB can coexist. the reason it worked in miami is because lebron didnt want to be alpha he would defer to wade when necessary. Westbrook wants to be alpha he and KD spend an awful lot of time bumping heads on the court. theres no reason westbrook should be taking more shots than KD in a playoff game. the trade wouldnt have been to move up in the draft it would have been to add an inside presence to balance your lineup. but i dont think LA for WB straight up is a fair deal. the other part of the plan was for you guys to draft kendall marshall at #11

NEW QUESTION theres a guy on pistons forum saying you guys would trade Harden for Rodney Stuckey straight up what are your feelings on that?

I assume he also wants to sell me some great marijuana.

yeah i dont think most non OKC fans realize how good harden is they see him as a sixth man and thats it.

joseph mamah wrote:yeah i dont think most non OKC fans realize how good harden is they see him as a sixth man and thats it.

don't think thats true at all

joseph mamah wrote:i see what your saying, i guess it was a failed idea all the way around. lol i still dont think KD and WB can coexist. the reason it worked in miami is because lebron didnt want to be alpha he would defer to wade when necessary. Westbrook wants to be alpha he and KD spend an awful lot of time bumping heads on the court. theres no reason westbrook should be taking more shots than KD in a playoff game. the trade wouldnt have been to move up in the draft it would have been to add an inside presence to balance your lineup. but i dont think LA for WB straight up is a fair deal. the other part of the plan was for you guys to draft kendall marshall at #11

1) What lead you to believe so? Has he been trying to take over close games when it is 5 minutes left more often than Durant?
2) "Awful lot of time bumping heads on the court", i fail to see this awful lot of time tbh.

joseph mamah wrote:NEW QUESTION theres a guy on pistons forum saying you guys would trade Harden for Rodney Stuckey straight up what are your feelings on that?

Straight up of course not. If he can't be extended i dont think Stuckey as part of a package will do considering he's not a consistent 3 point shooter as well.

2011-12 Playoffs-KD 19.2 feild goal attempts per game .517 fgp Westbrook 20.4 fga .435 fgp 2011 -12 NBA Finals KD 20.8 fga .548 fgp Westbrook 24 fga .433 fgp. as i said there is no reason whatsoever Westbrook should be taking more shots than durant. A championship team has to work together not try to outdo one another, and to me it seems like WB spends a lot of time trying to outdo KD. The only two alphas i can remember trying to coexist were Shaq and Kobe it got them a couple chips but it was a trainwreck, they had to be separated early and it led to the lakers spending three years in purgatory. Shaq decided to go to Miami defer to wade and won another chip. Shaq and Kobe were also a wing and a post player which made it a little easier to coexist.

Yeah i guess its not fair to generalize people like that about Harden. I will say that people tend to overvalue their own players and undervalue other teams players. when it comes to trades.

joseph mamah wrote:2011-12 Playoffs-KD 19.2 feild goal attempts per game .517 fgp Westbrook 20.4 fga .435 fgp 2011 -12 NBA Finals KD 20.8 fga .548 fgp Westbrook 24 fga .433 fgp. as i said there is no reason whatsoever Westbrook should be taking more shots than durant.

What? There are several reasons. The first being that opposing team defenses target Durant. They ball deny, they play physical, they make him work for his points. The second is that this team is so young people tend to forget that they are still learning how to play the game and play together. This isn't a fascinating team because they are perfect, but because they are not. Thirdly, the Thunder are a top heavy team. Durant, Westbrook and Harden take most of the shots in the offense, so if you couple everything together it isn't so outlandish that Westbrook might have more attempts than Durant in a series.

OKC was in the finals because Westbrook was essentially option 1B. He's given a green light because he is a special player who has worked extremely hard to develop his game. He deserves more respect than you are giving him.

A championship team has to work together not try to outdo one another, and to me it seems like WB spends a lot of time trying to outdo KD.

This is a misconception that I can only conclude is the result of watching the team infrequently. Westbrook isn't trying to out do Durant, he simply doing his best to help the team. That doesn't mean he makes all the right decisions, but what he does do is put out an amazing effort into his play, looks to play within the team concept and culture of the organization while improving his game every year.

Championship teams have to work together, but when your dealing with 22 and 23 year olds you have to give them the time to learn and grow. The Thunder has learned from mistakes and gotten better every year. You'd like to reward them by starting over or retooling. This is just a clear lack of understanding of how special this team is, which is a bit surprising from a Pistons fan.

Ill admit i dont watch OKC very often and im basing much of my judgement on watching the finals, and that they are young and that maybe they can learn to work together. But the defense keying on KD is kind of weak, defenses keyed on Jordan just as much (the pistons even developed the Jordan rules for defending him) and id be willing to bet the house scottie pippen never took more shots than michael jordan in an nba finals game. I guess our difference of opinion is that you think its a special team where as i think you got a special player in KD. I think you could put KD on almost any team in the league and they'd have a shot at the finals. but yeah it isnt really fair to judge a couple of Early 20 year olds by their worst moments unless youve been there to see their best.

I do think that Westbrook take too many shots, But it's not really shots that he take from Durant. Our other starters like Thabo/Ibaka/Perkins are probably taking lesser shots than their other starting counterpart (even if you ranked them as 4th to 6th in rotation).

So long as Westbrook make his shots before the closing 5 minutes and let Durant take over in the last 5 minutes i dont really see that as an alpha male problem. Alpha male would want to win for the team and shoot in the last 5 minutes. Westbrook just want to win and have no problem giving the ball to durant for that. Beside other than efficiency etc, there's a problem if Durant shoot more b4 game ends, 1) he expend more energy, 2) Defence will start keying in more on him since our other 3 are non existant options other than ibaka if his jumper is falling.

I don't think it's fair to compare Durant to Jordan, he hasn't reached that level yet, and Lebron defence on Durant in finals was effective, the most effective compared to previous rounds. And i'm willing to bet that the bulls offence was more sophiscated than OKC is.

I guess our difference is that you should watch team more and see the offence that Scott Brooks manage.

Regarding Stuckey it's not that i underrate him. As an SG, he'll be good for ballhandling but he doesn't really have the post up option when played as SG vs PG (I'm not sure if he does it efficiently if at all) and he's not a good 3 point shooter. And he's already 26 vs Harden 22 PLUS if he's traded after this season he'll have 1 season left on his contract. If we're going to trade, we definitely want a proven player back that'll be on a guaranteed contract for a few years.

I actually have a lot of respect for Westbrook i think if you were to build a team around him ala AIs 76er teams he could lead a team to the finals, but if he stays in OKC he's going to have to check his ego at the door if he wants to win a championship.

No i was actually talking about Stuckey being overrated and Harden being underrated. I like harden a lot and until stuck develops a J he's never going to be much. stuckey doesn't have a post up game. only thing he can do right now is drive to the rack and throw it up and hope it either goes in or he gets fouled.