NBA Trades: 3 Reasons why Russell Westbrook will be a good fit for Houston Rockets
The vintage trio of Harden, Durant, and Westbrook playing together in Oklahoma is one of the biggest What-ifs of the league. Well, two of the above are set to reunite after around seven years of separation.
Falling in line to what was a bizarre offseason of trades and acquisitions, the Oklahoma City Thunder front office decided to trade their franchise cornerstone in exchange for an aging playmaker and a brimming sack of draft picks along with flexibility for the near-to-distant future. Amongst all the trades we came across this offseason, this just might be the most shocking one of them all.
While everybody expected Russell to end his career in a Thunder jersey, the sudden exit of Paul George to LA must have set a chain of events in motion. As a result, Stephen Curry now the longest-tenured player with one team in the NBA.
Now that we have such a tectonic shift at hand, let's go through the possibilities that suggest a smooth handoff down in Houston.
#1 Brodie will enjoy some much-needed space at the perimeter
When it comes to long-range shooting, it is no secret that the 2017 MVP hasn't experienced the type of space Harden has in Houston. With the Rockets housing three-point threats like Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, Patrick Beverley, Chandler Parsons, Gerald Green, Jason Terry, P.J. Tucker, Paul in the past, there certainly is no comparison as to which team could space the floor more efficiently.
Brodie's three-point percentage last year (29% on over 5.6 three-point shots per game) was the worst since his sophomore season. While Westbrook is known to frequently shoot reflexive threes - which often hurts his conversion rate from deep - there will a considerable uptick in the margin and accuracy for his instincts while playing with the Rockets.