Would you guys trade Aldridge for Westbrook?

Well, we'll have to disagree on the import of that. While I agree he's let his team down late in a couple of games, I am more apt (based on everything he's done in his career up to now, including those two games) to chalk it up to some random bad play rather than Westbrook truly defining himself as a point guard. I also don't think those two games define him as a choker, as I don't feel that every moment of bad play in clutch situations points to a flaw in the player's make-up. Even players with solid clutch credentials, like Jordan, Reggie Miller, Magic Johnson, have had bad moments or even bad games in the clutch. Sometimes bad play is just random variation, not a choke.

 

No.

As much as I have felt LMA to be "soft" he has proven to be one of the top five PF's in the league today. He finally has showed us some upside! And if that fire can be lit, game in and game out, we don't trade him. Not even for CP3.

Rather, we must look to move other pieces to get our PG of the future. LMA is who we build around. Wallace will prove to be a great compliment to LMA's game. I wish we could get Marc Gasol - a big, young, talented Center who is capable of taking on the "enforcer role" and allowing LMA to be the scorer.

 

I love Westbrook, but John Wall could very well end up being the best PG in a year or two. Guy is a beast. No way they'll trade him for Westbrook. Wall + Durant would be freaky. And I'm not sure if Kyrie Irving will be as good as Westbrook. He's definitely not the prospect that other superstar PGs were coming out of college.

Oh, and to be honest, anyone expecting Serge Ibaka to be a "star-in-the-making-PF" will be seriously disappointed.

 

He's not as athletic or anywhere near as a explosive as Rose. And as point guards, neither of them are still on that elite level in comparison to Deron or Paul. Wow, there's quite a number of people overrating Russell Westbrook.

 

Outside of his PER, which is over 20 in part because of his high usage rate (34.8%), Westbrook's advanced stats are rather ordinary. 1.0 WS in 10 total games (Durant has 2.3 to compare), a 105 Ortg (Durant 125), a 106 Drtg (Durant at 104), and Durant's usage is only 28.3, with a PER of 25.6.

I agree with you, and I think that Westbrook is actually hurting OKC at this point by not deferring to Durant.

To summarize the playoffs

PER
Westbrook 20.8
Durant 25.6

TS%
Westbrook 50%
Durant 60%

Ortg
Westbrook 106
Durant 125

Drtg
Westbrook 105
Durant 104

WS
Westbrook 1.0
Durant 2.3

Usage rate
Westbrook 34.8
Durant 28.3

WS/48
Westbrook .123
Durant .266

 

In a vacuum I think both LMA and Westbrook are comparable on a scale of 1 to 10 as far as talent and ability to affect a game and I wouldn't rule out trading Aldridge for Westbrook out of hand, but frankly I think you would be exchanging one set of problems for another without much tangible affect on the team's ability to win or lose games (which is all that really matters).

When you talk about the maxim of not trading bigs for smalls I'm not sure it matters as much in this era of basketball where the rules seem to favor perimeter guys, but it would leave us less than paper thin up front.

 

No, although he gets a lot of assists, his fg% is actually pretty poor compared with Aldridge. He shoots 44% to Aldridge's 50%. Not exactly what I'd like to see.

Also, there's the point that someone else already brought up about losing a big, our only really good PF, in exchange for a point guard. We need a good point guard, but it doesn't seem wise to give up our All-NBA PF in order to get one.

 

PG's normally have a lower FG% than Forwards.

 

Take a look at Chris Paul's Asst% v. Usage rate. If the Blazers are going to trade an All-NBA big, they had better get a Chris Paul in return. Westbrook being 2nd team over Paul is a joke, IMO. Westbrook's Ortg/Drtg is terrible for an "elite" player, and it is worse in the playoffs.

 

I agree with that.

 

Seeing how Westbrook thinks he's mj; naw I think I would rather have Aldridge right now.

 

I watched the 4th quarter of the OKC/Memphis game tonight. Based on that extensive sample size, I don't want Westbrook at all, but I'd take that Zach Randolph guy.

Seriously, how is a player like Durant supposed to get into a rhythm when Westbrook is hogging the ball and throwing it away time after time? After a while, you just hoist up a shot when you finally touch the ball. That's not good basketball. I'd rather have Conley.

I'll keep LaMarcus, thanks.