2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

Russell Westbrook will work with Lebron and AD. Make it happen....

 

i'll take one year of paul at 44 million over two years of westbrook at 44 and 47. and i'm not sure what about westbrook's non-durant record impresses people. i've actually been a bigger fan of westbrook than most for most of his career, but he really went over the edge for me in the last couple of years. his fire doesn't win games anymore, and his shortcomings never really improved. i can't believe with how much b****ing i heard about shooting all year that people want to bring in a guy that nobody has ever once guarded on the perimeter.

 

I see reports about Trez opting in, a trade involving him must be in the works. I just can't see him and Vogel being on the same page.

 

Westbrook with Lebron and AD? That would be a serious problem for the League. Playing with those two, he gets played straight up, he is still too much to handle, for most of the league straight up.

 

The amount of hate a Westbrook thread will get during the course of a season will be glorious. That alone will make it worth it.

 

Kyrie and Wade were the same rhythm type player. Lebron is at his best with a guard that can score period IMO. He is a great player, he can make do without a guy like that. I just think at 37, it wouldn't hurt to have another, guard that could explode for 30 or 40 points in the backcourt too. I don't really think James cares about having the ball every second of every possession.

 

I said a few times I thought the chemistry was off with this team so I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some truth to this.

 

If they truly don’t like each other it will be difficult to get Dennis to agree to a trade where both would land in the same spot.

 

Westbrook as the third guy is murder to the opponent. He's healthy, he plays hard and he is an LA guy and knows a title is likely as long as everyone is healthy going into the playoffs.

Lakers can look for shooting all they want, no one is out there that will matter. They need a third to lesson the load off Lebron. It's not a matter of want. It's a matter of need. If the Lakers want Lebron to be effective beyond this next season, you have to have a third star on this team. Role players are just too unreliable.

 

i have my own issues with kuzma, but it's become pretty obvious DS was a locker room cancer this past season

couldn't show his a** out any sooner, even if it means bringing in that turtle looking mofo

 

right? i'll have to check out. especially after all this early support for his arrival. just pages and pages of complaining about his shooting and gambling defense...

exactly.

if this is true; we're cooked. i think jsm pointed to brooklyn earlier in this thread. we don't have the assets right now to get a harden as our third. a 33 year old westbrook is not harden. and as i mentioned before--what's washington's incentive here? move the star they just traded for to get our scapegoat cast-offs? that will play great with the fans.

we used our draft capital and had to empty all chambers to get AD. if we can't make do with good role players, we can't win, imo. good news is we already did it once, though! we won a title without a third star. milwaukee just won one without a third star.

 

Bucks won a title because every team but the Suns had a star out. And the Suns were a couple possessions from winning 2 games they lost.

Westbrook as the 3rd star will work. As a second or first, no.

 

we've never seen it attempted, so i don't know. he played better last year than the year before. and one can argue houston was a cesspool and playing with harden is junk. but the main reason playing with harden is junk is that you have to be a spectator for most of the game. do you really want to hand lebron's keys to westbrook? to anyone?

i think there are parallel debates here. one about third stars/scorers and one about pgs/facilitators. westbrook fuses them, and i think we need neither. sort of like andre drummond is really good a few things...that we didn't and don't need and that don't mesh well with our current top dogs.

a westbrook/lebron/AD/drummond/kcp lineup will have trouble scoring simply because no one will ever leave the paint. we'd have to commit to changing defensive philosophy into creating turnovers and running. which would be devastating, for sure, but isn't a playoff strategy--someone eventually doesn't cough it up.

i don't know. i guess i'm wrong, as lebron himself seems to believe we need someone to take the ball out of his hands. but he's never been successful that way. wade was a terrible fit that worked because they were pals and bosh stretched the floor for them. also, lebron was a fire-breathing dragon in his prime and could overcome just about anything at that point. otherwise, lebron's always been best with a scoring guard, not a floor general/ball dominator, and certainly not a non-shooter.

 

Lebron's greatest skillset is he can play with anyone. He won a title with that flat earther moron. Would have won more had it not for Durant going to GS. He won with Wade, which was a terrible fit basketball wise. No ego with AD. Lebron can play with anyone. All time greats usually can.