Shockwaves were sent throughout the basketball world on Wednesday evening, when Yahoo Sports lead NBA insider, Shams Charania, took to Twitter to announce that Russell Westbrook has requested a trade from the Houston Rockets.
Last summer, the Rockets made an ambitious move by packaging Chris Paul with a plethora of draft picks for former MVP Russell Westbrook. Many were critical of the move at the time, including me, because they believed that Chris Paul was the better player and that Westbrook was a poor fit in the Rocket's system due to his incompetent shooting and ball dominance. I have been in the minority when I say this, but I believe that Russell Westbrook is not a top-five point guard in the NBA. In fact, I believe that Russell Westbrook is toxic towards a team's chemistry and cannot be on a championship roster.
The dilemma with Westbrook is that he is undoubtedly one of the most talented players in the league, he might be the most athletic point guard in the history of basketball! However, his decision making and skill severely lacks behind. Westbrook's career has filled with head-scratching decisions and awful efficiency. The cumulative impact of these weaknesses prevents Westbrook from being the best player on a championship caliber team. But that not where my problems with Westbrook lie. You can't criticize a player for not being able to be the best player on a championship team, I mean there is only a handful of NBA players that fall into that very exclusive category. My problems with Westbrook arise from his unwillingness to be a complimentary piece. Westbrook plays a very ball-dominant style of basketball, but is not elite enough as an offensive catalyst to warrant that level of usage. Additionally, Westbrook's lack of shooting ability prevents him from being an elite off-ball player, and this has been evident throughout Westbrook's career. We first saw this in 2016, when Westbrook, Kevin Durant and the OKC Thunder were up 3 games to 1 in the Western Conference Finals. Westbrook repeatedly made poor decisions, took away shots from Kevin Durant, and single-handedly ruined the Thunder's chances of advancing to the NBA Finals. His ego-centric approach to basketball even led to Kevin Durant leaving the Thunder the very next season. The same thing happened in the 2019 NBA season, when Westbrook drastically underperformed in the playoffs, leading to the Thunder getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, which eventually led Paul George to request a trade to the Clippers. However, the Rockets still didn't learn their lesson and paid a hefty price for Westbrook.
And as predicted, the trade proved to be catastrophic for the Rockets present and future. The Rockets beat the Chris Paul led Thunder by the skin of their teeth in the first round, before getting picked apart by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. Westbrook's lack of shooting ability was once again the downfall, allowing the Lakers to constantly double team James Harden in the halfcourt. Westbrook's weaknesses allowed the Lakers to completely shut down one of the best offences in basketball and led to the Rocket's demise.
Ever since their elimination from the playoffs, many had speculated that the Rockets would look to split up the duo due to their lack of draft capital. Daryl Morey's hiring in Philadelphia led people to speculate that James Harden would soon be a 76er. However, according to reports, Russell Westbrook will be the Rocket All-Star on his way out of Houston.
Apparently, Westbrook's reason for requesting a trade is that "he wants to return to being a floor general." This once again reinforces my point about Westbrook being a selfish basketball player. Westbrook would rather put up triple-doubles on a fringe playoff team, rather than be a positive contributor in a lesser role on a championship team. This is the reason that has kept Westbrook's teams from achieving substantial postseason success.
Nonetheless, there still appears to be a market for the services of Russell Westbrook. According to reports, the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks have all expressed interest in trading for Westbrook. On paper, this seems completely irritational because Westbrook's contract is toxic, all these teams are very early in their rebuilding process and Westbrook will most likely stunt the development of their young players. However, the business side of basketball will most likely play into Westbrook's favour. Teams lost millions of dollars due to COVID-19 and Westbrook is still a magnet for fans and ratings. Soon enough the world will know where Russell Westbrook will be playing next season, but this trade request most likely means that Russell Westbrook will join Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and numerous other Hall of Famer's in the league of great players who never won a championship.
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