Russell Westbrook's UNCOMFORTABLE First Game As a Rocket

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In one of his first possessions in Houston, Westbrook brings the ball up, and does his iconic little hop before raising up at the elbow area. We’ve seen this countless times in OKC. We all know that a midrange jumper is following.
But in a split second, as if he remembered that the Rockets don’t ever shoot that shot, Russell changes his mind and keeps dribbling.
In this situation he now feels like he has to get rid of the ball and make something happen.
A forced up pass is intercepted and during the time out Harden and Westbrook had a heated exchange which might have been exactly over that particular play.
So this was kind of an uncomfortable beginning for Russell in his new team. But strangely enough, I was OK with what I saw on the court. Let me explain why. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Looking at both the positive and the negative side, let’s start with the good first.
Obviously the first thing that comes to mind with him is the deadly transition game.
Look at this lightning quickness going coast to coast. There is no way the defense can set up.
The Rockets will surely get a ton of easy baskets this season because of him.
After a miss, and especially a block or a steal, Houston is going to be deadly as you can clearly see right here.
And look at this. This is after a free throw. The dude goes up for a monster one handed rebound and races everyone down the court. At this point, the 2 remaining defenders on the other end have to make a decision, and obviously at least 1 has to stay in front and stop the ball.
Well that leaves possibly the best corner 3 shooter in the NBA completely wide open. And of course, Russell finds him and P.J. Tucker splashes this 3.
In the front court, the team will definitely try to put him in some pick and roll situations, and while this was a handoff, it still involved a pick, and still involved the big man. So when you have a 2 on 1 like this, Westbrook is such a threat and if he’s 1 step closer, he’ll catapult up for a dunk, so Lopez has to be there, leaving space for Chandler to roll, and a beautiful quick bounce pass for a great finish.
Houston even had a nice decoy set play. Gordon comes over to set a screen along the baseline, directing all the attention there. On Westbrook. But then watch him go out, Chandler comes out to set a flair screen and Gordon is open all of a sudden. Pass is on point and boom. A three.
So you can see some of the highlights of having Russell on the team.
But now let’s get on the other side of the discussion.
There were a few possessions where he would just stand on the side watching the action, not being able to help in any way. Or not even knowing what to do. I’m not saying it’s his fault,or that he did anything wrong but that’s just the price you pay when you play in this iso heavy or harden heavy system. And it’s tough to see an athlete and a player of his caliber just sit on the side like that.
Also, look at this. As the ball starts moving, he finds himself wide open for 3. But as a 29% shooter last season he clearly didn’t feel comfortable taking it, so decides to instead drive directly into traffic here. If you’re on this team, you have to be able to take and make some threes.
Also, when the Bucks defense gave him some room, some cushion as they call it, he couldn’t blow by, so just looked clueless at times. He even attempted some of those bad, contested midrange jumpers which if you ask the Rockets, are by far the worst shot to take ever.
So there is for sure going to be some more heated exchanges but both Harden and Russell said that they’ll figure this out, and that’s why I said I’m excited about this team in my preview video when the trade happened. They are really close, so arguments and debates like this one in front of the entire arena don’t bother them. They just wanna figure things out. Let’s see if they can.
What did you see in their first game? Do you give them a chance? Let me know. That’s it for now, if you liked this video, subscribe and hit the notification bell so that you don’t miss my future in depth analysis. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

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