NBA: 10 burning questions for the 2019-20 season

2. How do Harden and Westbrook co-exist?

The numbers simply don’t lie. There are two players in NBA history who have posted usage rates of higher than 40 percent in a single season and in 2019-20, those two guys will be teammates in the same backcourt.

During his MVP season of 2016-17, Russell Westbrook set an NBA record with a 41.7 percent usage rate. Last season, James Harden checked in with a 40.5 percent rate for the Houston Rockets.

So how on Earth do you get those two guys to share one basketball?

For starters, there has to be a willingness for it to work and that is something the longtime friends and former teammates in Oklahoma City have going for them.

Harden told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle after the trade was announced last month that he welcomed the opportunity to once again play with his fellow native of Los Angeles.

"“I’m excited. It’s a new chapter, but I know he’s excited. He’s been in Oklahoma City for 11 years now so it’s a new chapter for him. We welcome him with open arms. It’s going to work.”"

Harden was quick to point out that the duo had success together in Oklahoma City earlier in their careers and have played together for USA Basketball without any problems.

"“When you have talent like that, it works itself out. You communicate. You go out there and compete possession by possession. You figure things out. Throughout the course of the season, you figure things out. That’s just what it is. “When you have talent, you have guys with IQ, you have guys willing to sacrifice, it always works itself out.”"

Both veterans have loads of individual hardware, but have fallen short of the game’s ultimate prize, an NBA title. If anything, playing together might enable both Harden and Westbrook to stay fresher, because neither will have to carry the load alone.

Given the trend in the NBA to stagger stars’ minutes, each player will get an opportunity to be “the guy” in short bursts. Then they can make defenses crazy as a tandem.

If they didn’t have the long relationship they have or if they hadn’t experienced playing together before, it might be a different proposition.

But Westbrook is in Houston because he wants to be and because he wants to reunite with Harden in pursuit of that elusive ring.

Their individual numbers will likely dip, but the end result might be something better than they’ve managed on their own.