Houston Rockets: Reflecting back on the Russell Westbrook-Chris Paul trade

The trade has aged poorly for the Houston Rockets

On the flip side, the Rockets owe Russell Westbrook more than $132 million over the next three years. While Westbrook is younger than Chris Paul he is going to be much harder for Houston for a few reasons outside of his massive contract.

One big reason is his playing style. Westbrook is one of the most athletic guys in the NBA but at times he gets too reckless and ends up hurting his team more than he helps them. Westbrook is also extremely ball-dominant and plays a lot of iso or one-on-one ball which would make it difficult for him to be a good fit in a multitude of other NBA teams systems.

Another reason is injuries. Westbrook entered the season recovering from a hand injury he suffered in his final season in OKC, As a result, Westbrook did not play in any of Houston’s back-to-back games during the regular season. Then in a seeding game in the NBA bubble Westbrook suffered a quad injury that forced him to miss the Rockets’ first four playoff games. The fact that Westbrook has become injury prone over the latter stages of his career greatly hurts his trade value.

For all these reasons listed above, Presti and the Thunder were the big winners from this trade and OKC is set up for a much brighter future than Houston is.