Return to Houston? How is Westbrook fitting with the Rockets?

This is the thing. Recently, the Rockets official posted a photo of Durant and Adams on social media and wrote: Familiar chemistry and new teams.

Then the focus came. The two teammates of the Thunder and Westbrook, who is now a free agent, liked this photo. This move also caused many fans to speculate: Is Westbrook possible to join the Rockets?

The first thing to say is that the Rockets are not unfamiliar with Westbrook. After he left the Thunder in 2019, his first stop was to join the Rockets' partner Harden. Unfortunately, the cooperation between the two was not successful. Just one year later, Westbrook was traded to the Wizards, and Harden also transferred to the Nets in the 2020-21 season.

Nowadays, Harden is no longer with the Rockets, but there are indeed many players familiar to Westbrook in this Rockets formation. In addition to Durant and Adams, Jeff Green also briefly cooperated with Westbrook during the Thunder.

and a very important thing are also a major reason why many fans think that the Rockets may sign Westbrook: Van Vleet suffered an ACL torn not long ago, and is likely to be reimbursed for the season.

The Rockets have a good lineup in the new season, but they do lack people on the point guard. After Van Vleet is reimbursed, only Amen Thompson, Shepard and Alon Holiday can stand.

But these three are each inadequate as point guards: Amen lacks shooting and cannot launch a pick-and-roll attack; Shepard lacks experience and is still on the edge last season; Holiday is too short and has no organization, and his defense is not good enough.

So Westbrook naturally became one of the goals.

To be honest, although Westbrook has not signed so far, his performance last season is really not bad. In 75 games played for the Nuggets, he averaged 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game, with a shooting percentage of 44.9%/32.3%/66.1% in three games.

Among them, in the playoffs against the Clippers, Westbrook's data in seven games was: averaging 13.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game, and a three-point shooting percentage of 41.9%. He is an important contributor to the Nuggets' promotion.

has not signed a contract so far, in addition to the poor market environment this summer, a large part of the reason may be the problem of playing time. After all, with the highlights of the previous year, it is difficult for each team to make Westbrook accept a lower role in the new season.

coincides with Van Vleet's reimbursement. If Westbrook joins the Rockets, it will not only be able to partner with his familiar former teammates, but also average about 20 minutes of time per game in the No. 1 position, and it will also meet Westbrook's championship needs.

sounds good, but the reality is still relatively cruel.

Before considering whether to sign Westbrook, you might as well look at Van Vleet's performance with the Rockets. Last season, he played a total of 60 games for the Rockets, averaging 14.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting percentage of 37.8%/34.5%/81.0% in three events, and a real shooting percentage of 51.5%.

In the regular season, VanVleet's efficiency is not good, even worse than Westbrook last season (real shooting percentage is 53.2%), but in the playoffs, VanVleet's performance is also excellent, averaging 18.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, a three-point shooting percentage of 43.5%, and a real shooting percentage of 63.2%.

VanVleet and Westbrook have the biggest difference between him and his fortune. He not only has excellent luck control, but also can play with balls and no balls. He averaged 2.5 three-pointers in his career and hit a shooting percentage of 37.1%. He is a shooter that his opponent must not ignore.

Moreover, VanVleet not only has more reliable external defense, but his ability to control mistakes is also stronger than Westbrook. He averaged 5.6 assists/1.5 turnovers per game last season, and 8.1 assists/1.7 turnovers per game the previous year. This is an assist and turnover ratio that Westbrook has not achieved in his career. The most critical point is that the Rockets' current salary situation cannot provide Westbrook with opportunities. Their total salary is 194.7 million. Due to the triggering of the hard hat, it cannot exceed 195.9 million at any time, so the space for recruitment is only 1.25 million, and they cannot even give a basic salary.

Theoretically, the Rockets can also create space through trading, and they also have a lot of bargaining chips, but the problem is that it is not suitable to send anyone away at this stage, and since they are all going to trade, why not find a point guard with a stronger adaptability than Westbrook?

As of now, the Rockets' best solution is to start from the existing lineup, so that Shepard and Amen can take on more point guard roles. It should be noted that the Rockets' point guards actually don't have much to do. After all, after arriving in the frontcourt, Durant and Shin Kyung, both of whom can launch an attack.

The fact is also true. At the press conference of the new season's media day, when talking about how the Rockets fill the point guard role, Uduka said: "It will be shared by many people, and everyone will participate."

Uduka also said that Amen will have more ball possession, and the Rockets will rely more on Shin Kyung and Durant to launch an attack.

As for Westbrook, it sounds good to join forces with Durant, Adams, and Jeff Green, but now it seems that the Rockets may really not need it and cannot sign him directly. This summer is destined to be difficult for Westbrook. If you don’t find your next player this season, you may be forced to retire.