Houston Rockets guards James Harden and Russell Westbrook will be tasked with scoring the bulk of the team’s via isolation plays. Why? Let’s talk.
The HoustonRocketsare primed for likely another eventful season in the Association after making the trade that was heard around the world, a blockbuster one that landed themRussell Westbrook.
It’s absolutely amazing that the Oklahoma City Thunder were able to takeChris Paul‘s albatross-like contract in order to facilitate the end game of having Westbrook in a HoustonRockets‘ uniform.
There are concerns of how he andJames Hardenare going to mesh in the backcourt but I think that it won’t be as much an issue as we may all think. Both are dynamic guards that like the ball in their hands and lots of isolation plays are run through them.
The beauty of this is that ifMike D’Antoniwants to run isolation, he has two players he can ensure that his initiatives of putting the ball in the hoop are executed.
Harden led the league in pointsfrom isolation plays last season. It’s important to note that16.4 percent of his possessionscame from iso-ball and heaveraged 18.1 points per gamejust off that strategy alone last season.
It pains us to see things slow down at times with these HoustonRocketsbut D’Antoni already knows that they’re getting their best bang for their buck when Harden is in isolation. This is especially helpful when the rest of the team goes on a cold shooting streak and it allows some sort of continuity with the game plan until the rest of the team heats back up.
There were times last season where the rest of our shooters didn’t recover, yet the HoustonRocketswould win games as a result of Harden’s heroics.
Only4.9 percentof Westbrook’s scoring plays came off isolation and he onlyaveraged 3.7 points
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per gamewhen that happened. However, that still has him ranked 9th in the league in that category. I’d expect for that number to increase going into the season.
Harden has his step-back while Westbrook has a euro-step move of his own. These two are going to be deadly out on the court and defenses are going to be scratching their heads as to how to resolve to try to stop these two guys.
If you double-team Harden, he’ll dish it off to Westbrook for him to score the basket and vice-versa. Both Westbrook and Harden averaged 10.7 and 7.5 assists respectively in 2018-19 so I could still see scenarios where the ball is moving fluidly among team members until an open man is found.
If I can see a healthy mix of ball movement and isolation, this team is going to be difficult to stop and then we’ll be having the conversation about having the team’s third Larry O’Brien trophy added to their illustrious case of theirs.
We’ll have to keep an eye out HoustonRocketsfans — stay tuned.
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