The Houston Rockets media day was pretty exciting. Both James Harden and Russell Westbrook appeared and shared their impressions and the views on the upcoming campaign, the one in which their team is among the biggest title contenders.
The part in which Russ spoke with the media representatives. The new addition to the Rockets’ roster had a few interesting things to say. Some of them were addressed to other rivals.
“It’s going to be scary, that’s all I can tell you,” Westbrook said. “It’s going to be scary — not for us.”
And really, when you have two of the last three NBA MVP players in your team, it does look terrifying for all the opponents.
Without a doubt, Harden and Westbrook set new standards with their performances during the past few seasons, breaking all sorts of records, and posting unreal individual stats. But it seems that their egos are now settled and that the individual achievements are not in their focus anymore. The new goal is bigger — the title.
Harden openly spoke about that this Friday, saying that it is time to move on to some new challenges.
“We’ve accomplished a lot of individual accolades,” said Harden. “Now it’s time to accomplish something together that we haven’t accomplished before.”
The Beard is back-to-back NBA’s leading scorer. Before him, Westbrook held that title. Many Rockets’ fans are afraid that there might not be chemistry among the two dominant ball-handlers. According to the Beard, they shouldn’t worry about such a thing. He admitted that there would be some period of adjustments, but in general, they will find a solution to work together. He even gave his vision on that.
“If Russ got it going and Russ is having one of those games that we’ve all seen before, guess what I’m going to do: sit back and watch the show, and vice versa,” Harden explained.
Westbrook had arthroscopic knee surgery recently, and he is still in the process of recovery, but was allowed to have 5-on-5 workouts with a lowered intensity. In the beginning, the Rockets won’t go hard with the former MVP, as they know, that they will have a long season ahead.
Houston will get a lot with Westbrook, who will take the pressure of Harden at some moments. The experts are suggesting that his penetrating skills and rim attack will no doubt bring a new dimension to the Rockets’ gameplan, the one which might help one of the best three-point shooting teams in history. His driving layups will leave even more space for Harden, Gordon and the rest of the shooting core.
But not only that. Westbrook is the best rebounder among the guards in the league, and that is something the Rockets lacked in the past. His physical abilities will no doubt allow more second-chance points and will speed up the transition because he alone can run the offense.
The Rockets have all the resources to attack the title. We’ll see if that happens.
