Thunder turmoil, Rajon for Russell anyone?

[LB3533]

If OKC were to have Rondo, they would need another scorer to start.

There would be too many "defensive" type players in their starting lineup.

KD would be seeing double, triple teams all the time.

I think Westbrook's offense is good enough to make defenses respect him and keep them honest.

Westbrook just needs to learn how to make better decisions. He's still young and probably the better player at this stage in his career compared to rondo.

[housecall]

Durant is saying all the right things to the media but i wonder what he's really saying and thinking beyond the lockerroom when with friends/family.Russell seems to want the same amount of ecalades Durant receives and thats not good. Russell has issues that will cause problems on most teams.

I agree Durant needs to be more aggressive. He keeps saying the right things and keeps trying to sound like the good guy but he needs to demand the ball more. He shot horrible last night, but at the end of the day he's the one I would rather take the last shot then Westbrook. That's his team and he needs to demand the ball like it's his team. He needs to tell Russell he's Robin and not Batman.
I keep hearing it, but Russell is starting to be compared to Stephon Marbury and this is starting to remind people of the KG/Marbury issue in Minnesota.
Besides that I don't think there are issues at all between them. I just don't see Durant getting mad he seems too nice to be a Kobe or Jordan on his team.

TP,agreed...on most teams this would have caused way more problems because most NBA stars today would have brought it to the light before the WCF.

[CelticG1]

I think Rondo would help in one way, he'd get better looks for the other thunder which might open up the game a little more for durant. 
no way would i trade rondo for anyone but chris paul and before possible attitude issues deron williams

Attitude problems? Sounds like Rondo. I know Rondo has been better as of late but put Rondo on a crap team and I'm sure that attitude would get a lot more chippy. Vice versa with Williams and Paul.

It's like Pierce a few years back with the C's. Nobody likes losing

[Vermont Green]

If OKC were to have Rondo, they would need another scorer to start.

There would be too many "defensive" type players in their starting lineup.

KD would be seeing double, triple teams all the time.

I think Westbrook's offense is good enough to make defenses respect him and keep them honest.

Westbrook just needs to learn how to make better decisions. He's still young and probably the better player at this stage in his career compared to rondo.

This is exactly the point which I think is often missed.  The man that doesn't have to cover Rondo causes a lot of problems.  There is not a direct stat for this so you can't prove or measure the impact.

Both Westbrook and Rondo are flawed but emerging stars.  I think Westbrook feels like he needs to be Robin, the #2 guy on OKC and just like happens with Davis sometimes, he tries to do a little too much on his own.  He is the #2 guy though so he can't just pass to Durant every time.

On the Celtics, MAYBE, Westbrook would feel a little less pressure.  He certainly would not need to be the #2 guy.  That situation may benefit him or maybe he likes being the bigger fish in the smaller pond.

Either way, I don't see even trader Danny making such a lateral trade.  It is hard to see the old guys liking Westbrook better than they like Rondo.  Even though I think they would get over it if Westbrook played well (which I think he would do) it would not be good if Westbrook came in with an attitude and then pouted with KG barked at him.

Another way to look at this though is in OKC, Westbrook will always be Robin.  In Boston, he could be Batman in the future although he would have to be pretty patient.

[Q_FBE]

The reaction in OKC would be worse than an F5 tornado hitting that city.

[BballTim]

If OKC were to have Rondo, they would need another scorer to start.

There would be too many "defensive" type players in their starting lineup.

KD would be seeing double, triple teams all the time.

I think Westbrook's offense is good enough to make defenses respect him and keep them honest.

Westbrook just needs to learn how to make better decisions. He's still young and probably the better player at this stage in his career compared to rondo.

  Maybe OKC starts Harden, or maybe they just get "playoff" Rondo who scores more than "regular season" Rondo.

  And Westbrook probably is better at this stage of his career than Rondo was, just like most of the other good point guards who generally showed significantly less improvement in years 3-5 than Rondo. They came into the league much more polished than he did, which explains why they were all top 4 picks and Rondo was available in the 20s.

[Assassin70]

I think both of their current games rely on the people on the floor with them.

I would be interested to see how each team would play with a PG swap.

I really could not tell you if that would be a good move or not.  Without seeing it in action.

I could see some and bad for both teams.

[Celtics18]

This is an interesting comparison.  I wouldn't swap them.  Heck, I wouldn't even swap Rondo for Chris Paul. 

People have talked about their differences a lot, but I think their similarities are more interesting.  The thing that these two have in common is their ability to dominate in the 50/50 game. 

I feel like this is an often overlooked aspect of the game when discussing players' individual merit. I'm talking about the ability to track down loose balls.  It's not necessarily rebounding or steals, but this is where the impact is most likely to show up on the stat sheet.  Rondo's the best point guard in the league at this facet of the game.  Westbrook comes closest to him in this regard.  His ability to make these kind of Pippen-like (the all-time King of the 50/50 game, in my opinion) plays has been the most impressive thing I've seen out of Westbrook in these playoffs. 

Coaches talk about the importance of winning the 50/50 battle all the time, but for some reason fans never seem to talk about it's impact on the game when comparing the relative abilities of players.  Maybe it's because it's not easily quantifiable by statistics.