What NOBODY is Noticing About Russell Westbrook & James Harden

When it's all said and done in the NBA, I feel like Russell Westbrook will be grossly underappreciated by many basketball fans. We're looking at somebody that changed the game of basketball forever. I remember when I was a kid, I never thought in my lifetime I would see anybody average a triple double. That was something that I thought would be untouchable in the record books. And to this day, I kind of think that it still should have been. But Westbrook was different. He was somebody with immense passion. He was somebody with the drive to be great. He was somebody that always wanted to see his team succeed. You can say that's his best trait, but some may also say that's his biggest fault. You see, when you have a player like Westbrook that wears their heart on their sleeve, you have to take the bad with the good and the good with the bad. Because at the end of the day, there's going to be way, way more good. I'm excited to see what Westbrook and Harden can do together. After all, Harden is another guy that has endured much hate throughout his career. I think a lot of people blame Harden for the Rockets deficiencies, but I don't think Harden has been the problem at all. I think Harden's been overachieving many years. We're talking about the league's best scorer today. We're talking about somebody that many guys mimic and hope that they can pull off the moves that James Harden pulls off. Not only is James Harden one of the best scorers, but he's one of the league's most gifted passers. Harden can do a lot of damage in the half court or the fast break. This guy is just deadly with the ball in his hands. He gets into the lane as easily as anybody in the NBA. He's like a hot knife cutting through butter. He has a handle that's out of this world, and if you make the wrong step, he has no problem dropping you off on a different planet. You don't have to like the beard, hey you don't even have to acknowledge him, but by the time his career is over, I think he'll have everybody's respect. But for now, let's just enjoy the show. This video we're going to be talking about what we learned from James Harden and Russell Westbrook's first game. I'm going to be giving you guys some hard-hitting analysis, and we're going to also be talking about things that nobody is noticing, and some things that may have to stop for this duo to be successful. But before we get into that, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications guys, you won't want to miss another D Koop video, and that's facts. I'm trying to get to 200,000 subscribers guys, so be sure to subscribe so I can live out my dream of going full time, and I can bring you guys daily videos no problem. Also be sure to follow my IG, handle GLightKoop and link in the description guys, you will not want to miss a post. Basketball is back, and in full force. I absolutely love the game, and you guys probably love it too if you're here. For starters, I want to say that Russell Westbrook is home. I don't think that Russell Westbrook could have went to a better team. This Houston Rockets team is perfect for a player like Russell Westbrook. When Westbrook was in Oklahoma City, I will say that I do think the Oklahoma City Thunder has some talented teams, but what the Thunder really never had to me was a really good coach. They really never had the spacing that Russell Westbrook needs to be the best version of Russell Westbrook. And for everything that you can say about D'Antoni, you can't say that he's not an offensive mastermind. You see Russell Westbrook running the pick and roll with Tyson Chandler. I'm going to love this all season. You have one of the best screensetters, you have one of the best role men in the league, and you have one of the best passers with Russell Westbrook now in a space and pace system. It doesn't get much better than this guys. Westbrook this game had 24 points, 7 assists, but he has 16 boards. For everybody that thought Steven Adams was just boxing out and Westbrook wasn't a bull on his own, I hate to break it to you guys, but this guy is a guy that plays with the men's passion. I talked about it earlier in the video. He out rebounded Giannis in this game. Giannis had 13 boards, and that's not to slight Giannis because we know Giannis is a fantastic rebounder. We know the star power in this game is crazy, we have 3 MVP candidates and 3 former MVPs. For all the talk about coaching there's just some stuff you can't teach like this pass right here from Westbrook. The ability to grab the board. No pass is needed. Take the ball the length of the floor in transition. They know how deadly, how monstrous of a score Russell is. Look at the lane when Russell Westbrook attacks. We have 4 players on the bucks with one mission on their mind and that's to stop Russell Westbrook. He makes an easy pass. That pass is a pass that he's been making his whole career. But the fact of the matter has been, some of his teammates haven't been able to knock down the shots. And now things are a little different with the Houston Rockets. You have some better shooting, even though I know it didn't seem like it this game because James Harden and I think Eric Gordon were a combined 4 of 20 from the 3pt line. These are really good shooters. They were just off this game and that happened. We know Eric Gordon can knock down the tray ball with the best of them. One of the best shooters in the league. I truly believe that. I'm a pelicans fan so when I praise Eric Gordon, you have to listen. Also, we know James Harden has been one of the guys, one of the league leaders in filling it up from deep. Guy has no problem catching fire at any time. They're going to play better. James Harden did not have a good game at all and we'll talk about that a little more. But in the fourth quarter, Russell Westbrook came to play. This is what getting another MVP caliber player does for your team. You don't have to be reliant on James Harden. Now you got somebody else. You have somebody else capable of making the big time play. You have somebody else capable of getting you into the game. And you have somebody else that James Harden has the ultimate chemistry with. I can't stress what Russell Westbrook brings to this team enough. When he just got that board, who was boxing out for him? That's just a guy that wants it more than everybody else on the court. This is a big time shot from Westbrook. This is a superstar, MVP, all NBA type of shot. Not everybody is taking that shot. Not everybody is making that shot. Russell Westbrook in the fourth quarter, he was a guy on a mission. Now the only problem that I really had this game was James Harden did not have the perfect game. And you guys know James Harden actually played bad this game. I can't sugarcoat it. James Harden had a poor performance. But with that being said, against one of the best teams in the league, you have James Harden who played poor and you have this team that should have still won. The Rockets were in every position to take this game. Of course, you have some other factors like Eric Gordon going cold that doesn't help. James Harden finished his game with 19 points. He had 14 assists, which was really good, but he also did have a ton of turnovers. He also got to the line efficiently, and he was very efficient from the free throw line. And overall, I want to say 2 of 13 is not going to cut it against some of the best teams in the NBA, but it almost did. James Harden had this type of game, and the Rockets still almost won. Where in the past, if James Harden had this type of game at times, the Rockets could be on the wrong end of a blowout. So there's still a lot to like about this Rockets team. While Harden's shot selection at times could be somewhat questionable during this game, I still thought that the Rockets were taking good open shots for the most part. I think that's became a staple of D'Antoni's offense, is you get a good look that you like. Every look also does not have to be wide open. And for everything that I've said poorly about James Harden, his passing was still on a good level when it wasn't a turnover. He was still seeing the floor pretty well. For every bad game that Harden has, he's going to have a lot of good games. He's going to have way more good games than bad games. So I'm not going to overanalyze James Harden, this MVP player, having one bad game. And I know the Harden haters are out there in full effect. I made my way around YouTube. I've looked around and I've seen what people are saying. People really do not like Harden. There is a portion of the internet that just hates him for whatever reason. I really like that Russell Westbrook shot the ball well from three this game. I thought it was really good because Westbrook has been working on his shot in the offseason and it looked dramatically improved. You guys saw some of the videos I brought you on players working on their shots this offseason. We're going to bring that back next offseason, of course, but it's always fun to document players and their progression and how much better they're getting. Now, a lot of people, when they work on their shots in the offseason, you think of offseason cap, you think it's not really, you think it's not going to translate to games, but that wasn't the case for Russell Westbrook. And also, I don't think he was a really poor shooter before. I don't think he was a really poor shooter because I thought Russell Westbrook just made shots harder for himself. I thought he was taking some really tough shots. And I even brought up the catch and shoot statistics in the past to show you guys, I think Russell Westbrook is going to be a perfect fit in this system. You guys know I admit when I'm wrong. So there's this clip making its way around the internet of James Harden and Russell Westbrook not even really getting into a disagreement discussing basketball. Why are we at this point already? Why are we trying to overreact to this? These are just two guys. These are just two competitors. These are two friends, two best friends sharing a passionate moment about what they can do to play better about what they can do to make the team better. I saw nothing wrong with this in the moment. I want my stars. I want my players passionate and discussing basketball, discussing errors, discussing what they can be doing better and just not being afraid to critique one another. The media is toxic. I want to know what you guys thought on this situation, but be sure to click the video on the screen right now guys. It's me going over Kyrie Irving's 50 point game. I broke it down beautifully. You won't want to miss it. Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications. I'm D Coupe and I'm out.