The Houston Rockets’ story this season was very much intertwined with that of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
With the Rockets’ 119-96 loss in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston’s season is over.
Flipping Russell Westbrook in exchange for Chris Paul in an offseason trade with the Oklahoma City wasn’t enough to push the Rockets over the edge and finally get Houston that elusive Finals appearance.
Westbrook had just 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting in the final game of the series.
In the five-game series against the Lakers, he averaged 19.8 points on 39-for-96 shooting, a touch above 40%.
James Harden had 30 points in Game 5, but only he, Westbrook and Jeff Green scored double-digit points for the Rockets. LeBron James led Los Angeles with 29 points as six Lakers finished with at least 10 points.
Now that Houston’s season concluded in such anticlimactic fashion, the trade looks even more in Oklahoma City’s favor. Paul has two years left on his deal, and he has positive trade value — the Milwaukee Bucks are among teams that have expressed interest in him, according to Marc Stein. The Thunder also got draft assets in exchange.
Westbrook is still a star, but his play style did not complement Harden’s the way Paul’s did, even though Westbrook did play better than Harden for much of January and February.
Now the Rockets, like the Thunder, are at a crossroads. They’ll have to decide on the future of head coach Mike D’Antoni and what roster changes they want to make. Westbrook, with three years and $132 million left on his contract, is probably staying in Houston.
Rockets optimists can say that another season of Harden and Westbrook, as the organization alters the roster around them, will give them time to right the ship. With that, Thunder fans can feel like Oklahoma City won the trade despite being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the Rockets.
Yet the trade ramifications are not yet in. It will take a decade or longer — likely longer — to know the impact of the picks Oklahoma City received in return.
So the trade winner can’t be written in ink. But Thunder fans leave this crazy 2020 season feeling a lot more content than those of the Rockets.