The Straight Hoop

You don't have to look hard at the numbers to see Kevin Durant had a monster January; 36-6-6 tends to speak for itself and don't get me started about the percentages. Durant was so good that his greatness called into question the necessity of his sidekick, Russell Westbrook. This is not new. There will always be a pocket of people who believe the best thing for the Thunder would be to deal Westbrook. Durant being amazing without him only provides a large stage for those people to shout on. On the surface this seems like a ridiculous proposition. We all saw how the Thunder operated without Westbrook in last years playoffs. Even with a greatly improved Reggie Jackson its easy to imagine the same outcome for the Thunder sans Westbrook. There is an interesting aspect to the "trade Westbrook" narrative however. Could the Thunder possibly get more value out of the salary they are paying Westbrook? My initial reaction would be to shout from the highest mountain a resound...

Trades are an understood part of the NBA. Player swaps and moves become second nature from some. These are mostly rotation players swapping teams and contract flotsam to balance everything out. This is the normal and see it every season. However, every once in a while the trade of a superstar happens and captures the collective basketball consciousness of everyone even remotely interested. These trades can be a drawn out nightmare or quick, unexpected thrillers. Either way, there will always be questions. Which brings me to a trade that has been discussed from multiple angles and shifted the destiny of a potentially dominant team. Yes its the Harden trade everybody; the most interestingly disappointing trade in a long time.  . Now, I have already go on record to say that OKC might have not gotten fleeced by Daryl Morey and that what they got is pretty good compensation for the budding star of Harden. Completely change my mind. Never been more wrong about anything NBA r...