Lol, that's "SRN" to you! ("Tony Armas" spelled backwards, for any noobs).
Note to Heavy De: Kliq really likes Westbrook. He might reply to this and say he doesn't, but a bunch of snarky posts in the regular season thread to anyone who dares question his flawlessness would disagree.
I mean,
@Kliq: I don't have anything against RW
personally, if that's what you're getting at. He's clearly "transcendent" in terms of doing things the last couple of seasons that no NBA player has ever done. But again, assuming we're talking about buiIding a real-world championship contender starting this Summer, I don't think there's anything particularly controversial about what I said: (1) "it's hard to build a great team around a 6'-3" hyper-ball-dominant PG who isn't a great shooter or a good defender" and (2) "I'd be wary of a high-mileage 28.5 year-old whose best quality is his freak athleticism."
(And yes, he is plainly a stat-padder, though I think a good coach could wean him off that).
I'm definitely not going to die on the sword of Butler > Westbrook, though, if that's what we're talking about. Butler rates great by RPM, but I agree with the general consensus that he's just short of LeBron-Kawhi-KD-Curry-level elite; he has suboptimal length (6'-8" wingspan) and three point stroke for a wing; and he's almost 28 as well.
I'll stand by — again, from a team-building perspective — preferring Giannis (22), Towns (21), and Davis (24) over Westbrook. I'd probably take Paul George (a lot longer than Butler, better 3 pt shooter, and almost a year younger), Jokic, Gobert and Embiid (if his health checks out) over Westbrook too.
Are there any Cs fans here who would actually be psyched about selling off the Fultz pick and building around Westbrook?