Detroit Pistons vs. Houston Rockets 2019-20 season preview
Houston’s offseason changes
The Rockets had quite an eventful offseason. In what was a surprising offseason for a lot of NBA player movement, the Rockets joined the party late in acquiring Russell Westbrook on July 16th.
Houston sent Paul and four first round picks in 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026 with pick swaps included. Harden and Westbrook reunite after being teammates in Oklahoma City from 2009-12 before Harden was dealt to the Rockets.
An eventful day included re-signing Austin Rivers and Danuel House. Over the next 10 days, Houston signed Tyson Chandler, Ben McLemore and Anthony Bennett and re-signed Gerald Green.
Grading the Pistons 2019 offseason moves. light. Related Story
Westbrook was the more ball-dominant player in the three years overlapping with the Thunder. He had usage rates of 25.7, 31.6 and 32.7 percent since Harden entered the league in 2009-10. Harden primarily came off the bench but still only had a usage rate of 20.4, 19.5 and 21.6 in the same time frame.
Westbrook, an eight-time All-Star, had a usage rate as high as 41.7 percent in the 2016-17 season but it dropped off to 34, and then 31 percent with the Thunder’s addition of Paul George.
Harden lead the league in usage rate the last two seasons, despite playing with Paul. In his MVP season in 2017-18, it reached 36.1 percent and last season it was up to 40.5 percent.
How the two share the ball is going to be an interesting development. It should be expected that Harden’s usage rate takes a significant drop but Westbrook’s may stay the same. Though Harden is a better shot creator than George, so it’s possible Westbrook could see his usage rate decline slightly.