OKC Deals Westbrook to Houston; State Farm Keeps Chris Paul

Damn.

There goes the opportunity for Chris Paul and James Harden to duke it out for royalties in a State Farm life insurance commercial.

Now the divorce is complete:

• Paul's heading to a whistle stop in Oklahoma City, and
• Harden's getting together with a former teammate in Russell Westbrook.

 

Paul George asking for a trade was the catalyst for this move, although word is Westbrook was already looking for greener pastures.

Paul was clearly fed up in Houston. Dude's a pick-&-roller who was becoming increasingly annoyed with Harden's hero-ball routine, especially with coach Mike D'Antoni's system encouraging it. His demeanor certainly exuded the thought bubble that I'm playing through injuries for this?

Maybe he wasn't acting in this commercial:

 

Meanwhile, the next Thunder team to make the playoffs will feature players -- depending on their tankability -- from the likes of Duke, Kentucky, Washington, Memphis, overseas, and wherever nearly-pro basketball is played.

 

Once they deal Paul -- he'll never wear a Thunder jersey -- and Old School C Steven Adams, OKC oughta just go to the Big 3 next year and wait for the 2020 draft.

Apparently, Paul wants to join Jimmy Butler in Miami. That'll take a bitta creativity:

• With Butler's contract, the Heat are up against a hard cap, plus
• The Thunder never eat salary, and Paul's still owed $124million.

 

Still, with all the future chips in Thunder GM Daryl Morey's hot stack ...

 

... tossing a few of them into a Paul deal with someone is gonna get the job done.

Meanwhile, down in Mission Control, Houston may have another problem. The NBA is insistent on enforcing a sticky little rule that says only one basketball at a time can be on the court.

 

Well, it is a player's league these days.

 

Maybe so. It's also got more buddy sets than the local public pool:

 

Gotta go with the Clips' tandem, there. The supporting cast plays better defense.

In that light, maybe Paul's the real winner in this scenario even if he doesn't get a buddy and assuming he gets the hell outta the West.