Andre Roberson almost got traded to the Bulls in that big deal between them and the Thunder. Apparently Chicago wanted him? And so did Oklahoma City? That blows my mind, because I don’t care about defense, and he offers basically nothing on the other side of the basketball. I just completely fail to see how a player such as he has any value whatsoever in the modern NBA. I just don’t see it.
I also didn’t see it with P.J. Tucker, a similar player who was similarly coveted by teams. What’s going on? Remember: I become literally blind any time I try to figure out what is going with defense in the NBA. From my perspective, and the perspective of any learned observer, it is obvious that the point of the game is to put the ball in the hole and receive points for the act. Players who can’t do that are worthless. Would you hire an accountant who couldn’t do math just because they had “intangibles”? Hell no. Same deal here.
Roberson, bless his little heart, is trying as hard as he can to get better at putting balls in holes. He knows that Russell Westbrook doesn’t like it when he misses all those wide open threes. He knows Westbrook wants him to do good. Surprisingly, not all of his baskets came from Westbrook passes tonight, wasting his limited three-point makes by receiving passes from other players. If he had been smart and waited to shoot threes until after Westbrook directly passed him the ball we’d be looking at 20 dimes for the triple-double machine.
Still, 19 points is pretty good, a career-high, and probably not a sign of things to come. It’s taken him a long time to score this many, and it’ll probably take about as long before he hits 20.