Houston Rockets: 3 goals for Russell Westbrook in 2019-20 season

1. Help James Harden lead the Houston Rockets to the Finals

Remember when the Oklahoma City Thunder swept the defending champion Mavs in the first round, beat Kobe Bryant‘s Lakers in a gentleman’s sweep in the second round and sent Tim Duncan‘s Spurs home in six games in the Western Conference Finals back in 2012?

That young Thunder squad featuring Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka wasn’t quite ready to take on Miami’s Big 3 in The Finals, but they were a young team with a massive amount of potential. With Kobe and Duncan, two legends that had dominated the conference, approaching their mid-30’s, it was widely assumed that Oklahoma City would run the west for the foreseeable future.

However, things change quickly in the NBA. That summer, OKC traded Harden to Houston, and while both KD and Westbrook would eventually go on to win MVP’s, Oklahoma City never made it back to the NBA Finals.

Now that Westbrook and Harden are back together, they can accomplish in Houston what they couldn’t accomplish in OKC, especially since they’re now both in their primes. With MVP’s, scoring titles and more All-Star appearances than you can count, Harden and Westbrook have nearly every individual accolade, but they haven’t been able to capture that elusive Larry O’Brien Trophy.

The Western Conference is now wide open and Harden and Westbrook form the most explosive back court in the league heading into next season. It’s time for both of these former MVP’s to quiet the haters and lead the Rockets out of the west and onto the NBA’s biggest stage.