I want to get your take on it if and it's a big if.

But if James Harden wound up being traded to Philadelphia for Ben Simmons, which is what J will suggested, give me your read.

Give me Joel Embiid, James Harden, Tobias Harris and what they have there with Doc Rivers.

Coach, What is that team?

Um, I think what you'd end up having would be a very difficult situation with Joel Embiid being able to accept and buy into James Harden style.

Now, I'm not saying that their offense would look exactly like it did with Mike D'Antoni in Houston, but those people that think you can now make James Harden that he's not playing for for Mike D'Antoni anymore.

Incorporate a player movement, ball movement type of offense and that he is going to buy into that and you're going to see a guy now that is more willing to give the ball up early.

Relocate a cut through to the opposite side of the floor, you know, get a down screen on that side.

Come out, catch it where you touched the ball multiple times on the same possession.

Um, and you reduce your dribbling by 75 80% because that's what normal offensive good motion basketball looks like.

If you think that James Harden at this stage of his career, having had what I can only describe his basketball nirvana for him and that style in Houston by into something like that, it's not gonna happen.

So I think you have a guy in Joel Embiid who also has issues, by the way, with the way that he plays offensively, I think more related to conditioning than anything else.

You have a guy now, big guy.

I think that yeah, at times they would be overwhelming because of the two man game you could run with those two guys.

Um, but those other possessions, when James Harden is, you know, is a wing and getting into his thing, because that's the way he plays.

I think you'd have eventually and it would take that long to get there.

A very frustrated Joelle MB.

Okay, so So you don't like to fit of it on that side.

The one other way I looked at it was Simmons and Embiid we have said for years you and I have had this conversation.

They just obviously don't seem to be a good fit together and having him go someplace where they are going to rebuild and build a team around him might work out well for him.

The other one that they will brought up was Russell Westbrook, possibly to the Knicks, that he might be the one superstar who wants to go to the Knicks.

Because Lord knows, they've been desperate to find one forever, and they just haven't been able to do it.

The Knicks have a bunch of expiring contracts that might be attractive to a Houston team that was trying to rebuild.

Do you buy it?

Could you see Russell Westbrook with the Knicks?

And what do you think they could put together around him there?

Yeah, I absolutely could see it.

And I wanna first real quick.

I want to finish off the Philly thing.

Look, I will say this.

A James Harden Joel Embiid pairing makes Philadelphia much more of a legitimate contender than Ben Simmons and Joe L.

And B.

Together.

I wanna make that clear because James Harden checks off the box that Philadelphia doesn't have right now.

Greeny, which is a star player that could score from anywhere on the floor like those are the teams that win championships.

You've gotta have a guy like that on your roster.

That's not been Simmons, obviously, and that's not Joe L and B.

That is James Harden, so they would be more viable as a threat.

I just don't know if that would be something to be super enjoyable for Joel Embiid to go through that process because of where he views himself in his own stature in the league.

So I just wanna finish that point opus faras Westbrook to the Knicks.

Look, I think Russell Westbrook is probably at this stage of his career going to be at his best in terms of how we view him.

When you put him on an inferior team and let him be the guy that does everything because what he would do with the Knicks, he'd take them instantly to a much more competitive team in the East just because he's one of the most competitive guys that's ever lived, and we've seen him in this role before.

After Durant left Oklahoma City when he won an M V P in average, a triple double, And he had, for all intensive purposes, a mediocre roster filled with role players around him.

And we admired him for being able to get a team like that.

About 500 you know, that's kind of the boat he would be in with the Knicks, and I think that might be the best lane for him.

But make no mistake.

There is no way that, in my opinion of Russell Westbrook is your best player.

You're not going to contend for anything, so he could make them a much more interesting story.

He will obviously make them much more exciting to watch.

His competitive will alone could take a group of role players around him and maybe get them in that spot where they're fighting for teams like, you know, Charlotte, Washington, Orlando and teams like that for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

That wouldn't shock me, but I don't think you could.

We could go beyond that, and I don't think you could pair up another star really with him.

I just don't think that that's something that's going toe work because of how he wants to play and still views himself in this league, and he actually had greeny.

I think maybe the best year he has had in this legal offensively this past season with James Harden individually, so he would.

It wouldn't be as efficient in New York, but I do think that that team would be much more relevant, although I don't think that they'd be a long way from being a contender in the Eastern Conference.

Yeah, that's for sure.

I was my final question to you on this would be.

Sometimes I put myself into these situations, which is a ridiculous thing to Dio, because a person with my mentality could never have become Russell Westbrook or James Harden.

But I feel like if I were in their shoes, having made all the money you could ever possibly make and and accomplished all the things they have accomplished, they're both going to the Hall of Fame.

They've all put up both put up numbers that are legendary, hardens offensive numbers or legendary Westbrook with triple doubles or legendary.

The only thing that's missing is winning, and I feel like I would be trying very hard to figure out how I could adapt my game into a place where I have the best chance to win, and it sounds to me like you're saying, Well, Westbrook, the way he wants to play, he's better off by himself and hardened the way he wants to play, uh, and be wouldn't like it, do you?

Do you follow what I'm doing?

I'm not asking you a question, but I'm struggling.

And here's the difference how I would describe the two players, I think with Russell Westbrook like he genuinely just has so much more faith and confidence in himself than anybody he plays with that it gets him in trouble.

I really, genuinely think it comes from that place with Russell Westbrook, where he will tend to try to do things that defy physics at times on a basketball court.

And that's why you'll see you know, some of these, you know, really bad turnovers, bad shot selection because he genuinely believes that that's their his team's best chances.

With him doing that, there's no denying that guy leaves skin on the floor every single night.

He is a guy that you know you admire is a teammate in terms of his competitive will and showing up every single night with the same tempo, pace, desire.

But he gets in trouble because I just think he doesn't have as much confidence or faith in anybody else on the floor beside herself.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

Subscribe to ESPN plus.