The Miami Heat’s road to repeating as the Eastern Conference Champs won’t be easy, but it just got a little harder with Russell Westbrook’s addition.
The Miami Heat are the reigning Eastern Conference Champions. Until or if someone beats them, then that’s when that is no more.
With that being said though, the Miami Heat’s road to winning that crown again just got a bit harder. In case you missed it, even though you would have had to be living under a planet earth-sized rock to miss it, Russell Westbrook is now a member of the Washington Wizards.
The Houston Rockets sent Westbrook to the Wizards in exchange for their own athletic point guard, John Wall and a first-round pick. The deal practically came out of nowhere.
There had been traction, but nothing came of it. That was until Wednesday evening of course.
Here is something interesting and of note about the whole deal. It comes from the scoopmeister himself, Adrian Wojnarowski.
"Discussions had been stalled since mid-November, sources said, until the two general managers, Washington’s Tommy Sheppard and Houston’s Rafael Stone, decided to get on the phone Tuesday afternoon. They worked out a deal within hours, sources said."
Again, note that the Wizards shipped out a first-rounder along with John Wall, which is something to keep in mind. That’s just where we will begin though.
Let’s look at our three immediate takeaways from the deal.