As the day winded down on Thursday early evening, a Woj Bomb suddenly erupted out of nowhere. Russell Westbrook would be headed to Houston for Chris Paul plus a lot of picks as Oklahoma City continues to build a war chest. It was a stunning deal. People talked this week about how Westbrook, Paul and John Wall have likely the three worst contracts in the league. And the fact that two of the three were traded for each other is fucking hilarious. We’ll see how the Westbrook-Harden reunion will work in Houston. That said, I’m a little bummed out that Westbrook didn’t end up in Miami to add another challenger to the Milwaukee Bucks’ plate.

This might be my insecurity as a sports fan, but I do not want people to say the Bucks go through the Eastern Conference ‘easy.’ Last year was the first time in a long time where we had a competitive Eastern Conference from 1-6. Orlando and Detroit were not that good, but they at least were over .500. I wanted Westbrook there to make it a little more balanced as the West took over again. They added Kawhi Leonard, Portland and Denver got better, same with Utah and there are more great teams in that conference. For the Bucks, it is them and Philadelphia. That’s it. Boston is still a year or two away. Brooklyn is the same way. Indiana is not really a threat. Toronto is a ball of unknown. Westbrook coming to a team like Miami would have added another team in the potential mix of talented teams.

There are two ways to think about this down the road in eleven months. Either, the Milwaukee Bucks will be well-rested when the time the NBA Finals rolls around while whomever the Western Conference representative is will likely beat up from the first three rounds. The other way is that the Bucks might be steamrolled because the West is so much better than the East. Who knows? We’re still miles away, and we will get to see Milwaukee face each of these teams twice a year.

Charlie.