The Houston Rockets took a pretty big risk trading Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook. Chris Paul's fit with James Harden was cleaner and they had some success together in the playoffs. One of the biggest cases in Westbrook's favor was his prior relationship with Harden, they played together in Oklahoma City and both said they were friends.

Now, just 18 months later, Harden has a new friend in John Wall, on whom the Rockets are taking an even bigger risk.

On the daily Locked On Rockets Podcast, hosts Jackson Gatlin and Karthik Prasad reacted to the Russell Westbrook for John Wall trade and wonder if James Harden's new friend is good enough to convince him to stay in Houston.

Karthik Prasad: At the very least I think this gets James Harden to stay, right? I mean, they're bringing in his friend. They've got kind of a…

Jackson Gatlin: Well… devil's advocate, they brought in his friend last summer.

Karthik: [The Rockets] brought in his friend last summer, that's fair. [Harden] might have said, “hey, give me a different friend. And now maybe I'll think about staying”

Jackson: No, I'm just I'm picturing the Woody meme where he's saying, “I don't want to play with you anymore” and dropping Russell Westbrook.

Now, where does John Wall ranked among Western Conference point guards now we have to assume health for John Wall. So if we're assuming a healthy John Wall, who can we firmly put above him in the point guard debate out of the Western Conference guards? I think Chris Paul belongs above him.
Dame Lillard.

Karthik: Obviously you've got Stephen Curry coming back. Then depending on what you're thinking about how you characterize Luka Doncic or LeBron James.

Jackson: No, they're point-forwards for our purposes.

Karthik: Then how you characterize Jamal Murray. So let's just say you go Steph, Jamal, CP, Dame as the upper echelon then you got then you have John Wall somewhere. Then you have your young crop of point guards and guys De'Aaron Fox, Ja Morant, etc. So I'm going probably the fifth-best point guard in the West now.