Rockets Are Wasting Their Time Playing Russell Westbrook in the Preseason

There's certainly value to playing major offseason acquisitions in the preseason. It's the best way to figure out how the player is going to click in his new environment and with his new teammates. But at this point, it's evident that the Rockets should have just cut their losses.

Houston's major offseason splash, Russell Westbrook, is dealing with soreness in his hand as a result of a dislocated finger, and in all honesty, the team was foolish for even wasting minutes on him this late in the preseason.

He aggravated the hand in the fourth quarter of the team's final preseason game against the Miami Heat and immediately sprinted for the locker room after it happened.

It simply wasn't worth it. The season-opener is less than a week away, and now James Harden's co-star is dealing with yet another hand injury that could prove to be a hindrance both now and down the road.

Regardless of the fact that Westbrook reassured head coach Mike D'Antoni that he was doing fine, it's simply not a good look that he's dealing with multiple hand problems before the season even starts. Finger injuries have been a constant problem during his career, and it was foolish to push the envelope in a meaningless game.

The Rockets should have expected this to happen. They should have just given him the game off to tend to his already injured hand.

Now they'll have to sit and hope that these hand issues don't balloon into a year-long problem for the man who was meant to replace Chris Paul on the roster. They need him to be healthy if they want to win.