The offseason addition of Russell Westbrook can potentially improve Houston’s pace on offense while also helping limit transition opportunities by opponents, according to Rockets GM Daryl Morey.

Morey, who spoke to play-by-play broadcaster Craig Ackerman on the franchise’s latest RocketsCast Live podcast, explained how Westbrook’s athletic gifts should boost the Rockets in several ways.

“People talk about athleticism in the abstract, but where it really comes on the floor is in transition,” Morey said. “You get very high-percentage offense in transition, generally, with athletes.”

“It’s just being able to put the defense in jeopardy,” Morey continued. “Last year, that was really just James [Harden], and Eric [Gordon] at times. Now you’ve got James, Eric, and Russ, who through their athleticism and ability to beat their man and get to the hoop, can put the defense in jeopardy and create those open looks for P.J. Tucker, Gerald Green, and Austin Rivers, and guys like that.”

EXCLUSIVE: RocketsCast Live's @ca_rockets sits down with Houston Rockets General Manager @dmorey in the latest edition of our podcast! 🎧: https://t.co/aDcOjqnOSK pic.twitter.com/mecV7wB3Ij — Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) August 16, 2019

Though Westbrook and Harden turned the ball over 4.5 and 5.0 times per game, respectively, last season, Morey explained how turnovers from transition play and aggression aren’t always viewed by the Rockets to be as troubling as other turnovers.

“Turnovers are obviously not good, but there are different kinds,” Morey said. “Turnovers out of aggression, turnovers from attacking the basket, putting the defense in jeopardy… those are the turnovers that aren’t as bad. They’re like [how] missed shots are bad.”

“You’ve got to avoid the live-ball turnovers that turn into very high-percentage offense the other way,” the GM elaborated. “As long as our turnovers are ones in transition and out of aggression, the good kinds, we don’t have a problem with those.”

Though Westbrook is a 6-foot-3 guard, he has averaged at least 10 rebounds per game in the last three seasons. Morey pointed to that ability as critical for the Rockets, who slipped from 13th in the NBA’s team rebounding rate in the 2017-18 season (when they were 65-17) to 27th in 2018-19 (when they went 53-29).

“You put another elite athlete on the floor who has rebounding as one of his core strengths, it for sure can’t hurt,” Morey said when asked how Westbrook can improve the team’s rebounding. “We are coming from a big dropoff last year, where it was one of our weaknesses.”

Westbrook, the NBA’s 2017 MVP, tallied 22.9 points, 11.1 rebounds and 10.7 assists in 36 minutes per game last season in Oklahoma City. He has now averaged a triple-double in those categories in each of the past three seasons, which no NBA player had previously done in even one season since Oscar Robertson in 1961-62.

On defense, Morey notes that Westbrook’s ability to grab rebounds himself can better enable him to start fast breaks for his team.

“That was a lot of the reason why Russell was getting rebounds,” said Morey, who acquired the 30-year-old Westbrook in a July trade involving Chris Paul and draft considerations.

“You want the rebound in your best transition push guy, generally,” Morey explained. “If Russell can get it and push it up the floor, that’s a good thing. Even better might be if he’s able to get it and run up the floor and pass ahead. That’s something Mike [D’Antoni] emphasizes more than most teams.”

Meanwhile, on offense, the GM believes Westbrook’s ability to create second-chance opportunities with rebounds can also help prevent transition opportunities going the other way.

“Offensive rebounding is another thing Russell is extremely good at,” Morey said. “The best way to stop a transition sequence is [to not] let them get the ball initially. We call offensive rebounds a form of defensive stops. That’s something that we’ll emphasize.”

The full podcast with Morey and Ackerman can be heard here.