T-Mac, Jalen Rose, and Chauncey bash the Rockets (ESPN)

You missed my point by not reading other comments. I'm saying, if, Harden tried harder on defense, the rest of the team would follow. They might still shoot poorly, but show me effort *first*, then I'll take it from there.

Dwight has played very well. We might have a win or two more if Harden made competent alley-oops to him.

You sure about that? Cameras show the Rockets throwing up boocoo contested 3's.

Who did you say was throwing garbage "at any point"?

Your point about trading Harden for lesser players?

Trick question?

Shooting guard is the weakest position in the league.

 

Well, first, I'm going to surprise you real quick. I agree with you that it would be awesome if Harden played his best on defense.

Few things I disagree on:

Howard makes >$20M - I don't consider him a role player. Even though, you actually are right, he probably is just a grossly overpaid role player right now.

I got the impression you were wanting to trade Harden. Back before we had Harden (and you might not have been here then), there were endless threads about how we could never go anywhere b/c our best player (Kevin Martin) could not create his own shot. People were yelling about giving TWill a chance, b/c they thought he could create his own shot. Well, through some miracle, we traded Kevin Martin and some scraps for the best closer in the league. So, I was commenting on how funny it is that ppl now want to trade out our closer and likely get only Kevin Martins back.

Man, you may have gotten me on the open 3 point shots. I don't think I'm great at knowing whether they have been open or not, which is not good on my part. If they aren't open, then that is the issue right there. Why aren't Harden and Lawson taking it to the hole to get our role players open??? That should be THE issue right now. Essentially, that would be like the championship Rockets not having Hakeem draw a double team b/f taking threes. Just makes no sense. Anyway, sorry if I was wrong about that. If there is a stat that shows open vs covered 3PA's, then I think that would make the centerpiece for a great thread.

 

Just to expand on this, it is very funny that people are saying over and over how we need to run plays. When we had that with Adelman, people were saying we need to be able to run iso's at important moments b/c "plays would not hold up when defenses focus in." Nobody ever talks about this. The grass is always greener on the other side.

 

I'll expand on this even MORE:

Way back in the Championship years and just prior, it was the Era of the Center, right? Both the Rockets and the Spurs built their offenses around their centers, but the Spurs had cutters and regular movement. Everybody b*ched - Why do our guys just stand around the 3 point line?!??!?! Well, it's called spacing, and it's important in offenses. Those David Robinson-led Spurs never won sh#t with their movement, and the Rockets & their boring spacing won 2 championships.

 

http://stats.nba.com/league/team/shots/#!/?sort=FG3A&dir=1&CloseDefDistRange=6+ Feet - Wide Open

We attempt the following
10.6 3PA wide open and we make 3.6
13.6 3PA open (4-6ft) and make 3.9 (28.8%)
7.8 3PA not open (2-4ft) and make 1.9 (25.7%)
0.4 3PA very tight (0-2ft) and make 0.1

So the most of our 3PA are open.And we are the 3rd worst in the league at shooting them.
HOWEVER we are also no.2 in 3PA that are NOT open. (the no.1 is the Lakers with idiot chuckers like Kobe, Lou Williams and Nick Young who have horrendous shot selection).

 

You're too old to be holding grudges like this tinman. You've been going on with this hate in your heart for T-Mac for a long long time now. Man get over it already! SMH

 

Huh quit on what team, Orlando or Toronto. He never choked, his teams choked. Dude always showed up and showed out in the Playoff's.

 

Harden will get the bulk of the blame because he's the Superstar and Leader. And so far he's playing like hot garbage and he's not playing team ball. Everybody including Harden knows that team will go as far he takes them.

People on this board is not only blaming Harden. They've placed blame on the coaching, Morey, T. Jones, Howard, Brewer and Lawson.

 

The players you named never got beat consistently like Harden is getting beat on a night to night basis. And Morey did put defensive players around Harden to mask his defensive liabilities. But the crazy thing is Harden wasn't a bad defender when we acquired him. Since he became the main man on offense, he decided not to give max effort on defense. Now since you want to throw out a few names, well Jordan, Kobe and Lebron gives max effort on defense and offense. So if Harden wants to be greater than them, well he better get his act together.

 

Now this is freaking bad. Wow

 

Uh, T Mac had one of the all time great statistical seasons just a year before he came to Houston. Francis topped out as an All Star but definitely not a superstar franchise kind of guy. No matter how that trade turned out, it was a steal for us. We traded a bunch of dimes and quarters for a dollar bill, just like we did with James. You do that every time. Sometimes it doesn't work out for other reasons, as it did with Tracy and as it may happen with James if he doesn't put it together. I think you're not evaluating that trade objectively at all.

Regarding Harden, trading him would be a huge loss. He's on a relatively cheap contract compared to production, and last season he was both a leader and he played defense. If he can tap into that mindset again he's a top 5 player again. We wouldn't get anything near equal value for him.

 

Yes, finding a right coach to coach him is the first thing to be do. Who is that guy? I know Pop is the one who can handle Harden well, but Pop is in the Spurs. Harden and Howard seem to be the coach killers as ESPN speculated. We just need appreciate Yao, Scola, Lowry more after seeing our current player performance.

 

Ehm Lowry has problems again in Toronto with his current coach and he basically threw him under the bus after last years' first round loss in the playoffs. He also has created a clique in the lockeroom.

 

Lowry did not quit, never lacks an effort. His problem is due to hating losing, but our players are laughing when the team is losing.

 

He may never have quit or lack effort but he has personality problems with multiple coaches in his carreer. Hardly someone of a good example as far as leader go. Esp when he speaks PUBLICLY.

 

To be the devil's advocate, he might be immature, but his passion is something that is sorely lacking on our current roster. I still can't fathom it, because it looked like Harden would come back hungry after our run last year. Some people just have that drive and some don't.

But I agree - when you can't control your emotion and it comes out as anger instead of on-court production, it becomes a detriment. But I'd rather have passion than apathy any day.

 

Cant argue with anything negative that is said about the Rockets.

 

he left toronto because he didn't want to be 2nd fiddle to his popular cousin Vince Carter.

he left orlando cause he didn't want to the pressure to be the top player on that team.

tmac showed up on many games in the first round, not the 2nd, conference finals, and nba finals.

being the best player on the team means you are responsible to elevate your teammates and lead them.

tmac never led any team anywhere, this includes china.

 

let's look at the ESPN analyst and see if Tmac is better than them at analyzing the game and being entertaining


Tmac vs Jalen, Jalen is better , more charisma
Tmac vs JVG, JVG hands down. JVG is ESPN's best analyst
Tmac vs Tim Legler, Tim Legler is consistent and personable
Tmac vs Mark Jackson, Hand down, Tmac down
Tmac vs Hubie Brown , Hubie has too much knowledge on Tmac
Tmac vs Doug Collins, same as Hubie
Tmac vs Doris Burke, TIE

 

Awesome stats! Yeah, shooting covered threes is not the offense. Drive and kick is the offense. I don't know what they are doing.