Yeah, if this team magically gets it together in time to make the playoffs, why bother if it's a first round loss. Just shelve Harden at a club somewhere and tank it, can then get good overnight with draft, FA's, Oh and a coach. I'd say in another 5-10 games if not magical chemistry pull the plug. It's a waste of our time and development of players. I'd like to see the season used on the rookies/Capela/DMo. Someone made a comparison to the 95 rockets (gtfo, lol), these guys aren't even close to that competitiveness as a team, and even that team didn't come out of the gates losing, hell even at a 6th seed they never had a losing record and even after winning the championship still started the season 9-0 (for 95), our team peaked at the WCF and mailed it in. I guess they thought these other teams would just rollover since Harden won the player's MVP, lol.
If we tank we open the Pandora's box. There is NO way we will be able to lure any FA of note to a lottery team. There will be problems with Harden too. The makeup and the stage of the team right now is not of a tanking team. Teams with MVP runner ups from last year don't tank unless those stars have a legitimate injury. You think it's easy to convince Harden to get shelved by a bogus injury and be safe him not asking for a trade pretty soon?
Hate to break it to you, but we ain't signing Durant or any other big-name free agent next summer. Who the hell is gonna leave their current team(and more money) for a trainwreck like this one? When Dwight came here in 2013, the Rockets had just won 45 games, had a superstar in Harden and a rising star in Parsons, and were on the ascent as opposed to the Lakers who were clearly in decline(especially after Kobe's Achilles tear). Now we've got an unhappy(and soon to be angry) locker room, a lazy star in Harden who plays no defense, a recently fired coach, and a bunch of crappy role players who shoot 30-35% while giving up 100+ points in virtually every game. If the Rockets hope to rebuild quickly, the best way to do it is through the draft. And that requires biting the bullet and sucking for a year or two. They're fortunate in that they already have a star player in Harden under contract, a talented young big man in Capela, and (hopefully)a very skilled lowpost threat in D-Mo. That's a decent foundation. Add a high lottery pick next summer and maybe another one after that(along with a few quality role players via free agency and/or trades) and they could be contenders again in a couple seasons.
If we tank and end up in the mid lottery or even high lottery by forcing Harden to sit with a bogus injury then not only we won't lure Durant we won't lure anyone of note we may be interested in FA or any star in trades.(most stars when asked to be traded usually have a measure of saying on their destination). Also Harden's contract is not indefinite. He won't be happy at all with this but very angry and will ask to leave most likely. Do we want to have a Cousins situation on our hands? You will take a lost lockeroom with no chemistry and turn it into nitroglycerin. You have to be a realist in the end. Forcing a player to sit when he's a star is not viable. If he had a legitimate injury that's another story.
No, the best way to do it is luring some star free agents, but who would want to join this mess, especially when the Lakers are waiting for their next savior?
I remember a 6-11 start where everything turned out....(relatively) We're not quitting. This team is not the final version for the 2015/2016 season. Even DM said so.
This season has been a disaster on all fronts besides capela. With that said the west is so bad this year the rockets still have a very realistic shot at the 4th seed. We're currently only a 1.5 games back from 8th. Rockets need to quit with the excuses and get it going now though. Play Lawson with harden and hope they develop real chemistry. The defense will be bad but frankly it's bad with bev in there too. I do agree with JB though our offense is effecting our defense, no doubt about that. The offense is just having to many meltdowns, iv never seen a team with such firepower on that side of the court have stretches were they score 6 points in 6 min. It's happening almost every game and needs to be corrected asap.
I can't believe how this season has gone. It makes absolutely no sense. Even being thin at the PF spot right now, there is no reason the team should be THIS bad.
Luring star free agents is great, but it rarely happens. The Spurs basically did it for the first time this past summer with Aldridge. Before that, they'd always built and rebuilt their teams through the draft and the occasional trade. Hell, not landing Jason Kidd back in 2003 may have been the best thing that ever happened to them given how good Parker(a guy they drafted) wound up being. Morey(assuming he survives this season) needs to stop with the constant swinging for the fences for superstar free agents. He landed Dwight, but he also whiffed on Bosh and Melo and wound up losing Parsons. Look at the best young talent we have on this roster. Harden was acquired via trade while D-Mo and Capela were first round draft picks. Stick with what works.
I actually disagree with both. I think rebuilding around your star player is the easiest way to find a winning formula fast. That being said, there is no guarantees anytime you have a flawed superstar and sub superstar. But flawed superstars in the past have shown that a change in supporting cast can do wonders. Flawed stars in their prime > Drafting in the lottery or gambling on free agency. If you have a flawed star, you just run with it, and keep trying rosters built around him. Closest comparison to Harden I can think of is Iverson. When Iverson was in his prime would you trade him, or try to rebuild a team around him? I think Philly fans would say keep him, and try another supporting cast. Also look at Lebron in Cleveland last year. They pretty much re-made the entire supporting cast in 2 months right around this time last year. Harden, Capela, and D-Mo stay. Maybe keep Pat Bev as well as he's a good fit next to Harden for the time being. All else for the most part probably needs to go. I think the Dwight/Harden duo was a great try, but its just not working out, and Harden is the star player here in his prime. If Dwight's gotta go, he's gotta go. .............. Of course all of this is assuming we keep at pace or below. If the Rockets get to above .500 by Christmas its a different story. We've all seen teams have crummy starts and peak late in the year when something clicks. Maybe Morey can do a 2014 Cav's roster churn overnight and still keep a majority of the roster intact including Dwight & make a late season streak happen.
Well if that happens, GSW will wipe their ass with our line up and we will go home anyways. We need to be at least the 7th, I would prefer 6 but who knows. We just need to get it together soon or this is a lost cause
Our shedule was very easy so far: we played Denver (2) Philly Portaland Dallas NY (2) Sacramento The only good win was agains OKL
Unless you are the Knicks or the Lakers you have to be able to get even an appointment with the superstars to sit in the table with them and get them to come. Doesn't mean that you will be able to , but even sitting with them and hitting on one is a big success. If we tank we won't be able to even sit in the table with them but immediately turned down. (we are talking about an age when every single team will have millions and millions of dollars. Even GSW will). Sure but this should have been done before. Now it's imo past that stage. If you do a rebuild this year and tank you have only 2 more years to convince Harden to resign. (when we all know that with Harden and his love of glamour there was in the first place a risk of him going for more brighter and bigger markets. Now the danger will be tenfold). Rebuilds take longer than 2 years to come to contender status, esp when they include rookies like a potential 2016 lottery pick that many here are advocating for. AND the value of capspace is severely down. And right now we are riddled with one or two very bad contracts that will take assets to get rid of. (Brew, and Bev).
My concern is that whether we suck hard or suck ultra hard, in either case we're not going to be able to attract a competent coach, which has been the BIGGEST problem for this team. It's not going to matter one bit even if we get the #1 overall pick if we don't have anyone that knows how to utilize him. I think promising the assistant coach of a failed coaching regime the head job for the remaining 7/8ths of the season is going to probably end up dooming us for years to come.
It took David Griffin three months, and a couple draft picks to make it happen for the Cavs. A Brewer and Lawson trade alone could shift 20 million in salary around. You can overhaul alot with 20 million in salary. Add in a couple players like Jones, Thornton, etc. and overnight this team looks and acts dramatically different. I'm not really worried about Harden's free agency. It is what it is. You have two more seasons after this one guaranteed. After that he's going to be a different person and player. Whether Harden win's or loses in the next 2.5 seasons, Harden will go down as a top 5 Rocket most likely at least with the record books and what he will accomplish statistically. The guy has had several epic seasons as a Rocket. Whether he stays or goes, by the Summer of 2018 we will be able to say that we gave it or best, and live with the end results. The alternative we would have been looking at would have been "The Jeremy Lin Era"... lol... well something like that. There is substantial evidence that a Harden led team can win 50+ games a year easily. You live with that all day every day. Getting the right cast back around him should lead back to those similar results of the past 3 years. I think Morey can rebuild the supporting cast pretty quick. Three transactions and this roster will look and behave quite different.
