It's not disguised, missing the playoffs with a losing record is the best thing that could've happened for this organisation and team. We needed that obvious reality check early. New coach next year, new group of guys, new playing style. It might be like JVG taking over from Rudy. JVG finally got rid of the complacency of Francis and his iso ways. I have a feeling Harden could get the same lesson but actually learn from it. This year was a blessing. Change was needed and now fate has forced Leslie's hand.
Blessing in that we probably won't be chasing KD since no way in hell he leaves his playoff bound team to play in Houston
Yep so now Morey won't be wasting two weeks trying to sign Kd while all the other good free agents sign, leaving the Rockets picking up scrap since KD rejects us.
Forget KD. I'm concerned that even the other good free agents won't want to come here. We have a major system problem. Next year will be a huge question mark: GM, coach, starters, role players - all question marks. And to think we started this season wanting to make sure our players didn't play too many minutes during regular season so that they would be in good shape for playoffs. Was the idea to coast the regular season and we forgot to play harder for more wins? Just numb right now.
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The team will be alright. We have a player to build around, a superstar player that at his worst is a top 10 player and at his best a top 5 player. Not many teams can say that. Someone WILL come to play with Harden. Whether it be Horford, Durant, or someone else. The Rockets will not sell last year's team to a FA, they will sell what the team can be. This season is done with, I think the looming FA of Dwight sort of really zapped spirit out of this team and out of Dwight. I honestly think he just looked forward to his next team especially as the season started to come to an end. It is what it is, but this team has talent to go fourth with.
if that swhat it takes for this dumb ass team to do what it should be doing, then so mother ****in god daam son of a b**** piece of **** be it hurry the hell up. offseason dictates whether rockets are gonna be worth watching
When kd horford conley whiteside and batum all refuse to sign here and we get to sign Harrison Barnes to the max and Al Jef then we will see what a blessing this is.
bev/terry/dleague scrub harden/brewer/terry ariza/brewer/kj jones/brewer/smoove al/capella/brewer more likely to happen then kd coming here. what kind of talent as good as kd goes to a tema like this? when's the last time that happened? never. and signing anyone other than kd and bron to a max is a huge waste. horford is on the decline, barnes aint a max, nor is batum or whoever the ****. crazy ass ****in fans with that max contract fantasies
Easy to say this now, but no one has any idea what those players think and what they think of Harden. Dwight wanted to play in Brooklyn...Brooklyn... I'm not too worried about it. For all we know Durant loathes Dwight and blames the failure of the Rockets on him. Making the playoffs with the 8th seed had nothing to do with Durant. According to what anyone has said about Durant, he's leaving the Thunder unless they win a championship. If Durant's pride gets in the way, he's not going to the Warriors. If you are saying that the Lakers or Wizards are in a better situation than the Rockets? I'll just strongly disagree with that. The Celtics? I'll disagree with that as well UNLESS they can acquire someone to go along with Durant...and this is all considering that Durant and Harden (along with Beasley) are best friends. I'm not saying it will happen, that Durant is a lock to Houston. I'm just making a case for it. I'm not Durant so who knows what he's thinking or what he will be thinking depending on how the playoffs play out.
What if Warriors lose in the playoffs. Then it makes a lot more sense for him to join the Warriors. I think this could be the biggest road block.
Definitely. I think the Warriors blowing through to win a championship gives us a legit shot at Durant. People can say I'm wrong and maybe I am. Warriors lose then that makes it a lot more likely I think that he just resigns in OKC for a year or even go to GSW to be the missing piece. I just think that if the Warriors do dominate then there is less of a chance they even want to blow up that team and I think Durant is a prideful guy. He wants to be an all-time great and he can't do that going to a team with Klay, Draymond, Curry. It'll be Curry's team and he risks just falling into another role ultimately. No one is going to compare him to Jordan, they'll be comparing him to Pippen. You see how important it is for some of these guys to win a ring as a lead guy too. Just see Pippen post-Jordan or the Kobe/Shaq break up. From what I hear of Durant, he's the same way. If you eliminate the Warriors out of the Durant chase, I think the Rockets have as good a chance as any. Then Boston if they can convince another star to come play with him...but we have Harden and they don't and we can sell to Durant...Harden+Another max oh...and we got Beasley too and he's revived his career here, remember that guy Durant? NOW, this may not mean nothing at all. Sometimes friends want to get away from friends. Some players don't want to play in their hometown because they want to get away from that. For all we know Durant thinks he talks and spends enough time with Harden/Beasley to even care about that...or it could be the key difference between coming here vs Boston or the Lakers. In the end, no one really knows. But if the Warriors run through the west then Durant has to know that OKC's window has closed and does he want to spend another year to see what Westbrook does and give the franchise one more shot at this or will he say F his pride and join the Warriors and collect rings? I doubt Durant even knows, he's focused on winning in OKC no doubt. One
Yeah, that's the rumor since last year. I mean one consistent thing with Dwight is his last contract year is usually...usually this...everyone talks about co-workers behind their backs though, especially the ones they don't like. I don't see why the NBA would be any different. Said it some weeks back, I think it's pretty clear that Harden has a lot more respect around the league than Dwight.
So much this, I think that Houston and particularly the system we run is NOT ATTRACTIVE to other players. And the reputation that Harden doesn't play defense and goes clubbing all the time is probably one that bothers the types of leaders and winners we want to attract. We are a big hot mess right now. DD