The Lowe Post 10/6 with Brian Windhorst - Rockets are deep, championship?, Ty Lawson

IMO Zach Lowe has slowly started showing the Rockets a bit of respect. I wanna say this started just after the Twitter battle between him and BimaThug last year. That may have been it, maybe not, but I have noticed a slight bend in his rhetoric towards the Rockets.

 

He's shown them respect in the past before last season. I do think he let his desire for pretty basketball cloud (a.k.a. he blames Rockets for opposing teams fouling the Rockets). I think he's noticed Rockets are better than he realized when Terry, Harden, Ariza, Smith, and Howard battled the GSW starting 5 to a draw (Rockets actually outscored GSW starting 5 by a little). Rockets just didn't have the depth in playoffs to defeat GSW last year.

GSW Super Small Power Squad that destroyed Memphis and Cleveland and that Lowe thinks is the future of the NBA was ineffective and used sparingly against the Rockets. Heck, McHale tried to goad GSW into playing the Super Small Power Squad by playing Brewer at PF in at least one game, but GSW played Green at PF to force Rockets out of small ball.

Lowe isn't going to like the Rockets as long as they shoot a lot of free throws. I think he'll begrudgingly accept Rockets as a great team if they are healthy.

 

Rofl, another "look! media hates Rockets!" thread. Lowe never hated Rockets, stop being drama queens.

 

zach Lowe has always been fair in his judgement. He just prefer one style over another, which is fair to me. Plus, Grantland, at least pre-Simmons departure has always been pretty cool with the Rockets. Before Harden's second season, Grantland has usually been quite positive towards the Rockets. I think Daryl's personal relationship with Bill had something to do with it.

 

Brian Windhorst:

oh.

 

Lowe last year before the pos was very positive of the Rockets as a contender, even if he didn't like their playing style. It's unfair to say that he overlooks them.
Also he says in the podcast he is going to write an article about this years team so I'm excited about it.

But I ask people to hear also the first 15 minutes or so of the podcast where Windhorst explain the TT situation and paints a picture on the negotiations that are going on now and next years FA. That concerns DMO and Jones.

 

There were definitely times he hated watching the Rockets last season. His bias is aesthetic, not geographic. Less free throw shooting and he'll love the Rockets again.

 

Typically awesome stuff from Lowe.

I've found him to be incredibly fair to all teams in the league and towards the Rockets in particular. He wrote a glowing write up of the team after we traded for Lawson in particular for their incredible depth and underrated core of young players, and he's mentioned the team as a featured article or players or other team-related news as things he likes at the end of his in season articles.

There's not a lot of Rockets love out there. One a podcast Lowe linked to the other day they picked the Rockets as one of the best bets to win title since they were 30-1 odds to win it. Every article or podcast Lowe puts out has fans screaming bias, but he's hands down the most balanced and best national writer out there.

 

For some reason Windhorst rubs me the wrong way as far as the Rockets though, he seems really down on Lawson, and disrespectful towards Morey. I know he said that other GMs don't like Morey and not him personally, but he gave off the impression that he thought that way as well.

 

Lowe has always been pretty objective especially with the Rockets. IMO he's the cream of the crop covering the NBA, and I hope that Simmons leaving ESPN doesn't hurt his coverage this year. The only thing I remember is him commenting a few times how Rockets fans have suddenly become the most sensitive in the NBA randomly... which he then said its actually a complement to being passionate.

I don't recall Bima and Lowe going at it on Twitter but I do recall somebody (I think Amick, or Mannix) going hard at Bima to which Bima was fairly disrespected, and handled it like a boss. Forget what the issue was about.

Since Bima is tight with Clutch, Jason Friedman, and Ackerman, and we know Friedman and Ackerman are buddies with Lowe at least professionally, I would think that Lowe knows very much who Bima is, and I wouldn't be surprised if he follows him as well. Id be shocked if they went at it.

 

Ha Zach gets it...Rox very well might be the most athletic/deep bench in the NBA...48 minutes of non stop comin at you

 

Depth, he obviously loves their depth. That depth got them to the WCF with a ton of injuries and now they added Lawson. Will be interesting to see how the chemistry will be for the Rockets and the Spurs. I agree that the Spurs other parts are too old.

 

I don't know what you listened too... I thought he was praising Morey; basically said he should have won Executive of The year or come close to it.

 

^ I definitely thought Windhorst was pretty objective about the Rockets, Lawson and Morey. It's not all rainbows and butterflies at Toyota Center.

I do have to wonder what Lowe meant about not liking how some of the personalities mesh. This isn't a brand new core, these guys know each other well. Lawson seems to be a pretty chill guy and is obviously willing to play the hand that he is dealt.

Am I missing something obvious?

 

His tone of voice seemed like he was just trying to point out of much people dislike Morey, and he seemed to focus on the negatives with Lawson. He wasn't straight up hating but just had a weird tone.

 

I didn't hear that at all. If Lawson really was coming to practice in Denver smelling of alcohol then he has a real problem. Before Windhorst said anything I was bothered by Ty telling the media he doesn't have a problem and just made a few mistakes.

As far as Morey, there seems to be a genuine dislike (jealousy?) in the media and possibly even with other franchises (certainly jealousy). He acknowledged that and voiced his opinion that Morey doesn't get much credit around the NBA universe because of it.

 

It's nice to get some positive stuff, but ya'll care too much. we love this team we are ready to go to war with this tam and rednation and those who are on board are all i care about.

we may not all agree on here but I respect my fellow rockets fans more than the media who watch select games.

I am pumped

 

Eh. Lowe didn't say anything, he just spouted the same one-liner BS that has become the narrative for the Rockets since they got Lawson:

"I'm not saying I'm putting money down on it, but I totally wouldn't be surprised if the Rockets win it all because their talent level has really improved. But, again, it's Houston, so I won't. They just have that loser's face and loser's personality that you can't quite describe, but you know it when you see it. You know?"

If you really believe in the Rockets, then put your name down on it. No national reporter has done it yet.