Revisionist History, Talent vs Fit & Daryl's Legacy

Really? Costed a playoff series in Portland? Dwight was on the bench during the playoff comeback?

You are mixing up the superstars here. Misleading post is bad when your basis of your argument is on fake news and alternative facts.

This is revisionist history by YOU to fit a narrative. We whine about narratives all the time here on Clutchfans, and how they are created by misleading information, and then one of our own does the exact same thing.

Spoiler

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-status-on-the-line-vs-portland-trail-blazers

http://ripcityproject.com/2014/04/29/harden-bad/

http://sportige.com/houston-rockets...or-jeremy-lin-isnt-going-anywhere-05-14-2014/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/05/nba-playoff-disappointmens_n_5248708.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=jam...2014,cd_max:6/1/2014&tbm=nws&q=james+harden&*

 

these situations are apples to oranges.

Picking up Andre and Bogut wouldn't have made our team better than Dwight did, because we didn't have the explosive growth Klay and steph did that year.

Also, if you aren't building value, when the right deal comes along, you can't afford it. honestly, this story seems to have more revisions than the already existing narrative.

 

Qft.

 

Will be remixing this thread by Wednesday. Consider yourself a culture creator OP

 

Actually, this was coaching. I've said it all along and I think MDA is proving it. Coaching matters.

Kerr made several decisions that had a large impact on that team.

- Starting Draymond Green. He did this because he wanted to space the floor.
- Benching Iguodala, again, due to wanting to just simply space the floor.

Curry and Klay were always great shooters. Kerr just did what he needed to do to emphasize that. Now he put 4 shooters on the floor, just by promoting one guy to starter and demoting one guy to the bench. Where before the Warriors only two shooters were Klay and Curry, he just made them all harder to guard.

MDA comes in and does a few things as well. He makes Harden the PG because why? Simple. Harden has always been a playmaker, why not just have him PG to ensure it is emphasized? He is playing him to his strength. To have Harden standing out on the wings like some SG diminishes his strength. This is why it didn't work with Dwight.

If Mchale had any control over that team he would have made it a point that Dwight and Harden would destroy teams in the PNR, instead what we got were two guys trying to get theirs. Which works if you are Westbrook and Durant to some extent...but not if you are Harden and Howard and the other guy really isn't an elite offensive player like he thinks he is.

 

I'm gonna hi-jack this thread a bit and ask for some input on something I've been thinking about since the start of the year. It seems like Morey abandoned his "3 Star" model when he gave up our flexibility this off season to sign Anderson and Gordon. These guys are probably move-able but they're exactly the type of non-superstars Morey avoids paying big bucks for. This new model feels more like the first title - Hakeem surrounded by great role players (with Harden taking Dream's spot).

Instead of a Big 3 and a bunch of old ring chasers and young rookies, we have this 10+ man army of snipers, rebounders, defenders, borderline all stars. It seems like a shift and I'm excited to see how it plays out.

 

Some of us brought up that Dwight didn't fit when we got him.

I am just happy we embraced the right type of players finally.

DD

 

He was the reason for the WCF appearance. Its ridiculous you make all sorts of allowances for DMo who hasnt proved anything yet keep harping on "fit" with Dwight when he brought the Rox to its first WCF appearance in 20 years.

So when DMo is sucking it up in Pelly it's all his teammates fault for being selfish, the coach doesn't know how to use him blah blah blah but Dwight who has averaged a double double here and has been the core of the WCF team suddenly is the wrong type of player? When its DMo its everyone else's fault but him but when its Dwight its all his fault even if he played great here. LOLOLOLOL!!!

 

As for the OP first of all let me commend you for the high quality post, it's really well written and better than some articles I read in BSPN.

You make several good points but at the same time you gloss over some things. Dwight has delivered on his end during his time in Houston, 3 years is a short time but he was able to bring the team to the WCF, something Francis, Tmac and Yao had never been able to do in 5+ years. Dwight had lots of suitors at the time but when he chose Houston he was clear about his demands, he wanted to become Shaq 2.0 Rockets should have been upfront about what they wanted from him instead of agreeing to whatever he wanted and then turning around once he signed a deal with them. A big man and dominant wing will always clash, Phil Jackson was in the same position but instead of telling Kobe to always defer to Shaq or vice versa he got the two of them to work together.

This is the result of Morey's philosophy that talent> all, this was why they didn't think coaches make a big diff or why they didn't consider fit, Morey in interviews would always bring up LBJ and Wade and Bosh and how those 3 made it work despite having overlapping roles. Problem was Wade and LBJ were BFFs, they wouldn't take offense at things that would cause conflict in others. You can't just put guys in a team and expect them to be buddy buddy, you have to foster the right environment for it to happen. Good thing is Rox learned from their mistakes, they passed on several deals I'm sure they would have previously pounced on if they didn't consider chemistry and fit.

 

The NBA has changed so much since we signed Dwight 4 years ago.

This is actually the right way to configure a team if you don't have what GS has.

But there's an astrik to this thinking. You have to have a James harden or Lebron James. We're fortunate to have harden because without him this wouldn't work. If you sub harden out with Durant, Leonard Westbrook or even curry the results would be different.

Bottem line is harden is a real MVP franchise player and has alltime great talent and ability. Not that the other guys don't but there not the all around offensive force that he is. Harden very well might be a top 10 offensive guard/wing alltime right now, he's that lethal. (I think he is)

If he can win 1-2 mvps and 2-3 rings I truely believe he'll be considered a top 20 player and the 2nd best SG of alltime to Jordan (Kobe will have a case) that's the type of player we're watching right now. It's all about rings for him now, because he has the stats the offensive rating and metrics to back everything up.

I'm 100% confident that we're the 2nd best team in the NBA. And the scary part is we can add a bogut tomorrow and still have 12-13m to spend in the offseason while retaining the whole roster which is already a 60 win team.

We're just getting started imo. People will catch on after the playoffs when they see not only our offense because frankly everyone knows how good our offense is even the national media but they will see how good our defense is. We've been top 8 for like the last 45 games. We have been playing better defense than the defending champs for a very long time now same with Toronto Boston and the wizards but still all I ever hear is about how our defense is worrisome.

We need a 3&D wing who can play the PF spot also coming off the bench or if he's better push Ariza to the bench.

If we can get that done this offseason which I think we can, Watch out.

We will be the only team that can beat golden state in a 7 game series.

Morey is a genius he did it again and this time he got it right.

Enjoy isn't fellow rockets fans. Good things happen to good ppl and harden Morey and MDA deserve a ring. I absolutely think we get one over the next 3 years. The question after that is can we find guys to put around harden in his 30-33 year age to keep this window alive. It's possible but its exciting to think we have 5-6 more years of harden being a truely MVP level guy. He won't be the same in his 30-33 prime but he might be better because he'll be more seasoned. He will age really well.

 

No, he was not.

DD

 

I am gonna respectfully disagree with the OP and just plain disagree with @DaDakota just for the sake of doing it.

While Dwight did not take us the WCF alone, that first year against Portland he was beastly or at least the lone bright spot. If I recall correctly there was a lot of criticism against James that year saying how he didn't show up in the playoffs and comparing it to his disappearance in the finals with OKC.

Obviously Lin didn't help, and James telling Chandler to switch on D to play Lillard on that final shot. This was also when TJones was "holding" LMA to 42 PPG for a couple of those games.

I think that first year would have been our best chance to go deep. We owned SA that year IIRC going 4-0 in the regular season, and had we won that game going home for game 7 and SA the next round.

 

Regardless of how much he did or didn't contribute to the run to the WCF, Dwert was the torpedo that sunk last season, and for that I'll never forgive him.

Morey had to guarantee too many years just to land Howard, and that ended up being a big mistake. Even when Dwight was clicking with the rest of the team, that on-court chemistry felt like a sizzling isotope, waiting to explode and f$#k up Morey Basketball Laboratories, LTD, which it eventually did.

 

Dwight is a cancer everywhere he has been. His personality will always cause issues, the guy is just not reliable, he is a loser.

Glad he is gone. Never wanted him in the first place, but understood why Morey tried.

DD

 

That is going way way too far saying he is a loser.

 

Agree. Actually i think he is great personality, such a positive and good guy. Look at him now, he is not acting like he did here and why that? Cuz he is getting what they promised him.

We made mistake promising him something we can't give him. I'm glad to see him doing good now but damn i'm glad that he is off our team when it wasn't going on.

 

narrative driven writing, huh?

Signing Dwight was a good move, he was a top talent, and top-talent are not easily lured. When you presented with such an opportunity, you make the move.

Just like Pelicans made a move on Boogie. 3 years from now, time may prove that Boogie is not a "good-fit" for the Pelicans, but right now right here at this point of time, who cares?

 

Loser is a poor description choice when his teams are in playoffs every season. Now Melo is a loser.