Andrew Sharp used to be one of Grantland's lead basketball writers, now writes at Sports Illustrated. Link I think he maybe had unrealistic expectations for the Rockets coming into the season, but the main thrust of what he writes is on point.
i wonder if this year would have went any different if harden was 2 years away from a new shoe contract. for certain people i could how getting $200 could make you coast. and if you are not always putting full effort into defense, but expect your teammates to do so while they know you just made all that money. it's pretty easy to envision a scenario playing out exactly like it is at the moment. which is sub .500 going into the all star break. i really do hope morey is either fired or blows it up to keep the draft pick this year.
Sorry, got nothing from that. He thought we would do fkn great based on last year But we suck and are completely opposite of the warriors Wow shocker
Expecting any coach to fix this is unreasonable and irrational. Nobody can fix their attitudes but the players themselves!
This is the biggest fall I can recall for a team that suffered no major injuries, lost no stars and didn't have a star drop off steeply due to age (Howard is declining, but he's not significantly worse than last year). They even added a talented player at a need position in Lawson. It's just an unholy mess of mismatched parts, seeming lack of engagement and bad coaching. Not that I think even Popovich, Kerr or Carlisle would have this team playing at elite levels, but I don't think the coaching has improved the situation.
Yes, Kerr basically said the Warriors are good because they are "self-motivated." Everyone knows, including former coach Kevin McHale, that the Rockets biggest weakness is that they just don't play hard. Play harder. It really is that simple.
You guys are so easy to say its the attitude, effort and what not. Yes, things like that come out but it is not the root of the problem, its just the result of frustration. If you know basketball you would agree with me on the fact that this is the result of the team system and the way it is constructed. I think Daryl Morey is one of the best GMs in this league, the way he finds role players and second round draft picks, the way he manages cap space and builds assets for trades are unmatched by any other GM. Unfortunately, he can also be a curse. I understand the analytics of 3's and under the basket points, but he needs to humble himself and leave that to the coach, instead of choosing a coach to do as he likes. Humble yourself, bring in the players you believe you can get the most out of on good contracts, then get a coach to take care of the way the team plays. Look at the team that made a run and took the Lakers to seven games. He had Yao and Tmac already, gave up a lottery pick for Battier, assets and picks for Ron Artest, drafted Landry and Brooks pretty late, traded for Lowry, found Von Wafer from wherever, traded for Scola. And that roster was coached by Rick Adelman; they played his system. This year is a wash, but I hope next year Morey humbles himself and does what he does best, putting a roster together, but leave the play of the team up to an established coach.
We all had high expectations. Before the season started, I bet most thought it was more likely that we had the best record in the NBA vs being #9 seed at the break. We all thought we would be legit contenders
This year has been worse to watch than the Francis era, in part because of expectations. You have to wonder, if the Rockets don't care, at what point the fans won't care either. What a malignant group. It's crazy because they were so close knit last year.
"It's not really much of a challenge at all," Steve Kerr said last week, as he described coaching the Warriors. "Every once in a while we lose our focus, so every once in a while I have to yell at 'em or do something, but for the most part this is a very self-motivated group. They love to win, they love playing, they enjoy what they do. Everything seems to take care of itself at that point." - It's so ironic that the self-deprecating Kerr is so dismissive of his impact on this team Essentially the only difference between this team 2011-14, and the all-time juggernaut of the past 18 mos, is his replacement of Mark Jackson at HC They instantly went from a team floundering in the 1st/2nd round of the playoffs, to THE BEST in the NBA, with minimal personnel changes from the previous season At this point, the rift between the Big 2 on this team seems so large, I'm not sure Thibs or JVG or anybody on the planet could inspire such a turnaround for this bunch But I'd have liked to see the results, rather than the neutral impact JB's promotion has made on the course of this season
Really, the 'roster/rotation' adjustments made by Kerr amounted to 3 small (but key) changes: 1 - Swap starter roles/minutes at PF, with Draymond replacing DLee 2 - Same for SF, with Barnes swapping with Iggy 3 - Replaced 3 vet backups (JOneal, SBlake, JCrawford) with 3 other vet backups (SLivingston, LBarnosa, JHoliday) If only it were so simple for this team: 1 - Swap Trezz for TJ/Brew at PF 2 - Swap Brew/KJ for Ariza at SF 3 - Replace DMo, Ty, Thornton w 3 other cheap vets in FA ... anybody think those moves would make 1 bit of difference over the final 25+ games remaining? No .... unfortunately, the problems with this team are at the foundation level
I think it's his attempt at humility. Plus once you've got a system in place and player who believe in the system it gets easier.
Absolutely he's being humble, and I appreciate him giving all the credit to his players ... prob a huge part of the reason they play so well and hard, with or without him on the sideline I just found it ironic that we, as Rockets fans, are putting ALL our eggs of hope for the future on changing the the core players, and bringing in yet more stars (KD, etc) ... When the team we (and everyone else) are chasing became great overnight thru one key outside coaching hire ... a route our GM/Owner has yet to even attempt Just frustrated that an entire season was sacrificed without attempting the easy/quick/cheap fix that is so obvious to so many of us that watch this team
