[ClutchFans] Harden's Debut Means Party Just Getting Started in Houston

Harden's Debut Means Party Just Getting Started in Houston

It won't be the same without Chase ...

 

The first play the dude makes he just blazes past Tayshaun Prince...I knew then....

 

You forgot to mention......."The Beard Factor"
...................
...................
...................

 

There's no way we can tank unless McHale sits down Harden, Lin, and Asik. As long as those 3 are logging 30 mpg or more, we're going to be competitive.

Now, the next question is...how good are we right now?

How good are we within our division?


New Orleans?? We're better than them. They're not trying to win this year at all. They'll be in the low lottery.

Dallas has totally rebuilt and Dirk is hurt and is old. How good do you think they are going to be this year? They're gonna be decent. But are they going to be so much better than us that we can't touch them?? I don't think so. Wouldn't surprise me if we went .500 against them or even better.

SA?? Great chemistry still. But they are getting older. I watched them and OKC last night. Sure, early in the season. They're probably better than us. But just look at our youth, and our D, and what we've got started offensively. We'll be competing real hard(en) with them this year.

And that brings me to OKC. Did you see them last night? They're a good team. But I'm sorry...they took a step down by moving Harden. Yeah they got Martin back. Sorry..he's nowhere close to Harden. Martin gets his piggybacking off everybody else. Harden goes and gets his and in the process gets a bunch for everybody else too. No comparison in talents. OKC took a significant step down by moving Harden. And we took a significant step up. I'm thinking our games with OKC are going to be very competitive this year and I think we're gonna win some against them.

So, in my opinion, as early as it is, and without knowing what major player injuries are going to occur....I think the division is a dogfight between the four teams. I don't know where we are going to grade out. But I do know we are a lot better than most people are giving us credit for and I know down the line teams aren't going to want to play us. We've got the D going. And we've got a very nice foundation to a very efficient offense. We lack experienced depth. And one of the rooks really needs to step to the front of the class. But this team, right now, as currently constructed and without major injury, is going to compete.

The ONLY way I see us getting in the high lottery for 2013 is to wait until June and use our capspace to take significant salary away from some lottery team (perhaps Chicago or Washington with Boozer and Nene) and trade picks with them as a favor for relieving them of salary. That is the ONLY way I see us getting in the high lottery without major injuries to Asik and Harden driving us out of competing.

 

We'll see.

 

Lol^

If you think we can compete on the same level as SAS and OKC and include us in the "dogfight" that is the SW division, you are sorely mistaken.

SAS "probably" better than us?
"No comparison in talent" vs OKC?

Give me a break. Your post reeks of illogical homerism.

 

The Spurs are really not that old outside of Manu and Duncan though. At 30 he has like 5 good years left and the rest of their guys are not past 30. They are on a different level than us.

The Lakers are older than them actually. Their key players are all past 30 outside of Dwight.

OKC SHOULD be in our division, but they are still in the NW division and we have to deal with Memphis which could just be as good. Memphis will be fighting for tops in our division, everyone else is just looking up. We can hope to be better than Dallas and if we are that would be HUGE considering how young this team is. It would basically signal that they are trending down and we are trending up.

Right now though it's one game. As a team we can't say for certain we are better than the Hornets. On paper sure, but they played the Spurs as tough as anyone could in their first game and Davis is a beast already in one game putting up numbers any NBA big would love to have on any night.

With that said divisions in the NBA don't really matter too much. The Rockets are going for the low seeds and I think they can be better than the other Western teams. IMO it really depends on Lin.

Harden is a star. The question will be is he Batman or Robin? Only time will tell but we have a star I'm certain of it. The question is Lin, can Lin take pressure off of Harden and can Lin go Linsane or was that just a one time thing where a guy got hot? If Lin is really good like I think he will be then this team has a shot at the 8th seed.

 

It's OK, we got Brad.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k2NaHBVVYzY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I thought we already had the next one.

http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showpost.php?p=6834923&postcount=1

 

Question for you, Clutch:

Do you think that Morey managed to land Harden 3 years after losing Yao/McGrady validates, at least to a degree, Les and Daryl's decision to accumulate assets (like Lowry, Martin, draft picks, etc.) and trade for a star rather than tank and draft one?


To me, I think it at least shows that the Rockets are not delusional in thinking that something like this can happen. They were lucky to end up with Harden, but the tanking route also requires some significant luck (the most obvious part of which is the bounce of the lotto balls).

The process of ending up around .500 for 3 seasons is frustrating, but it did pay off in the end.

 

It's not a viewing party, that's for sure.

 

Dropping Knowledge there with that last line.

 

Since we are playing hypotheticals, Lowry was the planned starter and star player last year before his injury. We were also on pace for the playoffs before he went down.

If he stayed healthy, we would have made the playoffs. Maybe battled a higher seed tooth and nail. Maybe Lowry, our best player, has a couple of big games, on the biggest stage. This is all highly probable, given the hypothetical that Lowry stays healthy.

Where would we be now?

Toronto likely gives up the 8th pick PLUS additional assets for Lowry.

We would have Drummond, and a slew of options going forward. Martin/Drummond for Harden being one of them. Dwight Howard as a Rocket another.

By tanking, we may or may not be in the same situation. But what would be different would be the bottom line the past 3 years for Les. And to Les, the Rockets are in fact a business, especially now that his stake in First Marblehead has absolutely collapsed. This means that after 3 years of tanking and bottomline losses, the Rockets would be half way moving to Vegas or West Virginia. Hypothetically, of course.

 

You don't think performing on the biggest stage increases players' value?



And countless others.

I don't have any doubts Lowry and Martin would have increased their trade value had we made the playoffs. Heck, we might have actually been able to trade Scola too.

And do you really think going from the 14th pick to the 16th would have made it impossible for us to trade up? I highly doubt that.

 

Anti-tankers never wanted roster stability. We have made trades every year under Morey. In fact making moves is the key to rebuilding while winning.

The idea was always that going after wins and making the playoffs increases the value of your assets, and from there you can flip them either into established superstars on the move, or part of a package to move up in the draft for a bluechip prospect.

That is exactly what Morey and co have managed to pull off. And hats off to them for executing on their plan.

 

Well IMHO the problem with tanking is:

1) You gut your team of assets
2) You're actually on borrowed time-you have to hope you get your franchise player in the next 3-4 years, or else you'll have to make a decision when it's time to pay your lottery picks:
a) I sign my players and hop on to mediocrity
b) I let my players walk and start step 1 again

What the Rockets did IMHO was just build upon their asset base year after year. A lot of people here were always spewing the "mediocrity treadmill" line, not realizing that the team was maintaining the 14th pick status despite year after year of getting younger+turning players into future picks. By doing so they took the time factor out of the equation, and every year the Rox entered the season with better assets than the year before.

If, oth the Rox were tanking at the time, I doubt they could have convinced Harden to come play ball in Houston because we would have no one to surround him with.

 

The thing is that's not what many here consider 'Tanking'

It is merely just to play your young players which the Rockets are doing. If you are a tanking team and getting rid of your assets you are doing it wrong.

I also don't really buy that showing up in the playoffs is going to make a player like Lowry more valuable. It did so with Ariza because Ariza was young. Lowry was entering the 26-27 age which usually is a finished product. Ariza was 24 when he came to the Rockets.

One thing we know is that by not making the playoffs the Rockets almost landed Dwight Howard AND did land Harden.

Had they made the playoffs they would have gone against the Spurs...one could just as easily argue that they would have been swept and promptly kicked out of the playoffs. Would Lowry's value have raised then?

These teams always have a certain value on a player, unless the Rockets were going to make it a 7 game series I don't see how that changes Toronto's mind...because remember they were courting Nash during that time and I doubt anything Lowry does in the playoffs was going to make them pass up on a chance to have Nash return to Canada.