Kind of weird how we're back where we were 2-3 seasons ago...

That amuses me endlessly. I wonder how the conversation would be today if DMo didn't have a serious back injury and Tjones didn't have nerve damage in his leg, a punctured lung, 17 eye pokes, car wrecks, and a spontaneous combustion.

Literally a year ago we are arguing about TJones v DMo..... You realize that? Sometimes things don't work out and they are completely out of Morey's control.

 

We'll the reality is both of those players got derailed by injury, thus being one of the many reasons why we're here talking about yet another retooling/rebuilding season. It just seems to me that we're one unlucky franchise or we are just cursed.

And you do know if we all drank a fifth of Hennessey, well we all would be drunk as hell.

Houston Sports and their IF syndrome.

 

Los I was apart of this conversation to brother. And like we all agreed upon, it would come back to bite Morey in the butt.

 

Clutch, how do you feel about where we are?

 

Let's see prior to this offseason:

OKC: Durant, Westbrook, and Durant
GSW: Curry, Thompson, and Green
SAS: Parker, Leonard, and LMA
Cleveland: Irving, James, and Love
Clippers: Paul, Blake, and DeAndre

Notice a pattern?

We could have added just any 3 point threats, but Morey wants them to be able to more than merely shoot. That's the tough part, finding shooters who can defend.

LOL. And Harrell. I recall GSW and other teams vying for the Howard free agency. I recall DMo not having back issues when we acquired his draft rights.

What else ya got?

Huh? That makes zero sense.

Uh huh.... And two historically great teams in the SAS and GSW didn't win a championship this year. Sounds like you and your crew are merely after easy answers to a complicated problem.

 

So then drafting our core didn't work because of injuries, which is out of our control.

That's my point. You "drafters" greatly underestimate luck.

 

There's always some luck needed when drafting players, but nowhere near as much as you need when trying to build through trades and free agency. What if Kobe doesn't tear his achilles right before the end of the 2012-13 season? What if Presti and Bennett decide to give Harden those few extra million dollars he wanted back in the fall of 2012?

I'd much rather be in a situation where the only things we have to worry about are the teams picking ahead of us and which college and high school players have declared for the draft as opposed to dealing with 29 other teams vying for the services of a free agent superstar or having to meet the trade demands of another ballclub in order to trade for a star player.

 

Based on what?

What if Durant signs with us in the offseason? Will all be forgiven?

That's fine as long as you realize you are still wildly gambling. Having the #

 

Based on what?

What if Durant signs with us in the offseason? Will all be forgiven?

That's fine as long as you realize you are still wildly gambling. Having the #1 pick only guarantees you pick first, not that there is an actual franchise player to acquire.

 

When the protagonist regresses and returns to where it all started, it usually leads to reflection, a renewed sense of purpose, and a journey taking them to new heights.

 

As long as the Rockets don't offer max contracts to players who don't deserve them, all will be fine. Or to put it a different way, don't sign a player who can't be traded unless you toss in an asset.

 

****ing assets

 

Brewer has never been a good shooter. The 14-15 season was actually an anomaly in his career. I think Morey signed him back in 2014 not because of his shooting but his disruptive passing lane defense that would create fast break opportunities. But the 14-15 season might have fooled Morey into thinking that Brewer has turned a corner in his shooting ability.

Ariza is a streaky shooter. We usually win when he is hot and lose when he is not.

Lawson is the biggest disappointment. But looking back, his personal issues should have had curbed our optimism. That said, Lawson was only a decent, not great, shooter. We acquired him to lighten Harden's load in facilitating the offense, rather than a reliable spot up shooter.

In short, none of these guys were reliable 3pt shooters to begin with. Last season might have been bad for them. But it should not be too surprising.

 

Don't worry.

Its likely, though by no means certain, that after Leslie's D'Antonipalooza fails in 2 years and Harden moves on, breaks down , we'll be back where we were 6 years ago (8 by then).

It's part of his Hyperbola growth stratagem. Embrace it.

 

It's pretty remarkable so many of our players completely and simultaneously pooped the bed at the beginning of the season and never stopped pooping throughout the season.

The fecal luck of that happening along with: Howard's pouting because he had an out of body season where he thought because training with Hakeem made him Hakeem in the post AND Harden's guest appearance on Keeping up Withwhocares all contributed to a glass full of blended crap.

 

Everyone was thinking yao - tmac when houston got d12. But of course you need a 2 par allstars, play good, win games, but when you play the top teams, there top 2 are usually better than houston's. So this is where the only get out of first round or get near 2nd. Houston got threw to the western finals, it was a good run in 14-15. But that was there peak i guess with that tteam.

Harden has to get the right pieces around him, to win i know. Seems like houston never has those barnes or crawfords in the world , ray allens sharp shooters who come off the bench, and keep the lead going etc... even like old mario elie did, the junk yard dog dirty work, is how kinda Green is the ultimate junk yard dog, i mean look at those stats for garbage, i mean everyone got to have a role on the team, and be on same page to win. . I dont know, they need defensive and offensive weapons off the bench. Just my 2 cents.

 

"Drafters" are probably not looking at 2 guys playing the same position, neither of them ball handlers, drafted mid/late 1st round as the "core". Plus if I want to build my core with drat picks, maybe one of them should be inside the top 10. Takes a lot more luck when youre drafting between 14-25 than if you were 5-10.

 

We were in better position 2-3 years ago

 

This. We had harden and we had assets; a team on the rise. Now we have Harden and no assets. It appears we are in decline.

There are things we can do to change the trajectory. But it's not gonna be instant gratification. What I hate is prolonging the inevitable.

I could get excited about Morey improving the team and creating value by signing some under the radar free agents to decent deals. That would be s step in the right direction. Or through trades that bring back young exciting players. But Les made his choice when he brought in Pringles, so it's clear we're gonna try to do this quick and dirty.

 

Be advised here: when we went to the WCF our bench was very critical to our success that season. Remember we were down Howard, Jones and Beverley. We won our Division as well, so come on man, we had talent around this dude.

This past season EVERYTHING went wrong.