The addition of Harden and Howard sent expectations through the roof. Without Howard the Rockets gave OKC a run for their money, so expectations for 2014 playoffs were huge. Then the Portland series. Parsons talks, Batum walks. Harden disappears. Howard goes solo but not enough. The Rockets, the high expectations, and their fans come crashing to earth. Then offseason expectations rise to a fever pitch. Maybe LeBron. Maybe, Anthony. Maybe, Bosh. Maybe, nothing. Lin and Asik given away for a bag of chips. Parson walks. Then, the return of the retreads: Ariz (ugh), Dorsey, Smith. Oh yeah, can't imagine why fans would be disappointed.
a lot of rockets fans dont realize howard is in his last prime years. you dont intentionally waste one of those years. when u get someone like dwight on your team, you should always be in win now mode, not "lets take a year off" mode
Oh, come on. Kevin Martin? Harden reminds me of Martin the way Churchill reminds me of Gandhi. In other words, with all due respect, that's ridiculous. And the way you (and certainly not trying to pick on you, because I've read it enough times from others in one form or another) say, "he is capable of good D, but CHOOSES not to play D" makes it sound like he's out there on the court thinking, "I think I'll take this play off. Yeah, I'm saving my energy for offense when we get the ball back." Again, come on! He's not thinking that way. He'd have to be a lunatic to think that way. I put it down to accountability and the coaching staff. The coaching staff wasn't holding him accountable for his lack of effort on defense. When did we ever see McHale sit his ass down right after standing around out there? I can't remember ever seeing it. Do you? Harden is far from blameless, but it isn't like he's standing on an island out there. It's far past time for the coaching staff to quit treating him with kid gloves.
The lin trade was bad, but morey got a lottery pick from asik which is what he wanted for asik all last year.
Yeah so I think I've just about had it. I'm gonna be stepped away from posting for some time. All I read is agendas for people putting down player after player after player. The GARM is full of more anti-fans than true fans who can give objective criticism without acting like a pompous douchebag. A site like this is supposed to make you more excited about your team. Not hate it. Great posters like Bima, AElliott, Deckard, and Clutch himself seem to be posting less and less, and instead we get more and more Carl & his anti-Harden campaigning, and Basketballhollics false claims for insider info for 15 team trades. This is truly one of the best sites on the internet, but like everything.... a couple idiots can screw it up for everyone. Its just too much. I'll check in periodically, but if not I'll see you guys in October. Have a great rest of your Summer everyone.
Lets set a few things straight first: 1. I am stating that the way Harden looks to draw fouls reminds me of Kevin Martin. Harden is the player that Martin dreams he could be, but that doesn't mean that Harden does not often drive into traffic purely with the intent to draw fouls. Personally I don't like driving with the intent to be fouled. That is quite different from driving with aggressiveness and getting fouled. This is what sometimes disgusts me about Harden. I don't want to see him just penetrate for the sake of trying to draw a foul. I want to see him go in there and try and finish strong, If a foul comes, it comes. If it doesn't I want him to get his ass back on D on the other end. 2. Harden has show on MANY occasions that he can play solid perimeter D and great post D. The fact that he does not is purely due to effort. He has stated this himself. His past coaches has stated this. Harden often has a weak motor when he is disinterested. Effort is ABSOLUTELY a matter of choice. While I would not accuse him of always mailing it in on the defensive end, he absolutely sits out on defensive plays. You basically see him standing there ball hawking and completely lose his man. With McHale, we will never see him riding Harden's ass after poor D because he is too scared of losing his job. We need a real coach with real balls to pull Harden when he completely loses his man. We need a reach coach with balls to yank Howard's ear when he's b****ing about a no call instead of getting back on D. We need a real coach basically.
Well OK! I don't think we're disagreeing that much after all. Thanks for clearing that up. At the very least, Morey needs to get a guru of defense on the bench sitting next to McHale, and he needs to be able to hold the guys on the court, whoever they are, accountable on defense. I'd add that there isn't anyone here who'd disagree with that, but there's always someone to disagree about every damn thing here. ;-)-
Why Are There so Many Rockets Fans Who Dislike Everything About the Rockets? This off-season has been pretty pathetic in showing the true color of a lot of Rockets "fans" There's a lot of silly notions going on which have seemed to arise from self loathing and general pessimism. Which is fine, I guess. What is sad, though, is that there is hardly anyone sticking up for our own team. Currently in the GARM and NBA Dish, the following bits of nonsense have been almost hailed as fact: -Morey is a terrible GM -The Rockets through 08-09 had a bad team with not enough good role players or veterans -Dwight Howard is a terrible character guy -No team's fans wanted Dwight Howard last year aside from the Rockets -The Mavericks are better than the Rockets -The Rockets will have a hard time replacing Jeremy Lin's production -Harden is a fat lazy, overrated player -Les Alexander is a cheap owner -The Rockets will miss the playoffs next year -The Rockets have written off next year <br> <br> Further still, I have seen people applauding some of those making these asinine claims. Among these are even long time posters who I would expect better from. So, Clutchfans, why has the GARM reached a new level of self hate? Just because the off-season did not play out according to some of our expectations? I expect better from Rockets fans. Criticism is great. I'm all for it, but as Rockets fans I believe we can all support the team a little better. Hopefully we can all work together through some communal respect for the quality of this site to try to curtail posts that lack substance and stem from pure vitriol. Those posts tend to usually not be very well thought and in general dumb down the quality of the GARM.
I only dislike McHale as he is a cancer to this great organization. A clueless, incompetent, pathetic joke of a coach, possibly the worst in the NBA.
Yawn. You sound like a Rocket employee. We could have used more of you company men sticking up for Bud Adams and crew before the Oilers left town. At least people care enough to talk about a team that hasn't been very successful in quite a while.
I really wish we can go back to those Chuck Hayes starting at Center and Kevin Martin being our best player days. People are just so ungrateful.
No, it's just pretty feeble minded getting so riled up over something you're supposed to find enjoyment in. What's the point in even following a sports team if you receive no positive utility from it?
