My initial thought was that Mannix was probably trashing Houston to prop up Boston. Which seems to partially be the case, but he really seems to have gone off the deep end with how important Ariza was. It has become so in vogue for these national media types to overrate defense. And also to overrate the need for non scoring wings. I know @The Cat Cat works underneath his umbrella, but last year David Locke really tried to argue that Rudy Gobert was an equal player to Harden because of his defensive impact. This is just not the reality of basketball. People are going to score regardless. There are no teams getting shut out from scoring for entire quarter the way there is in football, baseball, soccer. The T-Wolves were good last year because they had the 4th rated offense (113.4 ORtg) not because they were good defensively (111.1 DRtg; 28th)
You can probably hear everything through your trailer screen door. Might I suggest earplugs? You should have plenty of those with all your guns right?
My initial thought was the same as yours regarding Mannix. But when you see him "dig in" you can tell he has a POV that isn't going to be changed with "new information." That's the worst thing. Having a closed mind and not being able to considering new possibilities. For Mannix, it is not just the Ariza thing, but also I think he is REALLY soured on Melo as any kind of positive factor. For most national media, there is too much focus on Ariza/Moute and NOT ENOUGH focus on the "Rockets Team Culture" as a whole, or on how important "PJ Tucker" is to the team and the fact he is STILL HERE, or on the CORE of "CP3, Harden, Capela" and how they did. The "team culture" is SEVERELY downplayed by the national media.
It's crazy how selective they are with that, because when Dwight was here they had no hesitation to say how our culture was bad (which was true). But now when the opposite is true it is completely glossed over (like you said). It really is shocking to me that Trevor Ariza was more important to our success than James Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon combined.
Contempt Prior to Investigation (otherwise known as "Rockets Post Season Grade -- D") And btw: Spencer is the biologist/anthropologist who coined the phrase "Survival of the Fittest", not Darwin.
The thing is the Rockets have KPI's that they know are important to beat GSW. And they will massage their roster accordingly. The media on the other hand, don't know all of these KPIs. So they make uninformed conclusions.
I don’t know this for sure but going by reports it appears rockets were right there but wouldn’t give up Tucker. Which is fine, it does not look like many teams want to give up the high demand wolves want for a possible rental. The more reluctant other teams are the better for us. I still think Gordon is the highest quality player offered out of all the teams and I think rockets are staying stern with that Gordon is an underrated stud. Intially I was all for tucker and Gordon and still am A bit but really this is still a win win for us regardless If we do or don’t land butler We still keep a player like Gordon who’s just a bit below that all star level.
you gotta admit they have an outside chance.. i mean the way gsw came out of nowhere the 1st year they won the title...nobody even dreamed let alone predicted they will be champions in the preseason
The Rockets replaced Ariza with Ennis, and Luc effectively didn’t play in the playoffs. Where is the signaling that defense doesn’t matter? Because we signed Melo who appears to be in a bench role? Do we think that the Rockets losing Trevor Ariza will make the Timberwolves go from 28th defense to top 5? Because I sure don’t. They made no meaningful acquisitions (yet) and their two cornerstone players are both horrendous defensively and Towns plays the most impactful defensive position.
