These comments could be posted in several threads. Just more musings. First off, dang the coaching staff for designing so many plays that incorporated turnovers in last night's game. Dead horse -- it is a personnel problem. I don't know if anyone made much of the end of last season but I was quite struck by Howard's comments after the Rockets lost the series to GS. He just looked down and repeated several times, (paraphrased) "I just want warriors around me." Now that struck me as very odd considering the circumstances. The Rockets had battled injuries and adversity all season long. Howard had missed a lot of games due to knee and back issues. If anything characterized last year's team, I think most of us would have said, "There are some real warriors on that team." And Brewer certainly would have been in everyone's mind as an example of that type of effort. For those that can, go back and look at Howard's comments and demeanor. It has a very uncomfortable "oddness" about it. I can't say for sure what was happening but that points to something wrong in the locker room. What? Who knows? But Howard certainly showed up for the playoffs. I don't think any fan would say Harden didn't. Bu we do know Harden had something like 8 turnovers in that last loss to GS. The crucial one was due to being double-teamed at the last second. So not all were avoidable. Still, Howard's comment may be a place to look for how the season ended and how it picked up this season. I am not saying there is a rift between Howard and Harden, but I don't know why Howard would make that comment about a team that had to come from down 3-1 to win the Clipper's series. Now add to that Terry's and Beverly's comments about it "not being the same group." As I've mentioned in a previous post, chemistry is actually easily disrupted by any sort of tensions. IF, and that has to be emphasized, something was said or done in the heat of battle, there certainly could be some carryover to the start of this season. Now, compound that with the fact that injuries were still plaguing the team to start camp and preseason. Despite the hope and expectations created by the end of last season, the "team" struggled to have continuity from that playoff run. McHale could see, as time passed, that having starters playing together just wasn't happening as he wanted. Yet, players were held out of practices. We also know that Dwight Howard and Josh Smith seemed happy to be reunited. Did his departure only add to problems? Again, who knows? But you can't have watched this team this season and not observed that there is a problem. Same players, minus Smith. Add Lawson, which seemed to fulfill Harden's Tweet request for help at the guard position. And, voila, the team looks in disarray. Calvin Murphy has noted, after several games, that Howard doesn't get as many touches as one would expect if the team truly wants an inside-out game. That was a part of the theory, if I'm not mistaken, to free up 3-point shooters on the perimeter. With D-Mo returning we'll get to see if this changes or if there has, for some reason, been a decision to de-emphasize the inside game. Lawson's comments about the team, essentially, ignoring defensive calls the coaching staff was making in games earlier in the season, give weight to there being a "personnel" problem. Are there players doing pretty much the same no matter who the head coach is? Taken together, Howard's end of season comments, Lawson's comments and Terry and Beverly's comments point to some issue. What, exactly, it is we don't know. But it also seems obvious, to me, that Brewer typifies several players demeanor, who are somehow on the outside looking in, wondering along with fans, what has gone wrong since last season? Terry along with Beverly certainly have their idea as to what it is. But they aren't going beyond that, publicly. I only watched a few minutes of last night's game against the Nets -- a couple of minutes at the end of the 3rd quarter and then the last 4 minutes or so of the game. When I heard there had been 24 turnovers, and that Thornton had scored 30+ points, I, like Calvin Murphy could only shake my head and realize how Thornton's efforts had been wasted. It's hard to beat any team with 24 turnovers. Since I didn't see most of the game, I don't know if they were mostly forced or not. Judging by previous displays, even going back to last season, they were probably self-inflicted. I do think there is a generational issue, too. Is that also implied in Howard's comments? McHale, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Olajuwon, to name only a very few, played differently. The rules were different, too. Hand-checking was legal during both the Rockets championships. I don't think McHale "lost" the players. They just couldn't understand how and when he played. how could they? The game is different now. I have to thank Les Alexander for freeing up my time. Like a couple of others stated in this thread, I just don't have the same interest in watching the team (if they can be called that, at this point) as I did last season. I liked McHale and thought he did a decent enough job to almost get to the Finals, with key players injured. It's why I only watched a few minutes total last night. Something is wrong. Is it really as simple as just a bad start? Several teams seem to be having difficulty with the same personnel -- the Clippers, for example. But then maybe the Jordan debacle took some toll there, too. The Chronicle article about the Rockets change of schedule -- traveling to away cities and then practicing, instead of the other way around -- led to what Bickerstaff termed as a "good practice" where several things were accomplished / worked out. Then how does a game like last night happen? Somebody seems to be listening but isn't. Or so it seems. The same "dumb" players almost got the Finals last season. Along with losing interest in watching games, I am losing interest to post the same old things over and over. I didn't mention the Howard comments before, this season, that I remember. But even if there is some thread there to explain this season, it won't change the Rockets record to this point. And turnovers seem to be entrenched in this team's personality. If you keep making theh same fatal mistakes over and over (like posting) it can only be a lack of caring and focus in my mind. Or some distraction that needs to be uncovered and addressed.
now this is the kind of fun post i'm on clutchfans for, even if it's just speculation, ...and from an old-timer as well. Hail Rockergordon!
I have wondered a lot this year if franchises ever give players something equivalent to the 'Wunderlich Test' given to QBs before the draft. I know an IQ test is not a great indicator of BB IQ.. BUT. Man this team plays dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. You can only coach so much of that out of a player. If a player is just plain old DUMB, then that's what he is, and if things are not clicking on all cylinders, it will all go downhill really fast - which is exactly what has happened with this team. They BELIEVE they are awesome, but they have fallen victim to the Houston Sports Franchise Curse, of reading their own press clippings, getting big heads, and then being utterly unable to cope when opponents didn't just roll over before their awesomeness... and when the remedy requires strong spines and an above-average collection of brain cells, it's like they simply have NEITHER. So that's why I wonder.. do NBA teams ever even look into a player's 'smarts'? I know they were high on Battier (man we could use 3 or 4 Battiers right now!), but that was more like 'Hey, look at this new guy we got! Look how SMART he is!' rather than actually going out of their way to get him BECAUSE he was smart. I don't doubt that Harden is 'smart'.. but he's also a weirdo and he has not shown, as Hakeem did for example, that willingness to spend every offseason adding something new, improving something, getting BETTER every year. He seems to have decided to just rely on what he did last year. But watching him in games, especially when he DOESN'T have the ball, on offense, there is ZERO 'moving without the ball'.. Dude, when someone else has the ball, the strategy of 'standing in one spot beyond the arc and waiting for someone to lose the dribble and desperately try to throw it to you so you can heave up a long 3 at the buzzer' is NOT good basketball! I swear, this doesn't even look like a professional basketball team. It just looks like a bunch of guys who have never played together going out there playing pick-up against actual TEAMS, and getting their brains beaten out every night. It's embarrassing. And yes, I KNOW THIS TEAM MADE THE WCF LAST YEAR. This CURRENT team bears almost no resemblance to that team AT ALL. It may be mostly the same FACES, but it sure as heck isn't the same TEAM.
Some random points 1) For the most part James Harden has improved every year. I felt like last year he made one of his biggest leaps coming off USA Basketball, added leadership, better handles and a step back jumper. And improved effort on defense. And that was huge to the Rockets success, even with Dwight out. This year, Harden has regressed and that also includes leadership and I am not sure why. I think part of Harden's problems is he is frustrated with how team defenses have caught up with guarding him and frustrated that the Rockets (coaches) haven't been able to devise a game plan to help in this area. 2) All the malaise this year? We saw some of that last year. We look back and enjoy the "afterglow" of coming back 3-1 in the Clippers series, but how did they get in that predicament in the first place? Remember those games where the Rockets were just futzing around and the Clippers were blowing them out and laughing on the sidelines? Looks a lot like what we see this year. So, it is not JUST this year, this stuff has been under the surface as well. 3) I keep hearing Howard talking about how the team needs to "stick together and trust their teammates." I wonder if Harden just doesn't trust in the offense enough to take a step back. The Rockets give him all of this burden and he knows he has to do so much and at the same time the team wants him to trust his teammates. He may feel he can't.
I would rate the Rockets game against the nets - 5 Morey Facepalms. The Morey Facepalm rating system.
Could be right but I wouldn't read too much into him being busy on his blackberry. He always is, including during games. I introduced him to a TV star friend of mine and they became close friends and went to a game together in L.A. When the cameras did their thing of picking out all the celebrities in the L.A. crowd they came to my friend and he and Daryl were both texting. My friend was texting me and Daryl was texting the bench.
