[ESPN] Rockets management pushed to play Clint Capela over Dwight Howard

Orlando and the Lakers management agree with this post. Hell you have his former teammates like Nelson, JJ Reddick, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Gasol who have said as much.Dwight is not a guy you want on you're side when things are going south.

 

I disagreed with TMac's take but I like his delivery, he is articulate and has a good TV look / voice. Wish he would get a shot as a regular on TNT.

 

This guy made a comment about something that has to do with fashion?




Tracy, shut up before I firrre yo ass up.

 

The bolded shows an ignorance of how the world works, especially competitive situations. The NBA is full of constantly moving priorities, allegiances, and expectations. I have no doubt the Rockets sold Dwight, but Dwight can't be a crap, ass post player and expect to get the ball, simple as that.

I agree with the rest and am not trying to pick on you, but too many folks can't seem to understand the true nature of pro sports.

 

And where is JB now?

Frankly, because JB knew he had no future with the Rockets he went conservative and stuck to veterans.

 

So Dwight had no responsibility to be good at being a post player?

 

I agree with all of this and apologize for not seeing this sooner. The Rockets needed to "over promise" to get Howard, but he failed to live up to his end of the agreement.

 

If that's what the Rockets promised him, why can't he expect that?

 

What everyone seems to be missing is that no matter what you are promised by ANY company or organization that hires you, it will change if you don't perform up to the expectations that the company or organization was anticipating when they hired you.
If the Rockets expected Dwight to be able to post up and be successful for the team and then find out he cannot perform the way they expected, guess what, you have to change and go to Plan B. It doesn't matter what he was promised. It's about what is BEST for the team, not Dwight. In the real world, if you were hired to be a VP and don't perform, you will be demoted or fired. If you are demoted and you don't act professional, you WILL be fired.

 

He missed an opportunity to show the NBA he was ready by benching Howard and going with players that could win.....but instead he took the players side, last season was a complete mess.

DD

 

Not if you have a contract.

Additionally, Dwight had already been in the league for 9 years when he joined us. We knew what we were getting in terms of his offensive abilities, yet we made promises to him anyway. The "didn't perform up to expectations" argument is a weak cop-out. After all, when have you ever seen a player dramatically improve in his 10th season?

 

So his contract stated that he will get a certain amount of post up touches? I think not! The Rockets didn't violate his contract. Dwight has pulled the same "crap" everywhere he has played.

 

Who wanted him to stay one more year?

 

The article said the Rockets did

 

This is NBA basketball. If something is clearly not working & contributing to us losing, then it's only right you change strategies. I witnessed us force feeding Dwight last season, and it was atrocious to watch. Anybody who watched the Rockets knows this.

 

Looking at it not from a basketball but a business organizational perspective, the blame mostly should go to the Rockets. If you're a company and you go out and recruit a top-tier talent, it's on you, the organization, to figure out how to make it work. It sounds simple but a lot of top tier companies ignore the "fit" factor and simply look at the talent perspective. In meetings, you hear a lot of "oh he's a smart guy/a top performer/one of the best in his field, so we're going to throw him a lot of money at him to come work for us." This is essentially what happens in most companies and basketball FA is no exception.

You identify the top talents that's available and you make a pitch to them. Management tells the FA how they can mold their team's system to work with their skills.

And this is the problem.

A top tier organization doesn't mold their processes and systems to fit an individual no matter how talented that individual is. A top tier organization has a core system or foundation set from the top-down and acquire talents and pieces that will fit into this system. If you're not a fit, we don't want you no matter how big of a rock star you are. The Spurs work this way and they have been extremely successful, with championships over three different decades. They withstood the changes in the league and the evolution of the game.

When the Rockets went after Dwight, changes were already happening in the league. The pace of the game was speeding up and the inside-out game was already a relic of the past. Les knew this and so did Morey. They went after Dwight cuz he was a big name FA. They wanted to mold him after Hakeem and Yao. Well, the problem is Hakeem and Yao played in a different era. NBA was already going all in on small ball by pushing the pace. Dwight's offensive skills were no longer relevant. What he could bring was his defensive presence. Morey and Les didn't ask him to be a defensive force, they wanted everything from him. He was asked to perform like he did in Orlando, setting up faulty expectations. When these expectations weren't being met, they wanted to ditch him for cheaper alternatives.

I'm sorry but this one is on the organization. They should've done their homework and communicated better with their personnel. This is inexcusable.

 

Funny you should say that when in one of the other threads you were on a baseless and factless crusade about how evil Harden/Rockets were for not giving Dwight more touches than he already had, and how much more superior Steve Nash was to Harden.

And yes, the answer is Steve Nash.

 

It's your contention that Nash dramatically improved from his 9th season to his 10th season?

Also, simply b/c you don't understand my arguments doesn't make them baseless.

 

I think it has less to do with expectations on improvement versus maturity. After 9–10 seasons you should be expected to know who you are as a player and play to your strengths.

If the numbers show that you provide significant value offensively in a specific setting, then perhaps you should use that knowledge wisely. Because if he's willing to sacrifice some for the team then just maybe the team will have some trust in him and give some of those posts up to keep him happy. He didn't have a problem adapting after missing half a season and look what happened.

Instead he made the following season about himself, pouted, and played unprofessionally. Sorry your employer is paying you to play a style that doesn't exactly fit you preference but for 20 freakin million dollars you should still be giving maximum effort. He should have just camped out at half court like his buddy TMac when things weren't working in his favor.

 

Howard left too soon, just when everyone finally loves each other.



Or is Les saying Howard prevented the love fest that he longed for so much.