Harden QUIT. He's a quitter & no-show in elimination games. The franchise is better off with guys who WANT to win, not who get paid under the table to throw games
Where is blame mda? Harden in a lot of ways has no one. It turns out howard had fallen off. Sure the warning signs were there in LA but he flashed just enough to be interesting. Who has harden had? Harden is what he is and thats a damn good player. It feels like maybe morey has turned the corner on looking more at chemistry but its still not enough. In past there had been seemingly zero look at chemistry side. Morey deserves his praise though continuing to remold and make lemonade out of lemons. This year was no different and lou williams get is clsssic morey. Harden can only do so much. Harden is an all star but not legend. I could see harden flourishing with the right big and some more help. Harden was asked to guard 7 footers and carry the team. Which he did to a 2nd round defeat. Spurs while not what they used to be- still had leonard,aldridge,parker, ginobili, gasol That was just too many bullets to be hit by. Harden needs more bullets. Same problem as yesterday and the day before that.
For yesterday's game I dont' blame Morey or MDA. I blame Harden. There's one thing to go down firing, and another to just not try. Harden smh didn't try last night. Unless he was injured there's no excuse and he is the ONLY man to blame for that.
It's about time Maury goes. He has no authority anymore. Harden doesn't care about him, Le$ doesn't care, Mike doesn't care. Maury is a distant 4th in the Rockets power structure. His gimmicky style has so far never worked in the playoffs. This BS of only 3's and layups makes for a very predictable offense that is often found out come playofftime
I think this is a fair point. Everyone knew we needed another big. There were legit options we could've picked up but Morey stood pat. Knowing Nene's injury history and Clint coming off surgery, I don't know he didn't make a move
When the opposing team literally gives you wide open looks from the mid-range, and you still refuse to take them in favor or contested threes and layups, that's when I say 'enough is enough.' The problem with always aiming at high-efficiency shots is that it becomes a highly predictable move, so when the defense adjusts to your game plan, your whole strategy is not so efficient anymore. Those shots are efficient partly because other teams don't depend on them and use other options time to time, so the defense isn't always set on guarding those shots. That's not the case for us.
The only team in the nba that can weather a season ending injury to a core rotation player and still win it all is golden state, and they're pretty much an anomaly in a dozen different ways.
Who was the available center you wanted to trade for? Capela and Nene were pretty good against the Spurs.
Lol.... honestly, the reason is Draymond Green. Draymond is guy who on defense can guard post and perimeter and on offense can knock down threes as well as make plays. Compare this to Ryan Anderson - who basically can only knock down threes. Ryno has deeper range than Draymond, but that's the only thing he has on him.
A backup center wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference in that game. I blame Morey for building his roster as a cult of personality, not for failing to swing some minor trade deadline deal. Still, this game is all on Harden.
Les loves Harden, loves the coach, loves the money more because the team can score points, and you all are happy duding the regular season. As long as your people keep pay money to care the team, Les will extend Harden for another ten year contract, winning a title or not, that is not an issue. The team with that coach will never win a big thing, this year is anther example. JVG is laughing right now.
No i'll blame Harden for that lethargic insipid lazy performance. Harden is on the clock because if he repeats this crap next season he is gone.
Everyone is to blame, but the head of it is Harden. This guy I feel is like a Durant, if he has an opportunity to join a super team, he would. A trade is not easily done especially given that the Rockets need a center. No team will give the Rockets a center unless we give more than receive. MDA let Harden play his game, except he played like there is more future. Sad to say, time flies. Harden may realize too late that if he doesn't keep the pedal to the metal, he may chase championship like Karl Malone and TMac, ofc Barkley.
Too bad Capela has been our best player in the last game and he actually played well, Nene got injured... Dwight is gone bruh...maybe you should too if you cannot accept that.
I think this overvalued how close they've been. They've not been that close. This year they won 6 games in the playoffs. You have to win 16. They were 6-5 in the playoffs. They got blown out by 39 to a team without its starting PG and without their James Harden. 2 years ago they got past the Clippers in the 2nd round. The Clippers. Who became the Clippers for a brief quarter and therefore blew it. And oh btw they were able to do that by not playing Harden. The team is farther away then you think. The difference between what they are and have been... AND a championship team is as big as the difference between the current Lakers and the current Rockets. Now if I look at the Rockets the year before they won, losing to the Sonics in OT of game 7.... that team was close. It was obviously so. Just got barely beat and just needed an extra piece. This team is not that. They need A LOT more talent. And btw a way to figure out defense with that talent. And I don't necessarily blame Morey. I don't not blame him. But I don't entirely blame him. I like almost everything about his approach except: (1) he's chased stars for stars sake without realizing that not all stars are the same. Like Dwight. I think all the signs were there with Dwight not being a good fit or a modern NBA player before they signed him. How important was that decision? Consider the Warriors were strongly chasing him, too. And if Dwight goes to the Warriors I have no doubt they don't have a dynastic team or championship ring. Changes the whole NBA landscape. (2) the MDA hire. He's miles better than McHale. He's Miles behind Pop. Most importantly he plays a style and system that I'm not sure can ever win a ring absent generational talent. And even then... have to at least be competent defensively
This is an institutional failure, the result of a calculated gamble. Listen, we committed to a certain offense and way of playing. There seemed to be no back up plan. This has been proven across many sports to fail in crunch time when adjustments and stepping up is needed. Failure to make simple adjustments (like is Jonathan Simmons that good of a defender?) on all ends lost us the series. I just hope we learn something from it. Sabermetrics is great, but it must be tempered with skill and flexibility. See Theo Epstein v. Billy Beane. Right now we are Billy Beane.
Team gave us some joy this year. Good season. Didn't expect to go out like this, but we knew we had flaws.
