We will never be a contender unless: - Morey, Leslie & McHale let go of the idea that running and small ball gets you wins in the playoffs. - Your star player is accountable - You start to use the midrange game, especially with a guy like Harden - We find a real back up center, Smith wants to be a 4.. - We get a real defensive coach - Defense is our focus - Lin as starting PG when he's not getting to run the show and get the confidence from the coach
Defense doesn't have to be your focus. It just has to be a focus. You can be an offensive minded team, but you have to play at least a shred of defense if you want to truly be competitive.
Your points and Rockets under JVG. Check. Rockets under JVG played big. Check. T-Mac and Yao both played as hard as they could in the playoffs Check. T-Mac shot more 20 footers than anyone else in Rockets history Check. Deke Check and Check. JVG Check. JVG let Rafer play as much as he wanted. No. of playoff series wins under JVG with two, and I repeat TWO stars on his roster. ZERO The day I start caring about Rockets philosophy and its compatibility with playoff basketball, is when the Rockets get championship talent. Until then, the only thing I wants Morey to do is find another star or two.
Please explain to me how our star player is not accountable. Is that a way of expressing he needs to improve on defense? If so, why not just say that?
I agree on - Your star player is accountable - You start to use the midrange game, especially with a guy like Harden The rest is ...meh. Lin needs to be traded honestly. You can get someone real good that will work with this team and harden. Lin is too much of a polarizing figure. Too much of a distraction every game. The dude is also a scapegoat on this team. I don't think defense should be our focus (unless new system comes form new coach), but I do think we need better defense. Also way too much help defense. I'm surprised we haven't been blown out more. I seen so many people open for 3's brick it on the opposing team. Lin needs to grow some balls. And do it like Carlos. You can't earn respect being a little b****. Because that's what he is right now. He's Mchale's b**** and everyone knows it. When he grows some balls i'll expect to see some Linsanity type numbers.
we're playing fast paced and small ball due to our players. none of the 3 men you listed believe we're currently contenders. McHale himself has said he'd rather be an inside-outside half court offense guy rather than what we have right now. we're just working with what we have CURRENTLY, which is NOT a championship contending roster this year. people keep complaining about our defense and so on, but we don't have great defensive players aside from asik. aside from that we have an incredibly young team and younger, less experienced players are worse on nba level defense. can we stop complaining about contending when this year we were never going to be contenders?
True but we still have time in the season, with a little help, we can still secure our spot in the playoffs. Just have to start getting defense from our bench, so far Beverly seems to be the only one that makes any effort at it. But I do agree, McHale and Morey's love of small ball with Parson or Delfino playing the PF spot is dangerous. It killed us last season as well, this season besides not being great defensively it helps wear down Parsons and Harden who usually play the most minutes when they go to this formation.
You guys really think this current roster was put together with winning playoff series in mind? We've been trying to gather assets to get a star. We got one. A couple days before the season began. **** me, give the front office and coaching staff some time.
This is a rebuilding year, this is the youngest roster in the league, team has been playing great, our future is bright.
Exactly! People forget that a week before the season started we were looking down the barrel at a third consecutive painful year for rockets fans. This season has already provided more hope for the future than any season since the T-Mac trade.
Time for what? We are just getting past the mid point of the season, the Western conference has been weaker then expected and Harden and Asik have been better. This is McHale's last year unless they extend him from my understanding, we have exceeded expectations but given our roster's fluidity it is do or die to see what we do have and to get our team ready to be more then just another .500 team that we fielded last season.
The West has been weaker than expected? That's nonsense, unless by 'the Western conference' you mean 'the Lakers'. No one came into this season expecting to win a playoff series with the current group, even after we got Harden. I want to see what this staff can do with a roster built around our star player. And I'm not expecting the front office to be able to build that roster in four months.
