The city of houston wishes this were true lol. Rockets cap is shot and lebron is a FA THIS offseason.
me neither, You’re right, nobody has, at least not explicitly; however, I have seen many posts in threads discussing major issues, weaknesses, and barriers to the team advancing to the next level, being a contending or perhaps a championship level team. I haven’t seen people make that claim, but is it not disingenuous to only point to a relatively minor weakness in threads discussing why the Rockets are playing terribly of late, losing big leads, having slow starts, and overall playing inconsistently? Look, I hear you, Lin, Bev, and AB lack the leadership and talent to forcibly take the reins of this Houston team with already two superstars who demand, and rightfully so, the ball, but come on now, an upgrade or any form of change at the 1 spot won’t, imo, make the Rockets significantly better, and to imply that it will is again, disingenuous. Superstars are superstars for a reason, they get the credit for wins and they get the credit for losses, and that is the burden of being a legitimate superstar in a league that nurtures idolization of individual players. To find success in the playoffs and one day win gold, it is up to of course many factors, variables, and combination of variables such as complimentary players, coaching, system of play, match ups, statistical anomalies such as a player catching fire, etc.; but I think everyone around the league will attest to this simple and prevailing truth, a team goes as far as it’s superstar/s take it. When OKC got stomped on by Memphis last year, guess who took the bulk of the blame, Kevin Durant; when Miami lost to Dallas, it was LBJ and Wade who was arguably still the #1 option at the time that took the blame.
So far this season vs. the elite teams, Dwight is no longer automatic. It's so demoralizing to give the ball to Dwight and he can't dominate his man or he gets stripped or he gets fouled and misses his FTs. Harden is the same way. He disappears versus elite defenders. Now how far can we go depending on two limited superstars. I think this is what this season has exposed. Will it be the same thing with our future 3rd superstar, seeing as all the game-changers (the LBJs, the Chris Pauls, Paul Georges are locked up by their teams. You counter that by implementing a strong system (like with the Spurs) so that not-so-elite players stay disciplined to protect their weaknesses and maximize their strengths. (I would include Adelman's offense here though his defense leaves a lot to be desired.) As far as I can see, we're not going anywhere with Harden and Howard with our current coaching style.
Wrong. Dwight was effective first half against Thunders. He caught the ball and drive or post up. He was pretty efficient. However, he only scored 6 points. What does that tell you? He did not get enough touches. When Harden was injured, it was clearly Dwight's team and we see that in a game or two. Parsons and Lin would constantly feed Dwight. But with Harden back, Rockets seemed like to fall in love with perimeter games. It is clearly Chemistry. Yet in mid January, Rockets still hasn't figured out what kind of team they want to be. Clearly they don't want to rely on Dwight that much especially with the presence of Harden. If they don't figure their identity out, Rockets will have a hard time in the playoff and clearly an "one and done"...
The whole team was effective last night in the 1st half!!! But why did everyone disappear in the 2nd half, including Howard? Perkins and Ibaka were manhandling him. You can't forcefeed Dwight in that case. I've also watched those games when we needed Harden's heroics because Dwight could not score or get the ball in the 4th quarter. Or kept missing his FTs. Nope, Dwight's not our closer.
Poor Dwight. He thought he could go back to Magic days and dominate inside and come to realize this is really the reality outside Magic. I do think this team needs to be built on Harden and Dwight. Harden needs to take over the game last night in the 4th quarter. Dwight and Rockets back court will affect and depend on each other, simple as that Harden primarily along with Parsons and Lin + Dwight is how Rockets would win games. Nothing more, nothing less. Comon Dwight!
Garcia needs to be removed from the rotation. Those minutes along with a few minutes from Harden and Parsons (enabling them to play D) needs to go to an impact player. In a perfect world I guess I wish it was Iguadola. Obviously he is not available. What if our bench was Lin or Brooks/Parsons/Camby going into the playoffs. Using our 2014 first rounder+Asik+Motiejunas+Lin if needed to upgrade to a more significant two way player on the perimeter.
We desperately need Beverley back in the starting 5. With Lin coming off the bench we can at least have a decent scoring option and someone who can handle the ball. We don't really need Asik as much but it wouldn't hurt to have him. What our team needs to do is be held accountable for their defensive lapses. Les wanted a team who was more offensive minded and guess what? He got his wish, we can definitely score with the best of them but when it comes down to the close games with the top elite teams guess what? We still can't get a good shot off. I remember back before Dallas hired Avery Johnson as their head coach, they couldn't defend to save their lives but then after he came into town they bolstered up their defense and finally won a championship (maybe should've won 2 if not for the league's ghost fouls on D-Wade in the finals). Every time I see Lin or Harden guarding the opposing team I cringe because I know instead of playing solid defense I always end up watching them lose their man or gamble and try to slap the ball away as their assignment drives to the basket. This is the first year in awhile, it seems like, that this team is "underachieving" vs overachieving. Hopefully we figure it out before the All Star weekend is here.
The reason you won't see Miami/Indiana/SA score 19p in a half is because they hold the players accountable on both ends of the floor. LeBron and Paul George are both very competent defenders, and Popoviche chews out his Big Three when they don't play D. How do you preach good D to a team when your franchise player refuses to play D and the coach is fine with it? As for our role players, why aren't we using them to their strength? PBev has a nice floater and Lin a very decent mid-range game, but we are making them only take 3's or to the rim. And why do we give the ball to PB (who's not a good playmaker) but make Lin (who IS a good playmaker) cough it up to Parsons? Not saying we have the best talent pool, but for all the problems we may have, role players is definitely not high on the list, IMO.
