The real issue is that fans only rate success by how many championships you win. There are 30 teams.....29 teams don't win it every single year. Are every single one of them a failure? Would OKC consider the Durant/Westbrook tandem a failure? This team made it to the WCF.....that's a success no matter how you slice it. It's ridiculous that this question even has to be asked, and it's even more ridiculous that you have people saying, "NO". Of course it was worth it. And of course you would do it again if you had the chance. Would people rather be on the 9th seed/14th pick treadmill again??
Harden D leaves a lot to be desired but it can be improved and he has shown willingness to improve it - he needs a good coach though. The desire to win isn't lacking - apparently he is an incredibly hard worker. He is not the problem. His D is fixable.
You do it everytime. He was the anchor of the defense some of the times he was here. Injuries caught up.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ridiculous stat: Dwight Howard only used 91 poss as P&R roll man this season. That's fewer than Cole Aldrich and Thomas Robinson.</p>— Bobby Karalla (@bobbykaralla) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobbykaralla/status/725731599657000960">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">For context, just among Mavs that's fewer than Dwight Powell, Zaza Pachulia, and Dirk. David Lee used 41 in only 24 games. Howard played 71.</p>— Bobby Karalla (@bobbykaralla) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobbykaralla/status/725731894466215936">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Howard averaged 1.099 PPP in those 91 poss as roll man, 71st percentile. Houston folks could tell me why, but surprised his usage was so low</p>— Bobby Karalla (@bobbykaralla) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobbykaralla/status/725732495254163456">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
maybe because Dwert refuses to set a real pick time after time, and instead demands the ball down in the low post where he is extremely inefficient at, and gets all sulky and holds the entire team hostage if he doesn't get his way
Where is your proof of this? I've only seen him look annoyed/sulky when he has a guy pinned underneath and Harden takes a mid range or turns it over.
Keep in mind, there was a point where LAC was willing to sign and trade Griffin for Howard and GSW was ready to give Thompson. No one would miss on the opportunity to outright sign him even given his attitude. We did the right thing pairing him with Harden. It is a shame it didn't work out and I for one am happy to never have to root for that guy again.
Correct. Those with real life experience understand things just don't work out sometimes. Harden and Howard looked like a great pairing several years back, it didn't work out, and now lets move on.
I think the majority here agree; he was the most coveted player at the time and we won the sweepstakes. We went from mediocre to a competitive playoff team. We tried to hit a home run and that's all you can ask for. But I don't know if this has been mentioned yet. If we didn't get Dwight and instead had some serviceable role players, Harden would be the lone star carrying this team and quite possibly still treading in mediocrity. I don't think he'd be happy wasting the past few years of his career like that. Harden could very well be asking for a way out of this team right now if that were the case. But the Rockets showed they were trying to go big and will do what it takes to put the best players around him. I don't think he's thrilled how it turned out but he knows the organization went for it and will do so again.
Keep Dwight Howard Out of Milwaukee http://www.hashtagbasketball.com/milwaukee-bucks/content/keep-dwight-howard-out-of-milwaukee Ouch. Is this Dwight's reputation in the league?
You can't expect Harden to essentially be the top 3 in minutes played (regular season) over his tenure in Houston, be the entire offensive engine, and play consistent defense year after year. He was the true MVP last year because he did all those things, but it's not sustainable.
The first paragraph is 100% correct. We would have had pitchforks out if Morey hadn't landed Howard, and we were all very excited to land him. The second two paragraphs are way off track. Dwight, for most of his time here, has not been all that much more effective than an Omer Asik. We still would have been a 50+ win team every year even without Dwight, and probably a 50+ win team even this most recent season. Morey's real debacle was the 2014 offseason. Letting Parsons out of his dirt cheap final contract year is one of the worst decisions ever made by a Rockets GM, probably the worst ever in terms of stupidity although not necessarily in terms of impact because it only affected one year. However, that one year was really our golden opportunity to put together the best team in Rockets history and win it all. We had borderline all star Lowry wanting to come here and could have kept Parsons for peanuts. Instead we went for Melo who was a bad fit and never coming, and got bent over by Bosh into wasting a draft pick to toss a serviceable backup point guard.
