Yes, there is nothing wrong with that, but please do not tell the fans that he is all about winning, the Parsons case further demonstrates it.
That's a fair point, houactuar. I guess what I mean is that all-important (all ever-elusive) term people call chemistry. The one thing that made the Rockets champions in 1994 (aside from the obvious--Hakeem Olajuwon) was the way those other guys played together. None of those other players on that team were ever on so much as an NBA all-star team by the time they were assembled. San Antonio literally sold the venerable Vernon Maxwell to the Rockets for the league equivalent of magic beans. They played together a season or so, but especially during the latter half of the 1991-1992 season, where Hakeem was out for an extended period of time with an eye injury...Kenny Smith and Vernon Maxwell and Otis Thorpe all discovered that they were pretty good players in their own right. They had one of the leagues best records after that year's all-star break without Hakeem. Robert Horry was drafted that summer, and added to that "core" they started to understand that they were tougher to beat together then they were separately. People often look to Hakeem's famous "...we go from here..." quote after the Rockets lost game 7 to Seattle in 1993 as the beginning of the championship years. I don't, personally. I believe that they realized then that they weren't that far away. But the season or so before is where they learned that they were a good team, despite what anybody else might have believed about their modest pedigrees. Hard not to look at the way the Rockets played against Portland and suggest that they had more problems stopping Portland from scoring than they had scoring themselves. But that's what "chemistry" can help with. Familiarity with one another can help bridge those gaps created by human beings that numbers can't encapsulate. There was as much bickering and disconnect on the Rockets' last play of the season as there was at any time of the year. You could certainly lay a great deal of that at the feet of Kevin McHale, and justifiably so. He needed to solidify certain responsibilities defensively throughout the season and could not do so. They often were reduced to relying on individual heroics from James Harden or Dwight Howard a bit too often, which unintentionally cased a lot of stagnation on offense. The "feel" of the game is just as important as the data, to me. You can't quantify anticipation, instinct, or drive. And hoping to achieve those things in a perpetual mixing bowl makes it even less likely. Again, as much fondness as I have for Chandler Parsons, the writing for this scenario was on the wall once he was granted the option to test free agency a year earlier than his contract said the Rockets were obliged to. The Rockets have more problems than a couple roster spots to shore up, to me. They are still very much in discovery mode as a team...and unfamiliarity (with each other and their respective roles) just creates another obstacle to overcome. Nobody said this would be easy...
Aldridge publicly stated recently that he wants to be "the greatest Blazer ever." Aldridge will not be coming to Houston. Ever.
Championships are best for his pockets NOTHING puts asses in the seats like CHAMPIONSHIPS Rocket River
Their PERs were pretty close as well. I know, different systems asking of different aspects from each player so the PER argument is a shaky one. It's hand wavy, but it's better than nothing.
