injured dmo and declined dwight, james harden regression and poor start, especially horrid 3-point shooting, trading away a bunch of the hustle guys for lawson, and a poor locker room. it all adds up.
You guys are talking about WHAT happened, which we all know. I am asking WHY these things happened. The only thing that doesn't need to ask why is DMo's injury. Injuries just happen. But I cannot believe the difference between this season and last season is DMo. Howard's decline is somewhat mysterious. He was quite good in last year's playoffs. Why did he lose it after just an offseason? Why did Harden regress? Why did the role players forget how to shoot 3s? Why was the locker room so bad? Why did the defensive effort disappear?
I am thinking it started with Harden being out of shape coming into the season and not trying very hard, Howard got sick of it and starting throwing some tantrums himself or passive-aggressively give less than 100%. Then everything just rolled on from there. Lawson not working out at all probably doesn't help, neither did the decline of some of the role players (obviously Brewer but others, too). But the key, I think is Harden and Howard never really trusting each other this year. They tried to correct things by firing McHale but things really never got fixed.
Front office gave the orders to rest up/stay healthy/take it easy. The team saw how godly Harden was catered to and they all followed. Doesn't have to be in training camp. Doesn't have to ride the teams bus or plane. Doesn't have to play defense. Just a big cluste****
On the money Herrera. If we take ourselves back to that period of time, that's what was going on. The effort from the rest of the team was nowhere nearly as bad as it got (doesn't let them off the hook). Since the other side likes to boast 2nd round WCF appearances, I guess for them its more logical that the entire team regresses within the span of a month due to independent reasons or that they followed the guy that got paid 200mil, sat his ass down, and decided not to get up. Did I mention he had a kartrashian in his lap too?
