Harden is a legitimate superstar. We have him and he will only continue to improve in different aspects of his game including rebounding, passing, and yes defense. Awesome, and guess what... we also have the league's most dominating big man (possibly the only remaining dominating big man on both ends of the court). I think people have bought into the overhype of the 'new NBA' only because we have gone through a huge drought of good big men over the last 10 years. The Rockets happen to have the best, most dominant big man in the game. The NBA is still about playing with high efficiency which primarily means scoring at will around the basket and domintaing & holding the defensive fort down. Howard can do all of that and is continuing to improve. The moves he added last season increased his offensive efficiency. His maturity level peaked last season as he left a glamorous land of false promises to a team that was willing to build a championship caliber team around him (and Harden) and a more tangble and real opportunity to pursue a ring. The assets we have at this moment are still high grade quality players and we will be a major force to be dealt with this season and next season. That does not even include the potential we have to add a max salary level player to the mix. I'm over Parsons, the last 24 hours are showing that his head has blown up from last season and he may actually have been a distraction this season. I am more than ok with adding more defense if it means losing a touch of offense (Parson > Ariza) because we were already one of the top 3 prolific and potent offenses in the league... we can afford to sacrifice a touch of offense for more defense. No problems here Houston, good times ahead! Get excited, season 2 of the Howard era begins.
Harden is not a legitimate superstar. he's an allstar, I hope he can reach superstar status tho. He has to do better in the playoffs.
People are taking this Parsons thing pretty hard, but I'm actually more down about trading Asik and Lin for nothing. The offseason isn't over, but so far we've replaced 3 quality rotation veterans with one other veteran and some rookies.
Asik missed almost half the season and barely played when Dwight was healthy. Asik, while an excellent player, did not have a large enough role on this team to be "missed." Lin's production still needs to be replaced, we'll see how we fare without him.
The Lin trade was bad, but his production should be easy to replace. Asik will be hard to replace, but that pick we got will be huge for us to trade or just use for ourselves.
So him being voted 1st All-NBA means he's just an All-Star? Or does it mean that this past season "he got lucky"?
Lin is not easy to replace. He was very good for being a backup PG. He excelled at pushing the pace and collapsing a defense with his drives to the bucket. Yes he made frustrating decisions at times with the ball, but he was still a net plus. The real issue at PG is that Beverly isn't good enough to be a starter when you don't have elite players all around him. Beverly is a guy that fits as a spare part on a team with a big 3 or 4, not as a guy in the running to be your 3rd best player. Yikes. A better starting PG that would have made Lin simply a change of pace guy off the bench would have limited his issues.
It means SG is a weak position right now in the NBA with both Kobe and Wade are at the back end of their career.
Sure, Harden being the only top SG helped him get 1st team all-nba.. but he still puts up star numbers.
Dwight needs to quit posting up and embrace the pick & roll. If we get that ***** down w/ him and Harden, we will finally have something solid here.
That's a fair point. Lin as a backup point guard should be easy to replace. Lin as the backup playmaker when Harden is on the bench is much harder to replace. Same with Parsons. Ariza fills in nicely as a replacement starting small forward. He feels somewhat lacking as the replacement as a glue guy that makes the team run better. As for the pick, I'm expecting it to be mid-teens in a draft that won't be very remarkable -- so I'm not expecting a big lift from it. I think Morey lost that trade pretty badly, especially in light on the fact that we don't have much use for the cap space he created. Same with the Lin trade, where I'd rather have just let Lin expire than give up a draft pick to get rid of him when we could actually use him on the team. I think that's my biggest hang-up with this offseason, that Morey sacrificed a lot of this coming season for benefits that do not look compelling (unless you're Les' accountant). I am excited about the rookies. But remember that they are rookies. We have Howard and Harden ready and wanting to contend for championships. The last thing they need are a bunch of green recruits.
he barely made the allstar game and his on court performance and it wasnt a unanimous that he should have made the 1st team. It was debated by all major sports channels. He is a ALLSTAR until his gets better on offense and plays defense. The media makes superstars and he isnt close
I would like to hear why you think harden isn't a supersta! Because I can't think of one SG that was better than Harden last season. Please explain
