What's most jarring isn't necessarily that we've lost 3 games in blowout fashion. A loss to Denver on opening day is terrible, but okay every good team will experience a let down (even Golden State got blown out by the awful Lakers last year). The loss to GS was predictable, and we all saw it coming. Today's game against Miami, perhaps we would have won if we had a fully healthy DMO and Howard? Miami had pretty much their entire lineup, no? Didn't see Amare nor Birdman but I thought maybe McRoberts / Whiteside / Bosh was basically their set bigman rotation going forward. The thing that gets me is the way we've lost. The core guys on this team don't seem to understand one thing. This year (and last year) were basically our prime contending years. Dwight is not only getting older but he can opt out this summer and Houston will be in a bad situation regardless. We either give Howard the new max and cripple ourselves to a depreciating asset for the next 5+ years or we let Howard walk and are left with a non-contender. Similarly, we have no-win situations with DMO and TJones after this season. If they play well then teams will be throwing Tristan Thomas type money for either player. But if they don't play well (As the case with Jones), then our team ends up in a worse position this season and down the road. We've already lost Josh Smith, Jason Terry isn't getting any younger. A core of Harden, Brewer, Ariza + One of DMO or Jones isn't going to contend in this new evolving west, especially give that we're outmatched at the coaching level in most playoff rounds. So given that this is likely our best year cap wise and roster peak-wise to contend, it's really disheartening to see this group of guys just come out the gate unprepared against Denver and collapse against Miami. It's like they're treating this as a 'going through the motions' season and not as a 'once in a lifetime' season. We likely won't have a group as talented on paper as our group this year. We haven't been this deep and talented on paper anytime since the turn of the century and when we finally get all the right pieces it's the more nuanced faucets of the game like effort, attitude, and proper coaching that's holding us back. Very discouraging for a fan.
If you're going to look at it that way, then you're making the case that we have no chance because Harden's not as good as Jordan to begin with, much less when he's partying and dating (like MJ didn't.....).
Every game counts. That's the attitude of a championship team. After losses, if players are "not worried about it", that's a lost season. No point in emotionally investing in a team that is not invested in itself. This is the "heart" that everyone wants from the Rockets, a more consistent manifestation of what we saw in the Clippers comeback playoff game.
Hakeem came back even stronger and led his team to the championship and won the mvp as well as winning the defensive player of the year and finals mvp. that year, we called it.. CLUTCH CITY
I've never been a fan of 3s or fts. Therebhave been many to display why jt makes sense, but i watch games. How does shooting from 23'9 get you out of the type of slump harden is in? Even scorers who arent great shooters like harden wouldnt keep firing from that distance. Take a guy like mitch richmond who could fill it, how ,many 1 for 8 from 3 would you see from him? Makes no sense a guy or team is struggling and the answer is shoot more from long range.
you're dodging, aint you? let me put a simpler yes-or-no question on you then. do you think harden has what dream had, both ball skillz and leadership quality?
What? Do you know who runs the front office? Our whole team was built behind statistics. That is why we brick threes.
you're one asking me what my point was, it was CLUTCH CITY! Obviously Harden isn't Hakeem. but he was damn good last year. He can't lose the confidence of his team and be selfish or he'll turn into tmac
i am not making any case, per se. from the get go, i've never believed a harden-led team can be a serious title contender. and that's just my opinion, based on my experience and observation. i could be wrong. but 3yrs in thus far, i havent had reasons to believe i am wrong, tho.
i hear you, timman. and i cant really disagree with what you said in this post. but,,, if i have to gamble, i'd rather not believing in a harden-led rockets team and have much less pains later than otherwise (which is your current position, i believe). peace.
What was the cavs record the beginning of last year? Didn't they do terrible until after the all star break?
We made it to the conference finals for the first time since we had Barkley you realize how long ago that was? I don't like him jacking up all those 3s and playing golden state is the worst matchup for the rockets simply because we play this 3 point offense. they have much better 3 point shooters than we do.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eGgLPriZUSA?list=RDkkUnEI7hN5k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Keep on rolling.
You still have people in here that just don't get it, lol. We didn't just lose we were not even competing in the second half of the game. That means we still have pretty far to go before we are the ones blowing a team out without major changes. We are in the toughest West in a long time and that says a lot because the West was already tough. Not to be all doomsday but our behavior is simply not indicative of a team who is hungry enough to win a ring this year.
i know. was it 18 yrs? but but but,,, wcf was mainly a bit luck tho, no? first we got lucky the spurs lost their last game so we got to play the weak mavs, then we came back in the clipper series on smith's crazy 3's. talent-wise, harden isnt even a top notch dog in my mind. but what let me down is really his character. and i dont really care about his off-the-court life if it's not a distraction to the team.
