After the rage over losing in the conference semis to the Spurs blows over, some simple truths will stand out: 1. Morey hired the best coach available, given his roster. 2. Morey added the best players he could get, given our cap space and the previous year's record. 3. D'Antoni got more wins than we could have expected, given the roster and its previous inexperience playing together. 4. D'Antoni made the right call, a gutsy call, about changing Harden's role. Most of this year's success flowed from that. 5. Harden played an amazing season. Worked his *** off, read defenses astutely, forced other teams to leave guys open, improvised brilliantly, and made everyone around him much, much better. Without him, we would have been mediocre at best. 6. Everything else, including our rage about the final 5 quarters -- which will probably turn out to involve some combination of inadequate roster, short rotations, and flakery -- is the product of dashed hopes that were raised far beyond our initial expectations, precisely because Morey, D'Antoni, and Harden, up to that point, had done their jobs so well. 7. Any trade that involves Harden leaving this team would be a loss. You won't get a better player in exchange, and under the CBA, the best value is always a top player because such players can't be paid their true value. It may be that we can't win a championship with him. But it's far more certain that we won't win squat without him. End of rant.
Thank you sir. This is level headed and logical. It will fall upon mostly deaf ears (or blind eyes in this case).
Harden had an amazing season then decided to throw the final 5 quarters. Disappointed. I don't know ow what to expect from him next playoffs.
This is also Harden's first full season as a PG. A lot of his failures have been in late game situations with the defensive pressure increased. These are situations pure PGs are conditioned over time to deal with. I think Harden will only improve with more experience.
Rah! to all (save #1). DM the GM, in cohoots w/MDA - - and Yea! for that, created the roster for the style of play they desired. Frankly, DM the GM-ball, looks lots like Cavs tho that #23 guy + Kyrie are a wee different from our #13 guy and uh, and ... I believed that a W v Spurs was possible; I did not, sadly, feel that better than a Gentleman's Sweep loomed in Dubville. Two really good pieces, that's what Rox need to add. So simple... Thanks, Will, it was a really good, albeit positively surprising season. Parade in '18!
I agree with the OP. You can see why most people could never be a good in business. Business people in sports don't panic, when they lose a playoff series and talk about trading the best player on the team. They focus on SOLUTIONS and building a good team, not being impulsive just because things don't go their way. That's why most people who say they would make a good GM, would fail. We improved 14 games from last year and had the second-best offense in the league. Now we just need to improve our frontcourt defense and scoring.
I have no problem with what Morey did.. but Morey has always been a great gm. As for the rest... there's two extremes on this board. 1) We overachieved and had a great year, James is still great and you should be happy. 2) D'antoni sucks, harden sucks, moreyball exposed, we're never going to win like this. And neither side is really correct. Fans have every right to be pissed at what we saw especially in game 6. That doesn't mean blow it up or everyone sucks. But harden isn't getting any younger and his playoff performances aren't what I'd call consistent. Harden always feasts on inferior competition, the question is can he do it against the best
The drinking of the bleach has begun. Erase memory and become the know it all smart posters we are accustomed to.
I appreciate the sentiment, but being grateful isn't all or nothing. This team did overachieve. Before the season we expected 8th seed and a first round exit. However, the Spurs series WAS there for the taking. Still hurts.
Thanks OP Very well laid out. I hope no rash decisions re made by front office. Lets tweak this a bit & see how things work out, I have high hopes for next season.
Exceeded my expectations about this team this season. We were beaten by Spurs fairly and squarely. This championship business is hard. Hopefully, we will improve next year and make some progresses.
Agree, given where we were at the end, it's totally naturally to be furious about the meltdown. Personally I think it's at least in part a product of how hard they pushed to get to that point. Harden, in particular, must have been more overextended than we thought -- he's never been good about knowing or acknowledging his limits -- and adding post defense to his load may have been the final straw. As to Morey, I'm not saying he's infallible. He's a risk taker -- in some ways, his analytics fetish makes him bolder about playing probabilities -- and sometimes they turn out horribly. Lawson at PG was a faceplant. But when you're bold like that, sometimes the next move turns out brilliantly. Personally, I wish Alexander would let Morey go all out on the risk-taking. That would mean, specifically, allowing him to have a couple of years of fielding crap teams in order to get and stockpile draft picks and cap space. It would probably be our best shot at grabbing our next superstar. But I can't promise the fan base would stand for it.
Hello Will, Thank you every much for this excellent post. Just a couple of points. 1.) In regards to point number 4, I hope the rockets organization finds out why James quit in that last game and they are able to address that issue so it doesn't happen again. That way we can build on this season and be a better team next year. 2.) In regards to point number 7, there are a lot of posters calling for James to be traded. The older members on this board realize that Harden is an amazing talent and without a player with a similar level of talent, not a single team in the NBA would have the opportunity to be able to compete for a championship. I am hoping that Clutch or one of the other members on this board can wright up an article or do a podcast how it would be better to try and fill the voids on this team instead of trading Harden. There are only 4 or 5 players I would consider trading Harden for: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis. I don't think anyone would trade any of these guys for Harden straight up.
If by risk-taker you mean he always goes for younger and potential in place of experienced and proven, then yeah, I guess... Not a fan of the walrus and think he is a bad GM for a team trying to win a championship. The walrus is best suited for a team who wants to go from bottom feeder to a low playoff seed due to the style of basketball and players he promotes. Need a system built on heart, defense, and teamwork to win championships. Not stat stuffers who point fingers when they get back doored.
1. Don't believe it. 2. Don't believe it. 3. More wins than I did expect anyway. 4. Agreed. Harden at PG was a good move. 5. Agreed, Harden was awesome this season. 6. Absolutely not. My rage is totally on Harden sucking. It's not about dashed hopes or Rockets playing over their heads. I expected to lose the series to the Spurs. I didn't expect a 39 point laugher against a hobbled team to close it out because Harden could be bothered to make a play. I don't mind the losing; I mind the humiliation of going down like a little b****. 7. Agreed.
I'll get flamed for this, but I agree with you Will and I think folks are missing a couple of additional points (not excusing Harden's performance in game 6) that I haven't seen laid out yet: 1. I'm shocked it took Pop as long as it did to figure out the Aldridge/Pau combo. They should have been pushing the paint from the get go. To me, that doesn't mean D'A got out coached, it means it took Pop 5 games to figure it out. Its a game of adjustments and if we win game 5, you can live with the flame out in 6 because D'A can adjust for game 7. 2. I DO think D'As game plan was 100% geared toward San Antonio's "typical" rotation. With their injuries, Pop's hand was forced. Patty Mills brings something totally different than Parker and Simmons played Harden with a different style from Leonard. I chalk that up to coaching adjustments and lack of personnel to counter "in game". 3. We all saw (game by game) how much pace played a role. The Rockets (either player determined or coaching) did NOT push at all at the end of game 5 or throughout game 6. Their entire style of play revolves around pace and rebounding. With Pop figuring out #1, we looked lost.....not just Harden, the entire team. 4. Let's not short change the job Simmons did on Harden. He was VERY effective on both sides of the floor. 5. Short of Leonard going down in Q3 against GSW yesterday, it very much looked like Pop was applying the exact same principles he was using on us in Game 6 against them......and it was working EXACTLY like it worked against us. He figured something out - don't short sell Pop's genius. Again, not excusing Harden's performance, but this isn't the first time a Pop coached team has made a star look "average".
