I disagree. There is a psychological aspect to games. As a leader of a team, you gotta get your troops to be in the right frame of mind in all situations. A player like Jordan was a good leader because he was mentally tough and could get his team in the proper frame of mind for the situation. Now think about a bad team with no clear leader. How is that team going to be mentally tough in games? How are they going to remain composed and calm during rough patches? The Spurs have veterans on their team that are mentally strong and can get the younger guys in the right frame of mind.
I'm sorry but all you did is take a bunch of random characteristics and attribute them to toughness, instead of just taking those characteristics at face value for what they are. Leadership is not toughness, leadership is leadership. None of what you said has anything to do with toughness. This is exactly what I am talking about. Using the word toughness to supplement an already positive trait. I'll say it again, toughness is meaningless and has no place in intelligent basketball discussion.
No, I'm saying that is what it means to be mentally tough in he context of a basketball game. Those traits = mental toughness.
I think there's two ways to analyze "tough". One is whether or not you are mentally tough, whether you have that do or die attitude on more plays than your opponent. Whether you grit your teeth and play hard even when its the fourth quarter and you're down by 20. The one team that comes to mind here is the Bulls. They've lost Derrick Rose two seasons in a row and just lost Deng this season yet they're still battling for a potential 3 seed in the East. The Spurs could also possibly fit the bill here as Pop has made less talented players overachieve, but he also has a tendency to pull out the starters when the game's likely over. The other way to look at "tough" is how much you can mentally beat up your opponent. Kind of like the opposite of the first point. I wouldn't consider straight up punking a player like cheap-shotting him with an elbow as tough at all. But if a perimeter player is constantly driving to the basket, a tough team would make sure to give a hard foul just to let that opposing guard know "no free layups". Other examples would be how physical you get when fighting through screens, boxing out for rebounds, any sort of physical positioning that will slowly wear on your opponent throughout a game, or series. If you've played competitive basketball before, you know which teams make it a pain in the ass just to make it through the game, and which teams don't try very hard to take you out of your element when no defense. You're mindset is altered when you know every time you go up for a lay up someone is going to be behind you, giving 100% full effort to block you or fouling you hard etc... And it makes it very difficult for an opposing team to play with full confidence. Again the Bulls do this but so do the Pacers, and OKC somewhat as well. I'd like to think most of the rockets' players can handle #1 fairly well. I think Harden has had his struggles in the past in the finals but has put that behind him and grown to be a mentally tougher player. It's point two that I think we could use some work in. Pat Beverly is the ONLY guy that gets minutes and makes it uncomfortable for his matchup on defense. Some of that comes with us being young, but overall none of our guys play rough or scrappy the way Beverly does.
It is tough to win in the NBA, and they are winning, so in that sense, yes. Are they the vintage Pistons, not even close? Bev and Garcia are.
How tough you are almost directly correlates with how well you play on the road. You just don't understand how toughness relates to statistics. Pumping your chest isn't tough, coming to play every night no matter how hung over or sick you are is toughness.
Meh.... they have wilted down the stretch. Paul George has allowed his personal problems to effect his game to a great deal. The toughest team is by FAR the San Antonio Spurs they come to compete every single game. They lose to bad teams less than any other team in the NBA, they win on the road, they win at less than 100% and Parker and Duncan even call their own plays.
Exactly. You come out, you have a game plan, which creates x and y number of shots/opportunities. You hit your shots or you don't. The opponent hits their shots or they don't. The refs have decided to call it tight or they don't. Toughness is not a part of this.
In the script of old school tough, Anderson would not have scored three times his average on the Rockets, TWICE! Some player or players would have "accidentally" given him debilitating "hard" fouls. Like seriously knock him off his game. The coach would have "ordered" it. "Go out there and shut that……..down!
They've demonstrated some mental throughout this and last season. I give Patrick Beverly a lot of credit for playing with the hard nosed kind of D that the team needed. I still remember Omer showing a lot of grit when he was being hacked last year during the playoffs. It's probably helped Dwight develop a little bit more resilience too. Harden is pretty much unflappable, he gets his night after night. As far as heart, the Rockets have always had that in abundance.
Have you played sports before competitively? Because a season is a grind. You have to stay focused through the entire season even though mentally you will want to let your guard down at times. Individual games are a battle and you have to be mentally strong enough to maintain composure no matter what is happening. It's not just about who can hit shots and who can't. Mentally tough teams can lose games. But they aren't going to lose because they lose focus and play down to the competition, or take games off, or get flustered and force shots and turn the ball over when they lose a lead, or let a fatigued body on a road trip drastically affect their play, etc. If they lose, it's strictly because of basketball reasons. They block all the other crap out. Very few teams are like that. The Spurs are the best example.
