Good grief. The Rockets need Boris Diaw like I need an anvil dropped on my arm. He's a 32 year old slow, plodding forward that operates best from exactly where James Harden likes to drive to get to the hoop. He's having a great postseason and fits wonderfully with the Spurs. But let's try to avoid the trap of a player having a nice game and suddenly trying to cram them in to the Rockets' plans. It's boring and lacks imagination.
Rockets are deep, the coaching is the problem. Mchale doesnt have a system, he refused to develop players, basically he didnt make best use of what are given to him. That plus his inability of X n O leaves the rockets with no short term game plans n long term results. Baaadddd combination.....
not such a critical offseason when they have set themselves up for failure with the continual of Milk Hair's coaching principles and schemes.
With Asik, Lin and Brooks the Rockets certainly had a quality bench. Much deeper than most teams in the post season, with the possible exception of Spurs and maybe Clips. Moving Brooks for Hamilton was a bad decision. One of the few that Morey has made. But Morey wanted to do a solid for Brooks while shoring up a non-existent defense. All it did was weaken a strength and did nothing to improve a glaring weakness. Losing Asik and Lin, for another offense only superstar, would make a poor defensive team even poorer. Defense is crucial for playoff success, that is a fact. Whether Asik/Lin/whoever is lost this season or not - Rockets do not need more scoring, they need better defense minded players.
This summer focus other than landing big fish is to get veteran roles players. No team has ever won the championship without these types of guys.
If Rockets don't improve this season and lose in the first round again, they might claim the most first round losses while having two top-10 players in NBA history
rockets had the 5th worst bench in the league I believe we were one of the least deep teams in the league lol....
If we dont get Lebron or Melo, we will just shore up depth with veterans. Simple lay out of offseason agenda. You are welcome.
Donuts were asked about next season, about if there any news he will play on other team and other stuff and he answered ''it's pretty much not my decition...we will see if Rockets would be lucky with transfers, if Asik and Lin will be traded. If they won't there is not much changing on our team. As I know they have pretty big contracts and they are not very salable in the market'' what could it mean? photos from Donuts camp: Spoiler http://www.delfi.lt/sportas/krepsin...spanijoje-kovosime-is-visu-jegu.d?id=65128581
CLutch on 790 this morning: Scenarios it would take to bring in both LeBron and Carmelo? Not enough shots for Harden, Howard, Anthony and LeBron. Scenarios at play for the Rockets? To sign one, they have to move Lin and likely D-Mo & Canaan. What has been thrown around, a crazy scenario, if LeBron said I need Carmelo, would the Rockets consider trading Harden for one of them? You'd have to consider it. It is LeBron. I don't think anyone is getting to that stage. They'll make their pitch to both and hope one comes. Rockets would have to at least explore it. What happens if...Daryl has crafted a plan and knows the steps. He's not making it up as he goes along. At some point, he may hit a fork in the road. Carmelo to Chicago and LeBron stays. He would have moved Asik and Lin, what is their contingency plan? It's not sit tight. Certainly not. That's what is so beautiful. If they strike out in free agency, they are in position to make that trade. They are in conversation with Kevin Love. This pick at least puts them in the conversation. On Lin, I think they will move him. That'll be one we see him wait out. It's going to cost them something. My guess is they'll wait like they did with Thomas Robinson and Royce White last year and pull the trigger when they have to. The west: SA, OKC, LAC, HOU, POR, GS, MEM, DAL, PHX--New Orleans will make improvements but they'll be in the 10-14 range. Your best guess on what actually goes down? Best chance is Carmelo. No evidence that LeBron is looking at anything other than Miami. Failing that, all in for Kevin Love. Next step would be a Paul Millsap-type trade. Carmelo then Love, in that order.
Great article. The only point on which I'd disagree is that "Kevin McHale can’t coach it. It’s up to James." I do not claim to be an expert coach or any sort of coach, but it does seem in my time watching professional sports that many teams with great coaching can do unexpected things with average players. Conversely, teams with an excellent roster can massively underperform. The teams that play well seem to play well as a team. I reject this notion that it's all up to the players at the professional level. If there's a poster child city for pointing out the importance of coaching, it's Houston. Larry Dierker did some pretty amazing work with an average Astros team back in the late 90s. Firing him was the stupidest thing the Astros ever did. All the subsequent coaches were a bunch of pansies that allowed players with huge potential to fall into averageness or mediocrity. (The World Series run was a fluke as evidenced by the nearly-impossible way they got there and their total inability to get back after they got swept.) Then those players would be traded and go on to win World Series. Houston has been practically a shopping market for other teams over the years to take our underperforming players and turn them into heroes on their teams. There's some common thread going on there. Do we honestly think that if Gregg Popovich was coaching the current Rockets team, they wouldn't be waaaay more consistent, play more as team, play harder, move the ball more, utilize their talent closer to its maximum extent, and have more contributions from the bench? Phil Jackson may have had Michael AND Kobe AND Shaq in his employ over the years, but a team is still more than one person and the rings seemed to keep coming wherever he was at the time. The Rockets are young and expectedly immature as individuals. However, they also are coached by a Hall-of-Famer (and surrounded by others) who's had the entire experience of growing over time from a young, immature player into one of the greatest ever who also played with some of the greatest ever. If McHale can't use all that unique wisdom to give his individual players and total team a distinct and huge advantage, then that's a championship-killer. If "it's up to James" to pull it together his own way, I reluctantly have to say I think we're screwed. He's still young, and being a young millionaire doesn't automatically make you any more responsible (in fact, it's usually the opposite). Developing major intrinsic motivation is hard enough, and turning it into habitual execution is even harder. How long can we wait for that to happen on its own?
I'd be happy with either Melo or Love, but I wish we'd prioritize Love first over Melo. Love is much younger in terms if career minutes played and isn't nearly as redundant to Harden as Melo. Also Love is a better rebounder than Melo and that was a weakness for us.
Plan B has to be using the 14 mil in cap space too sign Kyle Lowry, spend the MLE & BAE on bench upgrades. Then looking too deal Lin for future picks or dealing a package with Lin, MAYBE Parsons, Jones, Future picks, Prospects, Expirings etc for a Kevin Love or someone not on the radar (Harden came out of nowhere) Having a team with 5 above average/elite starters and a bench that can go 12 deep against excellent benches like the Spurs is not a bad consolation prize.
Lebron is not leaving Miami, they are all restructuring contracts to get a significant free agent or two. That means will get Melo because no way he will go stay in the east with the superfriends. The best chance he would have at a title is with houston
I agree. I hope Harden and Howard meets with Carmelo on July 1st to let him know we need him as a piece away from winning a championship. I hope a lot of Rockets representative will meet with Carmelo like last year at Howard's meeting, lol.
