ESPN: Rockets spend two days trying to instill confidence

Is that a real quote??? SMH

 

disagree, completely.

agree, completely. "petulant millionaires" says it all. and showing more effort in games, and winning a few, will say a lot more with action than any number of words in post-practice interviews.

 

I think this thread is full of angry posts. It's natural but they are too overreacting.
It's normal for teams to bring in "inspirational" speakers to boost team morale. (Ofc it usually happens in much younger teams NOT contenders (or contenders wannabees) and it usually happens when there are internal problems that may not be obvious to the public or in a middle of usually middle of the year slump when there is no energy.)
Obviously the managment and the coaching staff thought it was needed here which speaks very bad for the team morale we have, and our confidence.
So I'm happy at least to hear that something is done about it.
It's not ludicrous to invite inspiration speakers, it really helps.

Yes I'm 100% convinced by this article that the priority is not on fixing the defence. 100%. If it was it would be the only thing the team would do like all the teams with defensive problems do. Make it their sole puprose of practices. THAT'S THE ONLY WAY.
You cant put in in a half or one hour slot some defensive drills and expect results.
So it's obvious that the team management and coaching staff alike don't believe that's our main issue here. Which I disagree with completely.
Just practising some defence like a normal practice will do nothing and they are aware of that too.

We may see more effort. Maybe they will go after more defensive rebounds. But the lack of communication and trust and blowing up rotations will continue.

 

NBA teams catch up quickly, they usually have a plan to make it hard for your 1st, and 2nd options. The problem with the Rockets offense is that it's too predictable, once the 1st & 2nd option be defended, they basically don't know what to do.

Teams are making adjustment, but the Rockets don't.

Once DW is back with full strength, it should make the game easier for everyone else, maybe except Harden.

 

LOL okay. Nevermind that Bickerstaff said multiple times that repairing the defense is his first priority... guess he changed his mind over the weekend.

 

I don't care for words I care about actions. If Bickerstaff as a defensive coordinator believes in his mind he can fix our defence without making it our priority and sole purpose of practices..then I have to question how good as a defensive coordinator he really is. We have a team with one of the worst possible personell in defence at the perimeter. Lawson, Harden, Brewer Thornton..
It's not easy in the first place..but sure if the coach says it's his first priority but then makes practices with game speed shooting drills (which btw are very energy consuming and tiring for the players)..

 

Unfortunately for us Rockets fans, the only star player since Hakeem who had a right attitude was Yao. Too bad his foot could not last long enough.

 

Again, you're making a ton of assumptions about what he "believes in his mind" and about exactly what has taken place in every practice so far. But you got it.

 

 

 

Actually, Harden had the right attitude, but he only had it one season. His attitude left him.

Harden worked hard with the Olympic team, and his focus was on basketball. His defense improved and his goal was on winning first and foremost. He played out of this world, and took a team riddled with injuries to amazing places.

Last year his overall defense improved, and his defense at crunch time and in clutch situations was top tier. I think that was part of his win at all costs attitude.

He was obviously bitter about not getting the MVP (which I think he deserved last year), and even though the team exceeded expectations, we didn't win a championship. But Harden did receive a lot of positive publicity.

For that season Harden had the right attitude and was a legit super star. Despite what happened this year so far, it doesn't change the way it was last year.

Whether it was Harden riding too high on his new found celebrity and fame, and the parties and the Kardashians, or whether it was bitterness over not beating the Warriors, and not getting the MVP, who knows?

Maybe Harden just thought since he put in all the work before he didn't have to do as much to get better this past off season.

Maybe it was a combination of all of those things. But Harden has digressed, and his focus isn't the same.

I don't have any answers as to how to fix it, but the guy needs to fix it.

The rest of the team is not on the level we were last year. Maybe Harden getting his focus back will help the rest of the team if he can do it. Maybe it will take until this off seas for him to realize he's botched it. I don't know .

As a Rockets fan who was incredibly excited about this year during the offseason, I feel very disappointed by this year. I even figured Harden's focus had been so great last year, that any of the bad press about him star gazing and going out with Kardashian seemed all much ado about nothing. I thought he could handle it.

I still don't know if that was the problem or not, but there was something he couldn't handle. That's for sure.

 

Let's see how the discipline plays out. Like, when Harden gets back into the habit of masturbating the basketball, Bickerstaff needs to sit him. Hit the puppy on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper until he learns. (Or until he bites.)

 

Blah blah blah blah confidence blah shooting blah training camp blah clap clap blah.

Tired of hearing these guys talk. Just act like the professionals you are and you'll be fine. Do that.

 

The Warriors have been working with a Navy Seal psychologist since before the beginning of last season. He's some kind of expert in mental toughness

 

The game is so mental. It's incredible that teams aren't doing this more and on a regular basis. What NBA team have are group of young adults that are pretty raw and some not very mature mentally and NBA owner have the resources to bring in a new aspect to help these minds.

Cuban years ago said sport pscyh is the next big thing. Spurs uses Tony Robbins motivation speech (personally, it's shallow non lasting stuff to me but they tried). Phil Jackson uses George Mumford, a mindfulness mediation teacher. Mumford isn't a typical motivation one shot type speaker - he's an authentic mindfulness meditation teacher.

 

Because nothing makes a player a better player/shooter than constantly thinking about it? We're gonna end up with a bunch of Chuck Knoblauchs and Rick Ankiels. For those of you too young, Chuck was a gold glove type second baseman until he got some kind of strange mental condition when he could no longer throw from second to first base accurately. Rick Ankiel goes from promising young pitcher to guy who lost his ability to throw strikes. Probably an exaggeration, but I don't like the idea of stressing confidence.