to be honest, I was really moved by their performance vs the Lakers. Without Yao and tmac, that team was a bunch of bench players + arrest. They laid everything on that court. Gotta love their hustle and determination
I don’t blame dantoni for this loss... but he needs to go. We can be upset, but the rockets are likely still the second best team in the nba.
I'm not sure I can watch this core of the Rockets another season. Last year I can accept because 1) Chris Paul's Game 5 injury was a huge blow and we obviously got jobbed by the refs. That said, in Game 7 maybe it was a good time to start attacking the basket after you've missed, oh, maybe your 15th straight 3. This year? It feels like death from a thousand paper cuts. Capela's and Paul's regular season injuries took a toll on Harden, who clearly had nothing left to give in the last 5 quarters of the season. He disappears right after Durant goes out in Game 5 and in the 4th quarter of Game 6 pushes Green off out of frustration and gets an offensive foul (And yes, Draymond Green flopped because he always does), and shoots 7-for-12 from the line. Clint Capela has regressed and has the offensive skillset of a young Tyson Chandler, minus the heart. D'Antoni also lacks situational awareness when it comes to resting players during the regular season, and clearly can't outcoach Steve Kerr, just like he couldn't handle Gregg Popovich back in the day when he coached the Suns. (Side note: He must feel snakebitten because he probably lost titles twice in his career due to fluke incidents (Once when Amar'e Stoudemire gets suspended for coming off the bench against the Spurs and when Paul went down last season). Chris Paul can't get around anybody anymore and his hamstrings are made of string cheese. That $38 million 2019 salary makes me want to cry, and he has a $41 million and $44 million dollar potential hit in 2020 and 2021. Sigh. And this team makes so many boneheaded mistakes and just seems to lack heart. You have a 3-on-1 fast break and you pull up for a poor 3? How many sloppy passes did we see? On top of that, the "shortened" Golden State bench outscored ours 33-17. We made Kevin Looney look good. Kevin Looney. I think the only player I'd give a passing grade to in this series for the Rockets is P.J. Tucker. He is the only Rocket who showed some fight. I see no reason to think this team, as is, will improve next year. We lost in 6 AT HOME to a wounded Warriors squad. I don't want us to run it back for another year. What would be the point?
In no way should they run it back. It might not even be the warriors that take out the rockets next year. Portland will get nurkic back. Denver gains their playoff experience this year. Who knows who the clips or lakers are going to get.
The losing hand is the warriors. The reality is their just insanely talented and nobody is beating them. Outside of getting AD or maybe Kawhi nobody is beating them.
Paul has worth. Anderson was a large contract for someone who didn’t belong in the NBA any longer. Paul could provide leadership for a team looking to get over the hump or could even sell tickets for a lower tier team that isn’t really trying to contend.
And Scola and Lowry Yes, ten years ago, those Rockets played their guts out, fighting to win after Yao went down. Those Rockets were worthy of Clutch City.
We are too deep, look at the money CP3, Harden and Capela make. We tried, but cannot go the route of Bucks with a plethora of good role players and near all-stars. Every year we will struggle to get a deep bench with solid role players and have to be lucky for guys to outplay contracts as Morey admitted. We probably will be less deep even as I don’t see Faried and House staying and Rivers looking to get paid I’d imagine.
I look forward to seeing that banner put up. Arguably the 2nd best regular-season team in the NBA. 2018-2019
