[Grantland] How The Rockets Became The New Bad Boys

Way too much soccer in a basketball article.

 

Jason Concepcion has no conception of what Morey and the Rockets are trying to do.

 

We should chant stat boys instead of bad boys at the games.

 

He's been in Parsons' ass all summer and is still trying to get out. Give him some time.

 

He's the worst writer in all of ESPN

 

Someone needs to send him a shovel! :-D-

 

Meh. It's more of a backhanded compliment than hate. Putting this team in the same sentence as those Pistons and Spurs teams (especially when we've really done nothing yet) is really complimentary. And you can understand why people who don't love the Rockets (can you believe these people exist?) would get turned off watching our style of play.

Only part I don't agree with is calling Pat a flailer. Nah.

 

A media member who doesn't like the Rockets writing about the Rockets embracing media members who don't like the Rockets?

 

grantland are pumping out articles low on quality and ethics. they need to poach henry abbott or the like, then again he might get tainted writing for them.

 

I agree houstons offense is UGGGGLLLYYY. College teams run a better system . Sometimes i cant watch them play because the defenses have crowded the 3pt line and locked up the paint leaving them helpless. AKA memphis game

 

When it works its actual beautful, but when it doesn't like Monday night against Memphis yes it is ugly.

So I guess this means whenever the Rockets are mentioned on Grantland now it officialy must come with a snide comment. Whatever

 

This new found aspect of Grantland is basically Top Gear for the NBA

 

People don't like watching teams go to the free throw line 40 times a night. Why is this in the least bit surprising to any of you?

Add Beverley's general dickish play and Harden flops, and you've got a very ugly team to watch. Compare that to GS/POR/DAL/SAS/NOP/(even SAC) in the west and it's not even a contest. Those teams are far more compelling to watch

 

Our style doesn't have to be ugly, if we simply embraced the fact that while the 3pt shot, lay-ups and FTs should be a priority, there should still be mid-range threat. Right now, players will just stay on our shooters and collapse on Howard so it's either we win or we lose by the three. Not coincidentally we have won big with good 3pt shooting, making 10+ in the first 6-7 games and last 3 have not hit ten and a very low percentage and almost lost all of them).

It's mind-boggling for a team under a coach who pretty much lets you do whatever you want, a take what the defense gives you kind of approach and then HANDICAP your own players by saying go for the 3 or lay-up! What's even worse is that we are not trying to hit our lay-ups but actually rather have the FT. Harden is the worst but I've seen Ariza, Beverley and maybe some other guys jump into guys rather than hit the wide open lay-up.

When Harden does not get to the FT line, he has terrible numbers because he does not try to finish his lay-ups and he's not that good of a 3pt shooter. I hope the referees will stop calling fouls for Harden so much, so that he will stop his annoying habit. Then I'm sure other guys will follow suit and we can play basketball again.

 

The problem is that the Rockets don't fit in at all with the Bad Boys Pistons, the Boring Spurs, or whatever this Inter Milan team was. We score over 100pts all the time. Last year we were a top 5 offense. I see nothing cheap about trying to score via threes, layups, fouls, and in transition. Actually I feel Golden State works in a very similar manner.

The biggest difference, then, is how people perceive Curry vs Harden and Howard as stars. All these attacks have little to do with on-court issues and everything to do with ad hominem attacks. The national sports media by and large simply dislikes Dwight Howard, and we have caught a bunch of that hate now.

 

And when it comes to Dwight Howard shooting free throws, that has nothing to do with the Rockets' strategy. We would prefer if Dwight could make it through his offensive moves by finishing at the basket. Other teams gameplan him with the intention to foul, simply because his FT% is bad. Sure Howard could stop this by making more FT's, but again it's not our team that is pushing him to the line. Other teams are the ones who are happy when he shoots FT's.

 

I read about 5 lines into it and then stopped. Garbage. Pure garbage.