Honestly a lot of the problems will be resolved with Paul, Capela and Moute coming back. Having said that, I gut the bench outside of the rotation pieces. I move Black to another team for a similarly priced reserve point guard like Mario Chalmers. If I can’t get someone like that, then I try to move Black for a forward. If no one is going to deal a smart veteran point guard, I wait for Lawson to comeback from China and sign him. He doesn’t turn the ball over and will shoot if open. He can replace Weber. I call up New Orleans and attempt to work out a deal for Tony Allen. I would offer Qi and a future draft pick. Allen brings toughness and defense. He brings an edge to the Rockets second unit. I would give up a future #2 and Qi for Allen. At center I would talk to the Lakers about Bogut. He isn’t a long term solution but can give you 15 minutes a night of physical, nasty interior play and he rebounds and passes well. I would give up a #2 for him as well as Black. Paul Harden Ariza Anderson Capela Gordon Moute Tucker Nene Lawson or Chalmers Allen Bogut Green That is a second unit that runs 8 deep. Allen, Bogut, Tucker, Chalmers are nasty and won’t allow teams to get chippy like the Celtics did. Bogut is capable of starting or playing 10-15 minutes. Nene can rest with Bogut. Lawson/Chalmers aren’t world beaters but protect the basketball and can run an offense and hit 3’s. Bogut, Chalmers/Lawson and Allen all are free agents next year. All three make very little money and with Qi and Black dealt; the Rockets are not over the apron. That doesn’t even consider a buy out. Key is hoping Pelicans are willing to deal Allen and same with Lakers and Bogut.
Guessing people didn’t actually see the game. Final 7 seconds Marcus Smart was guarding Harden on the inbound. Smart was allowed to grab and hold but then flopped and got the calls both times. Smart is built like a block of granite but fell to the ground like he is made of tissue paper. Harden was seen by the ref as the bully....more aggression would appear as more of a bully. This crew was just two refs. Its other games I’m frustrated with. Home fans usually bully the refs into calls. Not players. Refs don’t fear players. They just “T” them up for being over-demonstrative. Refs “T” up’d the Celtics earlier for being over dramatic on the Rockets offensive end. Brad Stevens also was “T’” up’d on that same play.
I know what happened man. I don't want to watch it again.. Smart flopped, i was replying back to the comment
I was agreeing with you. The entire 2nd half was Harden/Gordon/Weber/Tucker being run off the 3-pt line only to have the defender trail and hit our ball handler on the elbow or forearm. Sending the ball into the waiting hands of the defense. No foul call. If CP3 had been playing they would have not seen him getting hit on the back of the arm dribbling the ball. I’m not buying those saying lack of ball handlers. They would have been hacked as well. Kyrie on the other side was hacked by Harden under 1 minute of the game in the same manner. But one play doesn’t equal an entire half of plays. Refs were just overwhelmed and tired at games end.
Sigh. Blame the refs all you want but this was Harden's own undoing by making it easy on the refs to blow the whistle when he uses both his hands and extends his arms and pushes into rather than jukes with a quick move . You notice when players like Kyrie or Curry push off, they don't extend their arms and they juke the opposite direction of the push off with one quick move which makes the push off considerably less obvious. Harden instead would often shove with two arms extended and move into the push instead of making a quick juke move opposite of the direction of the push which makes the push off signficantly more obvious to the ref. Posters here are very naive to think that other superstar guards like Curry and Lebron don't get the same press treatment off the ball by opposing teams. They unlike Harden actually try to run around from the press and use screens and jukes and will often run towards the teammate that is trying to pass them the ball. Harden often just stands there while shoving his arm and having a leg kicked out which leads to those weird interactions between Harden and the defender where they are locking each other's arms. This is on Harden. But I'm not that concerned because a healthy Chris Paul masks this severe deficiency of Harden's as Chris Paul is hardly ever phased by presses.
Teams are noticing and are pressing more and more. Ridiculous that they failed inbounding the ball so much (including having to call timeouts)
There's 3 other guys to pass to on an out of bounds play, not ****in sure why we're trying to force feed Harden in those situations. All other guys are capable of hitting at least one free throw. AND, those calls were 100% percent correct. You can't just go through a player and expect not to be called for an offensive foul. Harden is our new mental midget.
I can't comment on reffing because it will inevitably biased. Do I feel that Harden and the Rockets are getting unfair treatment? Sure, every game. But that's from a biased fan's eyes. I can't think of any reason why the NBA referees want to specifically screw the Rockets in general and Harden in particular.
Not sure. Just know when Rockets flop at the end of games and don’t get the call; people tell me you can’t flop in the last two minutes of the game. “Stay on your feet.” You are not going to be rewarded for throwing yourself to the ground. Last night a guy(Smart) threw himself to the ground twice under 2 minutes in the game.....and got rewarded twice.
It doesn't help that what Harden did is a foul regardless of Smart flopping or not . It doesn't help when Harden pushes off like that he does it in the most obvious way possible with full extension and moves into the push instead of juking out of it which makes it blatantly obvious for the refs to blow the whistle on.
If Brian Urlacher sized Marcus Smart doesn’t go to the ground like a sack of bricks there’s a very low chance that those calls are made.
