Harden was better in 14-15. Hopefully he can get back to that level this year. Sure this year's numbers look great; but he was dominant in 14-15. He was an incredible closer that year, he looked quicker that year, and his shot was more clutch. This year he's been hit or miss in the clutch with turnovers and not being able to score as well all the time. I still think the first two games he played in the WCF were his best games ever.
You just said the 14/15 team was another level offensively. Statistics say that's a false statement. They are better this year. Dwight in 14/15 still had a ton of wasted possessions. Better shooters this year. I'm seeing better chemistry as well.
They made the WCF and I think actually pushed gsw to 6 game playing Jason Terry at pg And the clippers were and are an excellent team. They beat the spurs that year. There's no shame in barely beating the clippers
lol the very first thing i said in that line was "obviously they'r enot a better offensive team". i said overall, esp on d and reb they're levels ahead. offensively this team is also levels ahead and thats reallyt he only thing they're ahead in. that 14-15 season was arguably harden's best defensive year, at least as a rocket. im talking about hypothetical 100% healthy rosters. if dwight was healthy that year he'd be better than the year before. and its only about 20-25 games so u cant make any final conclusions about this team. they can easily be top 15 in defense. but even if we're comparing both teams irl, 14-15 were still better. they got the 2nd seed and top 10 d/o despite an injury prone season with 3 starters. how many teams can do that? not many i bet. this years rockets, even if they become a good defensive team, cant be better than 14-15 by default. an experienced center to anchor the d is a big part of team defense. an experienced prime duncan on d is better than young duncan on d. also ariza, bev, smith, brewer, were all faster on d.
i already said that in the other post. i dunno if op meant hypothetically or irl. either way it dont matter, 14-15 rockets were better
thats the type of **** that makes me cream my pants. that along with classy ladies doin g classy things to each other
I think 2014-2015 is hard to compare because we got a similar harden season but then got playoff Dwight suddenly which I believe caught teams off guard in the playoffs. Weird circumstances in that season. I think ultimately that team was better than this season's, but I'm really enjoying this season's games way more (or I am so traumatized by last year that any sort of chemistry seems historic). Like some others here, I'm concerned with the adjustments the league will eventually make against the Rockets. There have been some adjustments already (aggressively preventing the Harden to Capela pass in the PnR) and the Rockets coaching staff and players have responded well. I'm very pleasantly surprised to see how a good coaching staff can make a giant difference in the team's play.
We dug ourselves into a 3-1 hole and down 19 points in game 5 against the clips, and lost in 5 to GS the next series. A clips team that has never achieved anything - who won over an aging SA squad that had it's weakest year in some time - a team that was a 6th seed. We could have easily been a sixth seed by the way - only 1 game separated us. That was a good team, but it wasn't a great team. This team is a good team, but has the potential to be a great team...
The funny thing is during the first 10-15 games people would unanimously agree Harden was playing the best basketball of his life. He has hit a bit of a slump as of late but his numbers across the board are still superior than his 2014-2015 season. It really shows you how easy it is for people to misremember events. Harden played improved defense in 2014-2015, much like what he is doing currently. However, his shooting numbers were fairly poor early on in the season, and people attributed that to Harden being unable to sustain good offense if he put in effort on defense. In 2014-2015, Harden shot 41% from the field in his first 20 games, and only 34% from behind the line, averaging 25 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 4.4 TOs. Most people don't remember that because there is another 4/5 of the season that he played. As for the team itself, it's important to first contrast what teams the Rockets faced in their first 24 games in 2014-2015, and what teams the Rockets faced so far this season. In their first 24 games, the Rockets faced 17 teams that that ended their season below .500, (I included OKC and MIL, since OKC was missing WB and Durant to start the season and MIL was at .500). The 7 teams that the Rockets faced that were above .500 are - LAC - GSW x 2 - SAS - Mem x 2 - DAL The teams that the Rockets faced so far this season, of the 24 games, only 12 are currently at .500 or below. I have included teams like Portland and Atlanta in these 12 teams, since they are technically at .500 or below even though they have a solid chance of finishing the season above .500. The season has not ended yet, so we cannot finalize anything just yet. For all we know, teams like the Knicks may end up being below .500, and teams like Portland may end up being above .500. However, what we can still say from all this is the Rockets in 2014-2015 had a pretty soft start to the season, but they also executed and won these game.
The thing with this team they can play badly and still score 100 points...that 2014 team I don't think Howard,Beverly and DMO were ever healthy at the same time. DMO was straight ballin before he got hurt. This current team has more consistency for when they play poorly they're still in games but again that 2014 team could've taken the warriors 7 games at the least if that team was healthy...time will tell
In 14/15 teams were beginning to understand that a post up game usually ends in an 8-12 foot jump shot; which is according to geek squad stats the most inefficient shot in the game. D12 missed 41 games that yr and D-Mo stepped in admirably. D12 came back and finally ran PnR w/Harden allowing the Rockets to get past Dallas and Clippers. Vs the Warriors the Rockets lost the first two (road) games by 5 points I believe. If i recall Dwight hyperextended his knee in game one and was reluctant to run PnR after that. When D12 went out the Rockets went to a small lineup and the Rockets were something like plus 18 during that time. Beat writer Jonathan Feigen wrote later that for the entire series Houston ran a small lineup for 11 mins with a tremendous +/-. Nowadays more teams shy away from post ups. 6 D-Mo post ups (if healthy) /game would give a defense another look from a different angle. Because of the spacing with great outside shooters the Rockets are progressing towards being a better team. Even though Ryno/Gordon appear better defensively than advertised.....a team with Ryno/Gordon/Harden will be fighting with one hand tied behind its back. As a result it's hard to decrease minutes for Ariza/Beverley; Capela needs to increase his endurance to 34 minutes. D12 could play 34 minutes/gms in the regular season; but then kick it up a notch to 36-38 minutes a game in the playoffs. Not sure Capela can do that this year. Just my assessment. I could be wrong.
Revisionist history is revisionist. I don't even know why I respond to this crap sometimes. How is somebody supposed to ruin offensive "rhytm" if they weren't playing, eh? Also, define "a lot". Every team, thus every center, will give up "a lot" of layups over the course of several games. Teams make around 40+ shots a game. He blocked the most shots in the playoffs. He also had the lowest DRating among anybody in the team. I don't like using stats on defense, but I have also created a thread on a full defensive analysis on a GSW playoff game. Point is, stupid statement is stupid, yours is. Also, Rockets had negliglble offensive rating difference (106.6 to 107.0) when comparing regular season vs. playoffs. But... but... how did they maintain their offensive production, after losing two starters against superior teams????? Perhaps it was because of this guy... Spoiler Shame. You sound like ESPN.
Yeah Dwight went off in the playoffs and was our best player. Him playing like a hall of famer is probably something we can't replicate on this team, but perhaps someone like Gordon or Anderson goes off.
Again, total myth and fabrication. Harden was by far our best player in the playoffs, either according to the media consensus (ranked as the 3rd best player in the playoffs behind Curry and LeBron) or just by looking at the stats.
I'm not going to go into this discussion anymore, but the fact that this is argued among people illustrates that the '14-'15 team is better than the '16-'17 team.
Corey Brewer has to play like "2015 Corey Brewer". If not, they are not better. Corey Brewer in 2015 was the key for Rockets' success that year. He was a good defender, solid shooter, and brought so much experience and leadership. I also loved his hustle too. It is obvious he played his butt off for a contract. Now that he got paid, he plays lazy, no heart, and barely hustles. The Rockets need to trade him and give KJ McDaniels playing time. They should try a three way trade involving Corey Brewer, and get a solid veteran point guard to back up the Beard.
