[RANT!!!] I Don't Care if We Bring in Love/Melo/Whoever, We're Not Winning Anything...

Is Derrick Rose a real PG? How about Westbrook? How do you explain the Lebron/Wade/Chalmers dynamic?

Look in the modern NBA I like to refer to Lead Guard and Supporting Guard rather than PG and SG. I hate the terminology Shooting Guard = Taller Guard & Point Guard = Smaller Guard.

In the modern NBA Paul George/Stephenson is the Lead Guard and Hill is the support guard. Wade/Lebron are the lead guards and Chalmers is the support guard. On the Thunder Westbrook is the Lead Guard and Fisher/Jackson were the support guards.

On the Rockets Harden is the lead guard and Bev/Lin are the support guards.

One guard facilitates the offense (mostly in a P&R set) and the other spaces. Please look up on Synergy how efficient the Rockets are with Harden facilitating the P&R vs. pretty much every other guard in Rockets history & then tell me why you'd want anyone else on the team & most listed "point guards" in the league facilitating the offense.

Rockets are apparently currently looking at pretty well regarded coaches to take the lead assistant (defensive coordinator) coach. I'd say wait and see what the coaching staff looks like in October before judging but I dont expect folks here to be that patient.

How many 3's have the Heat shot every season for the past 3 years? What was the ideal shot for the 90's championship Rockets team? Why do Danny Green & Ray Allen still get playing time in key minutes of an NBA finals game?

The 3 point shot, & the emphasis on shooting them isn't going anywhere unless the NBA takes it out of the game on purpose. Don't crap on the Rockets for at least trying to be as good as they can at it.

Are you sure that's not something the fans obsess & talk about more than the front office?

It was rough during the late Adelman/Rockets years, but the asset trading environment led to taking a team headed for the lottery the next 10 years to a team looking to contend for the next 5 years with two all-stars & a flexible young up and coming roster.

Its hard to argue that WASN'T the right move then. Now, there is very little indication that Morey is still viewing everyone on the roster as a trade asset. Case in point - Last year Morey had the opportunity to trade Parsons for an All-star PG in Rondo but turned it down... Why you ask???... maybe its because he wants to keep this group together, and Parsons is a big part of their current nucleus. I think people are seriously downplaying how little risk Morey is willing to take now with roster moves. Morey's asset trading tone has dramatically changed, and that's pretty obvious to see right now.

Are they going for a big fish now???.. Yes obviously, but please tell me why not at least try?

 

Yeah...More than Harden or any personnel, I'm worried about the head coach. McHale is not a good enough head coach. At times he can be just downright awful...a hindrance.

My only hope is that we can assemble a team good enough, Harden Matures, and we hire some good assistants to do the real coaching.

If we can't overcome McHale we are screwed no matter what we do.

 

Refute what?

This is isn't a "point"

That is incoherent rambling.

 

OP just needs to think of Harden as PG and Bev as SG. The real problem is team defense. There is none. Aside from Bev, Howard & Asik, there is no commitment to D, definitely no accountability by the coaches for it.

D-Mo, Lin and Garcia play good D in spurts but there are guys on the team who may not understand, let alone care, about PLAYING defense at all. Mostly the young guys like Jones, Canaan, Covington, Daniels - tend to follow Harden (even Parsons) and expend their energies on offense. Even guys who were supposed be try hard D players like Hamilton & Casspi have focused almost entirely on O than D.

Culture of this team is a little skewed. Even the role players want to score on this team.

 

Dear OP,

I agree to an extent, but one or two players aren't going to solve our problems. Leadership and discipline are the main issues. How do we fix that? Not with Andre Miller.

 

Until the fanbase found out who the next coach was and they started hating him as well. Please tell me any coach that isn't going to be criticisized first and foremost if the team underachieves?

... Phil Jackson maybe.... Popovich (even though he actually does get criticized, and actually gets alot of blame for the 2013 finals loss).

McHale is a bottom 8 coach in the NBA. There is no denying that, but the majority of the fans are going to hate the coach any way you look at it. Its just modern sports fandom. Blame/Fire the coach cause you can.

 

You and me both

 

Transcendental perimeter player? Who is that? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Lin did go to Harvard. Is that what this is all about?

STFU with this nonsense. Stupid arbitrary lines are stupid and arbitrary.

Quick, name as many human on earth as you can, who are better at scoring and assisting than Harden, but not as good as LeBron.
Chris Paul?

Steph Curry?

Westbrook if healthy?

Anybody else?

No?

I'd say he's fairly close then. Who cares though, this is really just dumb ranting. Though at least he warned us in the title.

"HAI GUYZ I've figured out THE MAGIC FORMULA to win a championshp, based on the fact that I can use HYPERBOLE AND TYPE IN CAPS AND MY CONclusions is that we NO HAVE IT" (DD optional...)

 

Wrong again.

Despite losing the series, we scored more points than Portland did.

 

What a terrible thread

 

look how far harden has fallen? when we first got him some were saying he was gonna be better than TMAC...lol

 

Harden is the best SG in the NBA. That being said, if we want to get anywhere he has to rise to a below average defender. We also have to get a vet PG that won't allow the ball to stick on Harden.

 

The bottom line is that Morey has determined we are not talented enough to win a ring and his goal is too add another marquee guy. They clearly view McHale as an asset to attract those types of guys, like he did with Howard, so he is likely safe until the core group is locked in. Furthermore, as long as those guys have McHale's back, he probably isn't going anywhere, so get over it.

The defensive side of the ball will be addressed through the use of our exceptions (MLE and BAE) to buy up defensive role players, once we have used our cap space to finalize the core.

Its really as simple as that.

 

I think we can do better at point guard and that we would do better if Harden's load is lightened.

And we don't need someone who is as better at scoring and playmaking than Harden. We just need someone who is better at the playmaking part.

The OP (and a lot of us) are NOT saying that Harden should be benched/waived/etc. All we are saying that we can do better at pg than Lin/Bev and that Harden would be better suited to playing a more traditional sg role. He already shows very little energy on the defensive end and lessening of his load might help shore up his bad defense.

 

Yes, the offense should revolve around Lin.

Harden needs to stfu and just be happy when Lin passes him the ball.

 

Not saying you are wrong here because you may very well be right - but what is it about McHale that other players like so much? They care more about being treated nicely than winning a title?

 

Insert tldr gifs

 

This is just ridiculous. Please do some research, any research about why you might be right. You had one month to come up with arguments, and all you could come up with is "it just doesn't work"? Come on.

The last thing this team needs is a PG who holds the ball a lot, i.e. an Andre Miller type. No one should hold the ball a lot. Statistically, we are better when the ball doesn't get sticky. When we score more off assists. The problem is not that we need a PG, the problem is simply that we need to pass the ball around more efficiently, and that doesn't require us to have anyone better than Beverley and Lin.

If the issue was having a PG who can distribute, then we have Jeremy Lin who's a really unselfish player. You know why he doesn't work here? Because the last thing in the world this team needs is a guy who can't create better than Harden/Howard to hold on to the ball. Mind you, Lin is actually excellent at creating scoring opportunities via pick n roll. You know why we don't use that? Because it's the last thing we need in the world.

All we need from our PG is: don't turn it over, hit the open 3 and play solid D. That's it. Parsons is a great passer. Harden is a great passer. Lin and Beverley are decent passers. The team runs a lot, and we don't want the ball to stay in people's hands more than it does. How can the solution be to get a "true" PG? How does it help to have a guy bring it up and create passing opportunities unless that guy is a threat to score? Cool, let's get that guy. Oh, but Parsons, Harden and Jones are horrible defenders. So we need the guy to be a good defensive player too. Oh, and although this is a true PG we need him to keep the TO's down. Plus Harden and our PF's are not great 3 pt threats, and we need someone with Parsons to space the floor for Howard.

So we're looking for a guy who's a threat to score (must include 3pt shot), pure PG, can play D. Right, but Chris Paul ain't walking through that door so we have the next best fit, a guy who fills all our absolute needs and none of our luxuries: Mr Patrick Beverley. Certainly teams have won championships with worse PG's than an all nba defensive player who can hit the 3pt shot at a 36% clip and barely turns it over. There is no rational reason in the world why we wouldn't be able to do it.

Oh and Harden is on the road to transcendent. At 24 years old he is the best SG on the planet and his defense has SUCKED. Do you see what that means? It means he's so offensively gifted that he is the best player at his position without playing any D. He can get to the line frequently, hit those free throws, hit the 3 at a dangerous clip, and gets 6 assists a game. He takes 17 shots to get 25 points and 6 assists. He's essentially a top 5 scorer in a league of what 400 players? The only NON-PG in the entire NBA who averages more assists than James Harden is Lebron James.

Jeez people, we need to build around our stars, not go out and look for things we like to see in a team. How many times I got to say this. How many years did we wait to build around superstars, only to come out and build next to them rather than around them? Howard is a crappy FT shooter with no range on his jump shot. James Harden is a terrible defender who holds on to the ball too much. These things are unlikely to change. This means we get guys who hit free throws, get guys with range on their jumper, get guys who play D, and also guys who will pass the ball around quickly and crisply. I don't want these gimmicks like "true" PG's because there's absolutely no reason to believe it is critical to winning it all. I don't want to take mid range J's because there's rarely a time when it's a more beneficial shot than going to the rim or hitting a 3. I don't want guys like Andre Miller who defenders are simply going to sag off of, simultaneously shutting down the strength of both of our superstars: scoring inside.

This is going to be a long summer, and I still haven't ranted about the Blazers series yet myself.