how convenient that you left off aldridge in your "analysis" for the spurs recipe for success. they have two top 15 players on top of duncan who is still all star level, parker and a slew of quality role players. you're not very smart, are you?
because this place has been increasingly infested with mouth-breathers who react purely on emotion for some time. this is basically a BBS full of trump-supporters - it's easier to fall victim to anger and post hot take after hot take than step back and use some perspective.
lma is what, 30yrs old now? i've never considered him a "mega talent", as stated in my previous post. stats-wise, he's on par with dwight this yr. again, it's not the talent alone. it's more of acquiring talents AND utilizing the talents to an optimized way. the latter requires system, discipline, which we currently have none. otherwise, we go back to the route of trade-trade-trade, free agency free agency and free agency, and coaching aint important, etc., which is exactly what this team has done in recent yrs. and that has led us nowhere. btw, idk if i am smart. but if i am indeed "not very smart", then your beating me down here doesnt show much about your smarts, either, does it?
<iframe src="http://embed.radio.com/clip/60304886?ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhouston.cbslocal.com%2F2016%2F03%2F25%2Fwhere-will-dwight-howard-end-up-next-season%2F&station_id=3&rollup_ga_id=UA-2438645-53&ads_ga_page_tracker=UA-20550966-5" width="345px" height="194px" scrolling="no"></iframe> http://houston.cbslocal.com/2016/03/25/where-will-dwight-howard-end-up-next-season/ The money quote that I took from your story was when he talked about Orlando/SVG & inside-out basketball. When he said "I know the Rockets have their opinions or whatever", that really stood out to me. Did it for you in the same way? Absolutely. He was candid at that point and walking the line between being respectful to the Rockets and the way they want to play but staking his own claim that in case anyone wondered, the way he sees the game hasn't changed. He's adjusting to what he's being asked to do, in his mind. The Rockets would argue he hasn't adjusted enough and they wish he would change his wiring? a bit. It just hasn't happened yet. It matters a lot in terms of what might happen this summer. To be fair to Dwight, the one thing with this story, if I could push a magic button and have people listen to the entire interview on podcast, he was measured. I focused on the big man stuff. I thought he was respectful but to your question, he would prefer inside-out basketball. We feel like nationally, there's been this focus on there must be personal issues between Harden & Howard. Locally, I don't think it ever felt like that they didn't like each other but might not be on the same page basketball wise. Sense you got from him? Yeah, for sure. Before you need to worry about the personal dynamics, they have plenty of stuff to deal with that causes problems based on strategy alone. Dwight & James, he obviously had some flattering things to say about James, ... as far as the relationship, they're not best friends. There's no animosity. There's an elephant in the room, which is we don't have the chemistry on the court we thought we would have this season. Trust is an issue on the court. If Dwight kinda flips? the PnR, doesn't quite set the screen, maybe James looks at him sideways. If James doesn't find Dwight for the easy pass, maybe he's frustrated. They seem to get off the rails quickly in the course of a game. Dwight will opt out and will go elsewhere. Will Dwight find a situation where he's allowed to play inside-out basketball? What team will add Dwight where he's the first/second best player and he'll be allowed play like that? I might argue he might be best on a team like Portland where he can play as well as he has in the playoffs the last few years but not be the focal point over 82 games. I would agree. The Portland thing, we didn't talk about Portland but did talk to others about that possibility. That could be a tremendous fit. In between, not inside-out like Orlando but see the ball more than you did in Houston. Also Portland, being the unofficial shoe industry...his shoe game has been bad, where he parted with Adidas and is now with Peak. He's losing a ton of money there. I don't know if he'll find the dream scenario. Charlotte, New York, Atlanta are on the radar, teams like that. I don't think this story is over in Houston. I really don't. The folks around Dwight, a lot feel like the first step will be separating fact from fiction when it comes to free agency. Will he find a max contract? Will he have a rude awakening? Who knows? I do truly believe his concerns about stability and perception of a guy who always...fight or flight thing. Is he always swinging instead of fighting? He's genuine when he says he cares about the people, Houston & the community and that does matter. There's so many moving parts. I don't know which direction it'll go. I think you're dead on that he might not find the dream scenario. Why now did he part ways with Fegan? No mistake it happened right after the trade deadline. Kinda messy where the Rockets were looking to move him but had a high price tag. He was playing in between: if you don't want to give me a max deal and feel like I'm not part of the future, send me on my way. It wasn't a demand but hybrid...I can't speak for why he fired Dan. He actually said flattering things about Dan in our interview. Even called him a father figure and a guy he used & trusted for counsel for years but felt like he needed to take stock of the situation from the agent on down and he's still doing that. He's reassessing. It was a cleansing time. Post all-star break where he doesn't make it for a 2nd straight year and my 2 cents, Dan is a powerful agent but there was a connection between the controversy and drama surrounding Dwight and the way Dan does his job. Some folks have nicknamed him Captain Chaos because that's how he gets his clients in good situations. Dwight may have reached a point where he didn't like that component. Other than Tom Thibodeau, who should & will the Rockets consider? The two names you hear are Scott Brooks and Jeff Van Gundy. The Van Gundy one, earlier in the year I really started hearing that loudly like 'Jesus, that may be the guy if JB doesn't turn things around'. The one thing to pay attention there, when Jeff was there before, the relationship between him and Les was less than stellar. Jeff was Tom Thibodeau before Tom Thibodeau in terms of the way he ran his team, not necessarily being the most open guy between ownership, front office & coaching staff. Maybe he's changed but he has close ties to Daryl Morey. They're very friendly. That's one I would look at seriously. There's a lot of good names. Thibodeau one is real. I don't know how they see things with free agency and which coaches might give them a leg up depending on who they go after. That'll come into play too. With how bad this season has gone, is this an attractive team still for free agents? To a degree, sure. The front office takes their hits but they are legitimately turning over every stone trying to put their players in the best position possible to win. If you're a player, you want to hear that. Overthinking basketball, an accusation that comes from some corners, is certainly more preferable than a team that is lazy and not turning over the stone. Ownership has consistently showed a dedication to trying to be a championship contender. That matters. It's not cliche that it begins & ends with the owner and Les is a good owner. He has his faults but has a good reputation. Harden is a guy in his prime. A lot of players would want to play with him and some might not want to, based on style of play. He leads the league in usage among perimeter players. There are a lot of positives. Unfortunately for the Rockets & fans, it's not the team on the door step of title contention like we maybe thought last year.
Dwight could still be back, don't see anyone offering more than the $20 million per year Cyberx said the Rockets were willing to pay. 3 years $60 million is about right.
First of all, Dwight doesn't get enough credit for internalizing his desire for the ball, shutting up, and just focusing on the rest of his game. He's struggling with it mentally, but keeping it quiet, not complaining about it. I don't find anything wrong with someone saying "I wish I had more shots, but I will do what the team needs as long as I'm with the team." There are no 15-20m players in the NBA who are happy to take 8-9 shots, especially on a team with no credible second offensive threat. I think this summer Howard is going to test the market to finally decide whether to accept the reality of the new NBA or not. He will NOT get a big offer from a contender who sees him having a greater role on offense. He will get decent offers from non-contenders (15-18m range). He will get lower offers from contenders (12-15m range) to have the same role as this season. I think the Rockets will offer him a 3 year contract starting at 18m guaranteed per season, declining each season, with significant bonuses for reaching certain # of games and certain statistics. They will make it so he COULD earn up to 20m per season. I think that would be a good deal for us, but we should also pursue Whiteside if we feel confident that we have a chance at Durant. If Durant joins he's certainly not going to play the 3 spot as there will be no one between him and Harden to defend 2/3's. Durant will be PF and if Durant is PF, then we need a really solid defender/rebounder at the 5 for years to come who can outrun his opposite number. Another issue to consider is, by next season Howard might not be better than Kanter or Ibaka. Why would Durant leave that team unless a super team is being formed here? Does he think him and Harden are a better duo than him and Westbrook? Coaching is everything. Dwight will do well wherever he is next season if the coach knows how to build a defense and reward Dwight with efficient opportunities, convince him to want to do pnr relentlessly. Harden is transcendent at a lot of things on offense, from the eye test I feel like the PnR is one of the few weaknesses Harden has. He doesn't use the picks well, he's not great at getting the pass to the other guy. Could be wrong, just general observation.
I'd much, MUCH rather a player openly come out in the media and complain about their touches - but still go out on the court and play their butt off to try and show they deserve those touches. over..... Dwight..... who may shut up about it - but blatantly is pouting like a little b*tch. How do you get paid $22,000,000 and you come out and give us what he gave us against Toronto? How? And it's a regular occurrence. The positive spin he always puts on things is great. It would be a lot greater if he went out there and gave a *****ing damn.
No, you wouldn't much rather that. And even if you did, I assure you the coaches and players and agents and GM's wouldn't. Like I said, he's struggling with it mentally because he's doing something monumental. Initially, I too thought that he should be able to do it. Your post indicates you may be under the assumption that there are x number of players who would be of his status who would just STOP demanding the ball. Have you seriously analyzed that assumption? In reality, there is no such group of players. If you sift your mind, there are not more than 1 or 2 in the last 2-3 decades. At least that I could think of. I'm happy to change my mind if someone can show me a few more. It's no shocker that Dwight's effort has waned since the ASG. I'm not going to jump on this new imaginary idea that he's been like that all season and he's kind of been like that throughout his Rocket career. We fans have a habit of creating doomsday scenarios when things aren't going well. The truth is I would be shocked if there was someone on earth who was able to be 100% motivated to do something they aren't convinced of doing. We're not robots. The org hasn't convinced him. To be honest, it's easy to convince him how much his defense and rebounding and putbacks are critical to this team. The tricky part is giving him the right number of shots, and reduce his post touches, but the team hasn't done that well and there may be strategy mechanics at play here which I don't fully understand. Dwight is good enough to get 10 shots a game, why is he not getting that on a nightly basis? Why is Brewer taking more shots than Dwight fairly often? If Dwight pulls it off by playoff time where he's giving 99% effort, I will be amazed and ecstatic. I DO have hope. If we're thinking this is the level of effort Dwight would show for whoever he signs with next season, we're sorely mistaken. He will have a better season next season. This coach has been really horrible for this team, virtually everyone is underperforming, and Dwight for better or worse since the day he was drafted has always been a person who needs to be motivated differently than other players. We can whine about how that sucks for us, or we can actually motivate him that way and get 10-15m of value out of him. Anyway, let's see how it goes. We all want the best for the Rockets, this season and next.
I stopped reading after the first few sentences because you're attempting to use some words that aren't in the every day vocabulary to try and bolster your arguement. Let me just dumb it down for you. A guy throughout his entire career who has made a living off playing defense, rebounding, and abusing the opposing team in the P'n'R - is not doing any of those things consistently. One is almost non existent. One happens most of the time. And the other happens when he decides he wants to exert some effort on the court. You're telling me coaches would prefer Player A over Player B: Player A: Is silent to the media about his unhappiness. Does not do any of the ONLY 3 things he's been good at in a career lasting over a decade (in 10 + years he already knows what he can and cannot do) and instead sulks that he isn't allowed to do something which rarely results in a positive for the team. (A Dwight Howard post up) Player B: Tells the media after a tough loss that he's not happy with only getting 8 shots, tells them he will go out next game and show them why they should be giving him more. Plays stout defense like everyone knows he can, rebounds every loose ball that's in his vicinity like everyone knows he can, and sets solid Picks so he can benefit from numerous passes for easy points - again - like everyone knows he can. I don't know what to tell you Mr. But no coach would ever want that.
