So the rest of the free loading frauds get exposed

This game had nothing to do with our talent .

Even good players are gonna miss shots .

Our offense worked for the most part . Overall we got the (good) shots we wanted .

We lost this game by not playing defense . A few players made some plays ... but the overall scramble mentality wasn't there .

We got off to a good start and I bet guys were thinking that it was over and that we wouldn't have to try .... I certainly did .

But the Pelicans stuck around .. and we couldn't ever get completely back in sync .

Combination of mental trap and lack of coaching to try and get the team back in the zone .... of course guys missing shots helped ... but had we locked down on defense we would have won despite the shooting .... and even despite the turnovers .

 

yeah so if his teammates are trash on both offense AND defense that what do they have to offer? they're just basically freeloaders just like what the OP said

 

I didnt say the D was good. It's been awful. We see flashes of hustle and how they played on that side last year, but obviously not enough. Harden has improved on both sides of the ball this year. Still even with improved D, in this league you need to hit your wide open shots and thats been a major problem this year outside Harden.

Imagine Harden not scoring or upping his game like he has. It wouldnt matter if we played D, we would have likely the worst O in the league or close to along with awful D.

 

They arent trash on offense though? Yea sometimes they dont make shots, but you you dont get to a top 5 offense with trash players, thats not how it works. Freeloaders, maan, I love Harden, but you dont have to trash his teammates even more when even he had a bad night.

No one hits all of their 3s, they are very high variance. Even the best shooter have nights like these. But you know what has low variance....defense.

 

You dont get what he's saying at all do you? lol

 

People here should look at this game when they say we can beat the Warriors this year as this roster is constructed and this is not even considering how lethal they are on offense currently.

 

if a whole team gm, coach, and players are so dependent on the greatness of 1 individual player to carry them to a win night in and night out then yeah its fair that they be compared to freeloaders

 

HP3 is basically from what im gathering is saying the only way to win in the league to play D every night & give it your all with the players you have. I'm 100% with him on that, but he's missing the Harden point big time and the players that are on the team with him. We dont even have the proper defense personal anymore for this system.

Not gonna lie, I think Harden is a amazing post defender, but I dont really like seeing him having to do all the work on O and then have to defend huge centers even if hes good at it. Same with Ego.

This team is small as hell and it hurts the D big time.

 

I’m not missing the Harden component though, I’m saying that the offense is fine, Harden by himself isn’t producing a top 2 offense no matter what you wanna say. He is the majority but Other guys, statistically have to contribute for your offense to be that good. Our system is designed for Harden and CP to do the heavy lifting. They were both not good tonight and Harden especially was trash on both ends.

The defense where Harden was freeloading( exaggerating but I’m trying to make a point)last year was what made up the difference. Go even check heypartners stats in another thread, it will tell you our offense was fine even tonight.

 

So the OP and those who agree with him think that the rotation are "hitching a ride" on Harden's talent?

This is the team playing with Harden and getting their ride. It happened one night, and perhaps many nights. Just imagine that Claudette Colbert is James Harden and Clark Gable is the rest of the rotation.

Harden sitting down or even missing a game, watching from the bench. No ride, cars scoring in transition.

Spoiler

James Harden on the court. Does he get the team's interest? Do they get a ride?



Does he get the focus of the opposition's defense? What do you think?



Car stops, and team responds to Harden's success.



James talks back.

Moral of the story? You decide.

 

Hmm. Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in a college film class? Is this going to be on the final?

 

Yes! It will be on the final and you better study.

 

/thread

We'we seen this **** against trash teams a lot of times, and i wouldn't say just this season, this has been a thing with the Rockets in the last years, maybe last season was the exception but, yeah...

 

We need to stop with the "not focused", "no energy", "not taking it seriously" verbiage. There's no focus/energy switch that we can magically turn on since it doesn't exist.

We don't have many energetic players on MDA's active rotation (right now, it's Tucker, Faried, Rivers and that's it?).

We don't have many players that tend to be focused (Harden still ball watches, Green and Ennis are dolts, and Tucker/Gordon already have #1 Shaqtin A Fool caliber gaffes).

Unless the rotation actually changes, the results will not. We're relying on an MVP to carry a horrible defensive team to narrow wins over mediocre teams. That's who we are right now.

As for change, Clark is a high energy, solid defense guy who is inexplicably not playing. Hartenstein at 7'0" can play better defense at center than anyone we have right now just by putting his hands up. He's also a high energy guy and can even shoot 3s. Again, inexplicably stuck in the G-league where he's killing it. House is also a high energy, athletic, defense guy who can't play because Morey is focused on the future even though we're in a win-now mode.

 

Normally the hyper efficient offense has been able to just outlast the mediocre to bad defense, but not this year. Injuries played a role in this for sure but we got even worse defensively by losing Ariza/Luc and failing to adequately replace them.

 

Yeah but that's more of a mental thing, the way the guys, or at least some of them approach some games is just not right, how many times we saw the Rockets come out super soft against trash tier teams this season and in the last years? I'd say a lot, that has nothing to do with injuries or players quality. I mean, just look at the last games.

Played the Knicks like trash -> played a great game against the best team in the East (Raptors) -> played like trash against the Pelicans bench

 

WARNING; THIS IS NOT OUR FULL TEAM
OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR

We're still missing a key component of our team. Clint Capela
The last 2 games would likely not have been contests if we had his size, rim protection, rebounding
and alley oops in the paint. Big men give us problems when he's out
Just 2 less bricks from the 3 pt line and we win this game. Yes, everyone was shooting poorly
(with the exception of Ennis? 3/4) And James was double teamed most of the game.
But let's not panic yet. Hopefully we'll get our swagger back when we get the band back together

 

Perhaps depth has something to do with it. Players probably can't go 100% in every game due to heavy minutes? I don't know

 

I'm not really sure about this...we should just beat a team like the one we faced yesterday at home, we don't have depth problems right now, we played 9 players yesterday, could've played 10...

 

They got beat up in the paint because Clint is hurt, Nene is too old to matter even though he still gets minutes, they refuse to play Hartenstein even though he is dominating G league competition level and Faried, for all his enthusiasm and hustle is still a headless chicken in terms of team chemistry.

Or y'all really think Okafor might blossom into like an all-star center? Maybe being 4" taller than everyone really is an advantage in this sport. coughwiltcough