Hell yes. But TBH -- from November - February, I was convinced this team was a first-round exit. Then we had that great run post All-Star and I got hopeful... until the end of the season when the injury bug returned and we damn near limped into the playoffs, while the Blazers went in on a hot streak. So I'm not surprised at the outcome, but it is still deeply disappointing considering the amount of talent we have on this team. The only reason I won't classify it as a complete failure is the hope that it will be a catalyst for some big changes this off-season, from coaching staff to personnel.
I voted yes, but I wouldn`t call it a complete failure. We were supposed to go further this season and we definetly could`ve won that series. I really would`ve liked that team to get some more playoff experience. But I think this loss will be a great motivator to some of these players. I know that Harden doesn`t want another playoff series like that, and I know that Howard wants to win big badly. McHale was outcoached - I believe he will either get fired, or if he doesn`t I hope that series is a big learning experience for him. Had he done a better job, we would`ve advanced. Nobody really expected us to win it all this season, so this is not a horrible failure. This team is not finished. It will be really interesting to see what we do this off season. Can we get a star like Carmelo, do we go for great role players or do we stay put for next years FA?
it was a failure simple as that. The problems this team has are far more serious than the mythical "3rd star" that keeps being thrown around.
no because this playoff experience was a necessary stepping stone for our players' development. if our guys continue to work on their games in the offseason, we may finally get past the 1st round.
Grabbed home court. Lost to a team with the exact same record as us in the closest(scoring wise) series of the first round. Not ideal, but I don't see it as a failure. We should have learned a lot of things this year about what the team needs, who needs to go and that year of experience is valuable.
Disagree. Let's not over-credit the victor here. From top to bottom, the Rockets had 3x the talent. Portland's bench is garbage. Starting center Robin Lopez? They have 4 good players on the entire team. ... That's how you know McHale is in over his head.
i wholeheartedly disagree. regular season was up and down, mostly up, i'll agree with that. but going into the playoffs with homecourt and not winning with a team of higher skilled players is unacceptable. just getting howard should have advanced us to the second round. if we lost to SA in round 2, i wouldn't be b****ing as much as i am now.
In professional sports coaching matters so this is why you gotta fire Mchale and coaches like Kubiak. These coaches will take championship caliber teams and have them out in the first round. Sad you gotta go through another 82 games because of this crap. Hopefully the rockets don't take as long as the Texans to fire a incompetent coach because we will NEVER get out the first round with him.
Yep. I think we all knew this wasn't a championship caliber team, but a first round exit is not what we pay for. Sucks it had to come to this but maybe Dwight will work on his free throws in Bora Bora, James can play some D in the Bahamas, and Chandler can have shoot around in LA.
Not a failure but a waste of a season. This was a year to gain valuable experience in the postseason. We probably were not going to win the West, but we could have learned a lot from a deep playoff run. That being said - we finally saw Dwight's post game take shape. The offense started to make some sense at times. We need better coaching to take us to the next level. And we need to play defense for a whole game. If they win the championship next year, then it was not a failure. I just wish they could have gained more experience this postseason.
i just cannot see how morey / les could say let's keep the guy and see how he does after another full year of ball. when you get that demolished and exposed as a coach, it's embarrassing. what would another full season do? he can finally learn how to draw up some simple plays? morey should be really embarrassed for hiring this guy and for letting the defensive brains of our team walk out mid-season. what does he provide that we need to keep him around for at all. many here want to keep him around the franchise...but for what? as what?
I don't think this team was going to win a championship. I was hoping they made it to the Western Conference Finals but we were probably going to be ousted in the second round anyways. We made the playoffs and the team built chemistry for next year. I think that was the starting point.
Yes, we made it to the first round last year with only Harden. This year we added Howard, everybody got older, more time to improve, more time to mesh and we ended up in the same place as last year loosing in the first round.
No failure at all. Well, maybe a little, anything less than a championship is ultimately a failure. But Dwight got a lot better, if you can't see that, you are blind. He was great in the post during the series, he was bad in the post during the season Dwight using Dr34m moves was not good. Dwight using KMac moves was a revelation, great work by the Head Coach. Harden and Howard duo took time getting used to, but you can tell their chemistry can lead us to the promise land, let's be frank, Refs hosed us more than a few times, and Portland played out of their minds, and won 4 games but still lost +/-. Jones showed improvement, Asik showed he could co-exist, Daniels played big time... Many positives for the organization, and we were not winning it this year. Definitely not a failure.
Yes. We could've avoided the clippers and thunder until the WCF, and blew it. Our coach displayed his incompetence to the national media. It took him until game 3 to realize Jones can't guard LMA, and it cost us the 1st two games.
