TMac did elevate his game in the postseason for sure. Howard reminds me of TMac with his fragile body and not playing back to backs. Harden vaguely resembles TMac with his personality but I think Howard is more comparable to him especially with his history in Orlando.
So the similarities are all superficial and not specifically with their performance on the court. Gotcha.
It seems every time we start discounting this team...they get their act together for at least a few games and start playing at a level we expect. I do agree the Harden dependency is too great. This is a team sport. One man alone is not going to get you anywhere. Even Michael Jordan had Scottie Pipsqueak and company pulling their weight. They knew their roles. I think our guys are still trying to figure out their roles.
i'm not sure i see a lot of what some of you guys are talking about. i see harden fighting for rebounds and loose balls. setting up teammates for wide open 3's or point blank layups. challenging shots and getting blocks. his on ball D could improve, but it's not as if he is completely mailing it in. the problem i see is the offensive system frustrating him, and eventually disintegrating into ISO ball when the opposing team tightens the screws. the will is there, imo. the direction is not.
At what point do these threads stop? Its impossible to navigate through CF anymore if after every freaking loss 100 of these threads take over the first three pages.
Truth is that Harden has sucked for most of the games thus far this year. He needs to be more consistent or this team will be what the record says they are...mediocre.
This team is shooting the ball at a level that isn't even junior league worthy, someone explain this atrocity below... Ariza- 33.7% FG 32.7% 3pt Brewer- 31.3% FG 13.3% 3pt Harden- 37.6% FG 24.7% 3pt Lawson- 34.2% FG 30.8% 3pt T. Jones- 34.8% FG 0% 3pt Beverley- 36.1% FG 35% 3pt Terry- 28.6% FG 10% 3pt
the poster Cxbby (spelling?) started a thread here a few years back, i believe towards the end of james' first season as a rocket. he talked about james taking it upon himself to demand the ball in crunch time and taking a lot of contested shots in the final minute and at the buzzer -- even though he was not coming through for us all that often. the point Cxbby was trying to make was that it was in fact a good thing that james wanted to take those shots, whether he made them or not. it showed his will to put a team on his back with the responsibility of success or failure all on him. i see his current failures in a similar light. he feels a duty as the team's superstar/leader to carry everyone on his back and deliver wins. and he takes quick ill-advised 3's and reverts back to ISO because when all else (our offensive system) fails late in games. the thing is he is really good in ISO and comes through quite often for us nowadays. but even he cannot do it effectively 40 times a game, every game. he needs help. this (or some other) coaching staff needs to incorporate more sets and more alternatives to read&react, and more surprise wrinkles when the opposing team has already found a way to stop the 2-3 'sets' they've already seen you run a dozen times.
im gonna, reluctantly, wait to make any final judgments on this team. but so far...WOW. are you ****ing serious rockets? you lost to the ****in nets for ****s sake
The Rockets need more time to build chemistry, they need DMo back so they'll have a real PF, and they need to glue Brewer to the bench. If/when those things happen, they'll be fine.
what you're saying is, they're not really in serious trouble right now, but only if certain things happen...so yeah.
Yeah, me too. We need a killer....to help bring up the team, benching Bev was/is a problem as I think he inspires people at times with his defense. DD
