Lol at saying Last Years Playoff Run was fools gold. Dallas series was won 4-1, Besides one game Rockets were obviously the more dominant team. Clippers series where everyone and their momma picked the clippers to advance. Everyone keeps mentioning game 6 but the rockets had to win 2 other games to advance. If the Clippers where better they had 2 other games to show it. Funny how they get excused from this. Be it the other way around People would be Calling Howard and Harden bums and chokers the whole offseason. Shows what some Houston own fans think of this team also. Warriors where better but no counts the fact Dwight got injured in the 1st Qtr and was obviously hurting in Game 2 which I think things go Differently if he never gets hurt. Rockets probably still dont win but the series goes longer than 5. Dont forget besides game 3 and , ROckets where competitve in all the games. AND LETS NOT ALSO FORGET, Houston was missing 2 key players in Dmo and Bev. SO fkc that talk about last year being a fluke. Yea this year may be dissapointing but act like last years team was just fumbling and bumbling their way to victories.
Try seeing it from an unbiased perspective, I too thought like you once. There is nothing wrong with saying its a fluke too. A freak last second behind the back shot might go in, what are the odds of it happening again? Slim to none. What if it causes a team to advance..would it really matter? Us fans got to enjoy the run, but 9/10 the clippers spank the rockets like they did the first 3 games when Paul was out and they still had it wrapped up by half time. They mentally imploded later.
Had chris paul been healthy (fully) we wouldnt have gotten to a game 6...it was fools gold , we still almost lost save for an epic comeback/meltdown Our coaching is inferior to any playoff teams coaching and will be until we sign a real freakin coach instead of a motivator who follows Morey ball way.
Why not also mention the fact that our team was also missing 2 key players in Bev and D-Mo? You honestly don't think that the Rockets would have been a completely different team with Bev chasing Paul around instead of JET and Prigs who could barely keep up with a one legged CP3? You honestly don't think it wouldn't have mattered if we had D-Mo in there with the way he was playing last season? Come on now!
Speaking of defense, Chandler Parsons is one of the absolute worst defenders in the NBA. It showed in the Portland series and continues to be a huge problem for the Mavericks that have had to take him off the court at key points because he does not rotate properly. As for Papa and Dorsey being so great, are either currently in the NBA? Are either playing important minutes? No.... and there is a reason they are not. Black is playing 10 minutes a night on a horrible Lakers team. Thornton was free...... Terry should be playing almost no minutes ideally. As for Lawson, he cost very little and had a high upside. The Rockets were also getting Beverly back for defense. I was fine with firing McHale after the Blazers series.... but guess what? They went to the WCF the very next year without key rotational players. Sorry but this is absolute garbage. The Rockets made the WCF by beating up on the Mavericks and coming back against the Clippers. Further, they played the Warriors better than everyone but the Cavaliers. I think that you are really over blowing the "Morey doesn't care about coaching" idea...
D-MO's best action in game this season was when he was going head to head with Blake for a stretch in one of the earlier games we played the Clips. I remember getting excited about it because you could see he was really getting under Blake's skin.
Harden's 13 TOs (yes, his jersey number is a constant reminder) performance sunk us last postseason. The Rockets organization is held completely hostage to that one cog in the machine, to hero-ball. Let's hope he comes around to playing D as the postseason approaches. Otherwise, it will be yet another year of cold comfort, watching GSW and SAS to see how the game should be played.
You realize that we haven't been past the first round since 2008-2009 and we haven't been to the WCF since 1996-1997 when we still had Hakeem, Drexler, and Rudy T right? Please consider how stupid your post is when Harden's hero-ball is the primary reason we were even able to get to the WCSF. Now before you try to say something silly like Josh Smith got us into the WCF, don't forget that Hakeem depended on timely contributions from his role players as well before advancing as well during multiple playoffs; Sampson's last second bucket against the Lakers, Elie's Kiss of Death, Robert Horry and Cassell's timely long bombs, Drexler, ect. Thing here is superstars can't do it it alone. Even the Dream needed help. Harden just ran out of gas finally and if you are actually being honest, you will recall that Harden was amazing 3 out of the 5 games against GSW.
Look, if y'all enjoy watching Harden iso ball more than team ball, or think it will win a championship, we will just have to differ.
The thing is them all have low standards and lower expectations. They are happy with ISO ball and first round humiliation by Portland or being thumped around by GSW like the abused step child. For me the goal is Championship, anything less is unacceptable and suggests room for improvement. We have to do what it takes to get a ring. And that requires Harden playing more team ball.
Unlike you, I could care less which one is more "fun" to watch. I have fun watching the team do well. Last year was a blast. This year is, admittedly, not fun. Like history has proven again and again, there are multiple ways to win a ring. Hero-ball has been one of those ways. Will Harden be able to win that way? Who knows. Winning the championship is hard. There is only one team that can win each year and there usually are at least 2-4 teams that could have won it every season.
If you enjoy being 9th in the west year after year (like we were for years before we got Harden) then we will indeed just have to differ.
weird how one of the more boring interviews has spawned the most post-interview chatter. Maybe it was because of the "offense" comment, which seems FTW Rockets FTW misquoted. DM was referring to SAS not us.
I don't care where those players are rights now, it is a fact they helped this team last season. Even more than Brewer or Lawson are doing the current season. As far as Papas, the least favored by those stats, should be noticed that there were like 2 seasons for him, first part where he really helped the team with his defense, rebounding, passing and playmaking (even shooting at low %s), and a second part after his ankle injury and the arrival of Brewer and Smith, that pulled him away out of the rotation. While he was part of the rotation, in 2015, he was helping the team at winning. http://www.nba.com/2014/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/11/26/2014-15-rookie-ladder-week-5/ http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...aou-to-participate-in-rising-stars-challenge/ To the question about Morey and coaching... For instance he has said in the past that a coach affects a team as much as 4-5 wins during a season, whoever it is. With that statement he is ignoring key factors about coaching such as the value of habits in the long run, the education of players, the creation of a winning culture (not necessarily equate to winning games)... and there is precisely where this team has failed. I'm not saying that Morey thinks coaching is not important. Neither thinking he really coaches the team from the office with his advanced stats, that's BS. I'm just saying that other front offices they give more importance to the matter of coaching. As far as our level at the last playoffs... I'm sorry for thinking it was fools gold at the moment and of course for reaffirm it right now, that's my opinion. But to discuss about it, marking results it's not a valid argument, since that's specifically my point, that the team ONLY looked good referring to the results. In any other way the looked like a normal WCF team. Surprise that that same core is showing this season that different results... You can say we beat Dallas 4-1, sure. I would say that that Dallas team was not a playoff caliber team by the moment playing without 2 of his starters. Utah, Oklahoma were likely more dangerous teams at the moment; the Pelicans were. Even though, our last 3 games at those series against that team were: - A win by 2 points with that buzzerbeater by Harden. - A blowout at Dallas, recieving 130 points. - A win in Houston at a competed game where they had real chances until the last minutes. Against Clippers: - Game 1, 16 down with no Paul at Houston. - Game 3, 25 points loss, already that difference during the 3rd quarter. - Game 4, 33 point loss. ยก! (coming from a 25 pt loss...) - Game 6, -19 during the 3rd quarter again... I mean, you can say the team legitimately passed the series, for sure. The team got talent and players like Howard, Brewer, Smith, Ariza...showed heart. But couldn't you recognize at that series and the previous ones that the team had some serious issues?? The weaknesses the team is showing this season, were already there by the end of last season. Despite the results. If you can't see that, I can't help you.
It is hilarious how you mention injuries to the other teams and totally ignore the fact that the Rockets had injuries to our own key players as well. SMH
That is a completely different issue........ I don't think anyone (including the GM) doesn't want a more team oriented offense. However the idea that the Rockets post season was torpedoed by Harden's turnovers in a single playoff game is absurd. The Rockets lost because the Warriors were better and the Rockets were not healthy. Look, there seems to be this revisionist idea that the Rockets just "happened" to get to the WCF. It doesn't happen like that, it is like "happening to be pregnant"..... the Rockets got to the WCF last year because they were very good, and beat good teams to get there. Just deal with it.
