Well that's why we have room for two max players. Get any of the following two and I think you are better than last year: Whiteside Durant Conley Horford Barnes Howard
Hold on to Ariza, bev, and dmo if he is not offered something crazy. Get rid of Brewer please my gosh. Keep Howard if you get a huge fa signing (or don't it's hard to say) if durant isn't interesting Don't go down swinging for him. Horford and Conley would be awesom or like batum and horford? TWO WAY PLAYERS. If you lose Howard you really need two decent players to take that spot.
build around harden,,, isnt this what we have been trying to do for the last few yrs? so far the results aint very encouraging... you can have all the top notch equipment and luxury configurations for a nice car. but you can't expect the car to perform well in harsh environments if its got a 1.5 liter engine.
we have no choice, unless we can get back equal value, which i think we can but i dunno if morey and les would be ok with it. this offseason is gonna be interesting for the rockets.
other than kd, whom i believe has no reason to sign with houston, am i missing any other big name fa's? why this offseason is gonna be "interesting"?
are the rockets gonna keep going full r****d and keep jb, barely make any roster changes, proceed like they're gonna be "a team that no one wants in the playoffs", or are they gonna stop bullshtting themselves and get sht done? i wanna know NOOOOOOOOOOOOW! i cant take this abomination season, its too much. they just jacked up 50 threes and only made 1 or 2 of them. THATS TOO MUCH! THIS HAS TO STOP, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW not to mention harden some of his worst shaqtin a fool highlights this season . do they not care they look like ****in clowns now?
Whiteside, Conley, Barnes, and Howard are not going to cut it when you are talking about going against SA and GS. The league has changed. You need guys who can pass and shoot at nearly any position. That is what makes SA and GS so good. That is why every other team will be an also ran. The game has changed. People don't want to come here when you have JB and Dwight Howard and party animal Harden. Change that by letting Howard walk, and letting JB go at the end of 2017 season and bring in the right kind of coach and that will change. If you bothered to read what I wrote you would have seen that. Of course, you really don't care - you rather just label whatever you disagree with as "FANTASY LEAGUE" This team isn't capable of contention. And adding one or two pieces this summer isn't going to change that. If you can't see that, you are the one living in fantasy league.
I get what you're saying, and I agree. I'm reminded a lot of the the Lakers from the mid 2000s (post Shaq) or even, as sacrilegious as it might sound, the Hakeem Rockets post Sampson and pre 1994; where they basically tore everything down and tried to rebuild. I believe we can rebuild around Harden, or at least that we can better rebuild around Harden then we can by trading him. We need a flesh slate. The Harden-Howard roster, is clearly not going to work, and once we recognize that we can move on and rebuild. My ideal scenario? Surround Harden with great defenders and blue collar guys. Imagine the 2004 Pistons, with Harden instead of Billups as their superstar. Now that's a team that could have a nice run. The Harden-Howard experiment was fun while it lasted. I loved watching us beat the Clippers and go to the WCF- it's one of my favorite Rocket memories besides the 2009 series against the Lakers, but its time to recognize defeat and move on. This team, as currently constructed, isn't going anywhere.
YES! Thank you for reading instead of knee jerking like these other guys. I think Harden's offensive gifts are best maximized the same way Curry's are - by surround him with incredible shooters who are unselfish and a point forward. We need guys who are team guys - defensive, pass-first, but dedicated to being great shooters. You don't need two penetrators, just another guy who can playmake a bit.
so all of the sudden ariza, dwight or bev are no longer great defenders? name me some better defenders at their positions? maybe a few, but i bet not many. our pf is extraordinarily weak right now, esp. on defense. but even the 2004 pistons werent that great in every single position defense-wise. the first and big problem lies in harden himself. not the players around him.
Seems like we have that in Ariza. He is probably the epitome of the 3 and D non ball dominant starter that most teams want. IMHO we are so inept since we are getting NOTHING from PF and PG or the bench. Howard needs a stretch 4 next to him and I don't think Dmo is that guy. I keep hearing Conley is ideal next to Harden but I don't know.
Hey Lou, I like a lot of your post... but I don't agree with this one.. Harden is not the type of player you build around. I know that Morey is going to do it and it's going to be an organizational suicide. T_Man
That would be cool if FA's wanted to play here. But they don't. Players don't like playing with Harden, and Morey's seen as a joke among NBA circles. I'm not sure what the selling point on coming to Houston will be
Its unlikely that anyone we can add is going to cut it against GS and SA. GSW might be the greatest team of all time. I don't think we are in a position to pass on an opportunity to add a young max level player. Howard and Conley, I get, because of age and whatnot, but you have to do what it takes to get your team to 55-60 wins, and then just hope the cards fall your way.
We are in a 91-92 situation, where we just missed the play-offs and put in Rudy T. If this off-season we get head coach who's not afraid to do things differently, and add more good players instead of the big star, we might have a shot in 2-3 years. It's time to realize it might take more than 2 years. There's no magic fix. We might get lucky in the off-season, but I doubt it.
Where did the "players don't want to play with Harden" narrative come from? When OKC traded him, Durant was livid. Lebron James has publicly said he would love to play with Harden. Dwight signed in Houston to play with Harden. Bosh was prepared to sign in Houston to play with Harden/Howard if the Heat had not given him their full max. Jason Terry re-signed in Houston because Harden pushed him to. Ty Lawson waived a guaranteed 12 million to play with Harden. Kyle Lowry was willing to sign here to play next to Harden. Trevor Ariza left Washington to sign here with Harden/Howard when the money was the same. I see no evidence of any players not wanting to play with Harden. None at all.
