I do not known if it is going to be fun but I am at least grateful he gave us his best years. Whatever happens, still not a fan of his, just good for the team (short term speaking).
I completely agreed with your post. I don't think our guys especially the 3 you mentioned played bad. It just seemed like they couldn't hit the shots that we needed to win some of those games we lost. Ariza would be wide open and brick the corner 3... same applies to Brewer. I think that's why the FO's priority this season was shooting. Had we had better shooting, we could've definitely won 5-6 more games last year. Anderson and Gordon will help us win more games then we did last year, just not sure how much they move the needle.
Pretty disappointing to read some of the comments posted here from supposed Rocket fans. Harden brought this team more success in the past 15+ years than any other Rocket player. Neither Yao, nor T-Mac, nor Francis nor any other player gave us a near similar level of success. It took Yao Ming 7 years to get the Rockets out of the 1st round (missing the playoffs in 2 of those years), whereas it took only 3 years for Harden to get Rockets to the 2nd best record in the West and 3rd best in Houston Rockets history, along with a WCF appearance. Let's look at the win shares leader for the Houston Rockets in the past 20 seasons. James Harden - 13.3 James Harden - 16.4 James Harden - 12.8 James Harden - 12.8 Goran Dragic - 5.1 Kevin Martin - 9.5 Luis Scola - 6.3 Yao Ming - 10.6 Yao Ming - 8.3 Shane Battier - 9.0 Yao Ming - 8.6 Tracy McGrady - 12 Yao Ming - 11.4 Steve Francis - 11.1 Cuttino Mobley - 5.7 Steve Francis - 12.2 Steve Francis - 6.4 Charles Barkley - 6.8 Charles Barkley - 8.6 Charles Barkley - 9.4 You have to go all the way back to Hakeem's MVP season to find someone that posted better win shares than Harden, and the only two people that had higher win shares than Harden's lowest win share season (12.8) are Hakeem and Moses Malone. Whilst win shares are by no means a perfect stat to measure a player, it's a fairly indicative stat over the course of several seasons. Harden is the best player the Rockets have had since prime Hakeem and it's not really debatable.
Doesn't usage affect WS? Win Shares is also a counting stat, so playing more minutes and in more games increases the WS total. What does the list look like if you do WS/48? Harden 0.204 Harden 0.265 Harden 0.221 Harden 0.206 Thabeet 0.228 <- WTF? (23 minutes), Camby 0.179 Martin 0.175 Landry 0.184 Yao 0.196 Green 0.826 <- Wowzers, excellent 4 minutes of playtime, Landry 0.251 Yao 0.220 Hayes 0.212 Yao 0.210 Cato 0.113 <- Ouch Francis 0.184 Norris 0.158 Barkley 0.215 Barkley 0.183 Bennet 0.436 (16 minutes), Barkley 0.224 Heggs 0.196 (14 minutes), Olajuwon 0.166 Drexler 0.193 Olajuwon 0.210 If you adjust for usage, Harden falls further back into the pack. What I am saying is that WS is a stat the benefits high usage, high minute guys whole play every game. Since those are all good qualities, that doesn't make it a bad stat, just skewed toward someone like Harden. Interesting for the Barkley haters to see that the Chuckster was the leading WS/48 guy in his healthy years here, despite a lower usage rate than teammates in some instances.
You are right, but even accounting for WS/48, Harden's numbers are still noticeably higher than most other Rockets. However, like you said, adjustment in this case would not necessarily be fair to Harden as it will favor less durable players like Yao Ming. 2 seasons ago, the Rockets definitely needed every minute of Harden to get to that 2nd spot in the West
Even going by these numbers, Harden stands out considerably. There are only six players who averaged higher WS/48 than 0.200 in your list, excluding those with really short playing time, but it also makes sense to take out Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes, since they only managed to play 15 minutes or so per game when they posted those numbers. So it's just Hakeem, Barkley, Yao and Harden we're talking about, but interestingly Hakeem only went above 0.200 WS/48 three times during the regular season. Barkely had two and Yao had four, but they never played as much games or minutes as Harden, who never once fell below the 0.200 WS/48 mark ever since he became a Rocket. Considering WS/48 favors those with short playing time, this is quite a feat for Harden. And yes, I know some people won't acknowledge this, but from a purely statistical point of view, Harden is already a top 3 player to have ever played for this Houston team, along with Hakeem and Moses, however way you want to slice and dice it.
Highest Win Shares 1. Harden 16.4 2. Hakeem 15.8 3. Moses 15.4 4 Hakeem 14.3 5. Moses 14.1 6. Moses 13.7 7. Harden 13.3 8. Harden 12.8 9. Harden 12.8 10. Rudy-T 12.8 Highest PER 1. Hakeem 27.3 2. Moses 26.8 3. Harden 26.7 4. Yao 26.5 5. Hakeem 26.0 6. Yao 25.6 7. Hakeem 25.5 8. Harden 25.3 9. Hakeem 25.3 10. Hakeem 25.2 Highest Box Plus Minus 1. Harden 8.4 1. Hakeem 8.4 3. Barkley 7.1 4. Hakeem 7.0 5. T-Mac 6.8 6. Harden 6.7 7. Francis 6.6 7. Hakeem 6.6 9. Hakeem 6.3 10. T-Mac 6.2 Highest VORP 1. Hakeem 8.5 2. Harden 7.8 3. Hakeem 7.5 4. Francis 7.0 4. T-Mac 7.0 6. Harden 6.9 7. Hakeem 6.3 8. Hakeem 6.0 9. Francis 5.8 10. Harden 5.7 Keep in mind that Harden only played four seasons with this team, and is only two years into his prime, yet his place as the second or third best player to have ever played for us during the regular season seems pretty secure.
It would appear that the red koolaid now comes in a convenient opiate form. Once you try it, you're hooked! Whole heartedly agree. I have no problem with those who want to buy into what Les, Morey and Harden are selling. They have the right to believe whatever they choose to believe about this team. Where I draw the line is with those pinheads who take it upon themselves to decide what makes a "good" fan and who should be a fan. As I have posted before, the Rockets should be thrilled that enough folks care about their mediocre product to b**** about it because that at least shows they still care enough to complain. This. It's results that count and looking purely at results, I don't see much to feel good about especially after last year. It's been what now? 10 years of Morey as GM; 21 years since their last championship. Now it took the GSW 40 years to win another championship so by my reckoning, they (Rockets) have at least 19 more years of this left to go. But it could be worse - Milwaukee has been waiting 45 years while the NYK have been waiting 43 years so I can definitely see room for optimism. Not excited is an understatement. With all the coaching vacancies this past off season no one, I repeat NO ONE was looking at MDA but Les. Guy is 65 and a failed coach at his last two stops. With his hiring, the Rockets have signaled that they are going the opposite direction from what the rest of the league deems winning basketball. It's their choice and all but please excuse my lack of faith in this being a good move until I see MDA's Rockets show they can beat some good teams. Like DAD posted: "Show me on the court". Once Durant publicly stated that his decision was going to be a "basketball decision", the Rockets were effectively out of the discussion. And yet, folks here refused to acknowledge that fact and continued to come up with one scenario after another for KD coming to Houston. The Disney song says that "Fairy tales can come true" - not that they will come true. As for the signing of Gordon & Ryno to those contracts, I didn't know whether to laugh or to weep - especially when the Rockets medical staff stated that they had "taken a look" at Gordon's injuries (that's injuries as in plural) and were comfortable with what they saw. Yeah... At this point in time (until I see otherwise on the court), I see the Rockets, Mavs, Utah and Pelicans sort of thrashing it out for playoff spots 6-8. They can release all of the PR spin they want to try to pump up interest but the best way to do that is go out and beat some good teams and prove that they have made the right moves. Well, if you are going to go off the rails and drive over that cliff, then you might as as well go all the way. Les has placed them all in with MDA now and either he knows something we can't see or his actions have screwed away another 2-3 years of Harden's prime. We'll have a good idea of what's what come December.
I like it. I'll like it even more if he comes to training camp in the best shape of his career. We deserve nothing less. Not Les, but the fans.
Every time I get to the point I want to "ignore" FTW ROCKETS FTW, he posts something very positive & I give him some leeway. It's so frustrating! Repped, simply because it's stated opinions (pos & neg). I get so tired of something "sucks" as the entire post. Makes me think I'm in a wind tunnel. This past season was dreadful! Probably the worst the Rockets have played since the B2B's. But as disjointed as that team was, they still made the playoffs in the West (yes, you can debate the pros & cons of that). That's why, with the addition of shooters (if they can stay on the court) that want to be here & Harden's letter (fantastic letter, James) stating his optimism; I'm excited about the upcoming season. Oh, on a side note. Looks like I stumbled onto how to multi quote. :grin:
He's not and I blame it on the Olympic's venue. Why hold it in Zika infested along with other not suitable for competition due to water quality etc? Why Rio? Rio is a 2nd to 3rd world area...
Can anyone explain to me how Harden saying Houston isn't a super team is taking a shot at the warriors? Seemed to me that Harden's PR team was just trying to make the rockets look like plucky underdogs, not somehow talk trash to Golden State.
This is it exactly. They alluded to it in the press conference; this is their marketing and messaging for this year, we like being the underdogs. People read too much into things. He's trying to do some positive PR for the rockets and himself after a tough season where a lot of fans are down on the team and organization. It's a positive first step in the right direction as they try to hit the reset button. We'll see if it all comes together on the court.
