The betting dudes never really care for overachieving. Overachievement is what makes this league interesting IMO.
I think "winning mentality and culture" is being misrepresented. What it should mean is that you TRY to win with the young guys. You don't want them to feel that you are TRYING TO LOSE. Trying to lose (wanting them to be bad) is bad for development. Imaging you are a young player and your team let you know that they want you to be bad and lose games? Trying to win but let them learn from losing is a completely different mindset and culture.
But we are still taking fans and expectations. I do not think it aligns well with betting lines because at the end of the day not everyone is out there making bucks with Rocket games. Betting is one way for people to take their edge off. At least I do not include betting lines into my thinking process.
And some of the fans feel like we are doing something extra sneaky to be THIS bad when I would argue it's actually what was expected. I think there is some gray area as it's not completely black and white, however I think this team just hasn't fully transitioned from the Harden era to the rebuilding era.
Good thinking, I was wondering if Stone would bet against his own team in a corner of his house. Entirely in the realm of possibilities.
It's not a completely black and white thing.... We decided in the off season, right before training camp, we were going to sit John Wall. Is that loser mentality? GARM seemed pretty relived about letting KPJ run the point... until we saw KPJ run the point.
But you said "winning mentality and culture is extremely overrated" like it is something black and white. So you do agree that having the kids to have a losing mentality is bad?
Let's just say it is not impossible to turn a culture around. For instance, the Clips, you take out the racist Sterling and replace him with Ballmer, with Jerry West and winners, and it looks totally different. I think it is paramount to have a winning front office and winning owner type. Unfortunately we are shaky there. I would worry about them young players when I have upper management set.
This will be the first full season without harden .. but also , did we take back anyone for james that’s still on the roster right now ? DJ ? Or was he for oladipo who was expiring...? Anyways , my main point is that there has to be a bar somewhere and sometime . If we are bottom 3 this year and then next year is still about being bad and adding another asset then that would be 3 years in a row . I’d argue that’s not an example of good GM’ing or any type of strategy... it’s not hard to tear it down . I disagree on the culture . Bad habits are hard to break . Was Kobe or giannis or lebron or Kawhi learning “it’s ok to not play hard on D this year ... just work on your shot and worry about playing hard when we have more talent around you” ??
Yes of course. We're sitting John You're not following the Convo. Lack of talent is not a valid excuse for the Rockets to play as garbage is the point. OKC put a G-league roster and played better.
I think it's clear the owner opted for a rebuild by taking Nets package, which included Dipo and KPJ. Well sure, but maybe not this year when we are straddled between having 4 rookies and having the worst contract in the league..... I think cycling through the players and contracts of the Harden era isn't going to be a one full season enterprise. Bad habits? Like losing because you are young and inexperienced? We are not even half a year and we are worried about bad habits? You can always find something to be worried about. I'm more worried about Wood and KPJ's attitude instead of "losing culture" or whatever vague notion.
y’all arguing over nothing…the Rockets will be trash and at the bottom of the league no matter how hard they tried there is nothing that would prevent this team from being bottom 5 at best
I don't see the issue? I clearly laid out the current context of the team. It's literally not even half a season into Green's future, and we are worried about "bad habits" and "losing mentality" on a team that was predicted to be dog ****? I guess I didn't have every expectations going into this season as I looked at the landscape of the Rockets and the NBA.
Agreed with you main point. I've said something to the effect of this: If this group of players could lift a 17-win team into a respectable middling team, then who cares about a high pick. We could take this group to war in a couple of years. Of course, with things appearing so far, that scenario is extremely unlikely. Even so, you still want to see some progress rather than hoping to see them lose more games.
I mean we should all worry but IMHO it has to do with Silas and his coaching staff, Stone and his perception of the whole situation. Silas is a specialist on O but is not really a defensive end of a guy. I agree with people calling for JVG but I think we should find the next JVG rather than the old Jeff. It looks like a mess because Stone is so ice cold with his plans, not revealing anything and Silas is just a poor clown out there in the open.
I don't think a lot of people are expecting them to win a lot of games. But there is a different between not expecting to win a lot and hoping them to lose. You seem to believe that it doesn't make any difference. I think it's a big difference. Agree to disagree.
There's no such thing as losing culture. If the King's had drafted Luka instead of Bagley they would have turned the franchise around over night, but they are dumb so they are stuck with the losing culture label. It's literally all about hitting on draft picks and worry about the rest later. If you can draft a real talent, there's no more worry about culture. We just suck, it really has nothing to do with culture. We had a winning "culture " for the past 7 years because Harden was a all time great player
The fact that this team is getting WORSE at defense as the season moves on says more about Silas and the coaching staff more than anyone else on the team individually. We are seeing the opposite of progression when it comes to defense on this team.
