I am surprised fans feel like we should be contenders

So are we bring up the tanks? I personally think McHale is fine Tank Commander.

I'm not so confident of him as a playoff contending coach though.

Memphis was able to rotate 2 good defenders on our ball handlers. Harden can't be allowed to play PG. It's too easy for the defense to focus and shut him down due to fatigue.

 

I expect to lose these games but...the offense is so ugly right now.

If it were just a bit better we win the last two games IMO.

 

So how was the Memphis crowd, where you bought your tickets?

 

Your team is still a rebuilding team.takes time to adjust to a new mentality.And Harden's first two start only increase the expectation level.

 

^^ even after harden's acquisation

 

Uh, seriously?

Our team has had alot of lapses, but you really have NO idea how good OR bad this team has been.

Here's a few facts...

We're allowing 96.5 ppg (13th in the league)
We're scoring 96.5 ppg (17th in the league)
We're rebounding 50.5 rpg (2nd in the league)
We're passing 21.8 apg (16th in the league)

We held Memphis to 93.

Memphis is scoring an average of 101.8 ppg... 5th highest scoring in the league.

For a team with 13 new players, with our #1 offensive option only here since 2 days before the start of the regular season, stacked with rookies, and doing offensive and defensive sets on the fly, we're doing pretty darn well.

As for people complaining about contracts, Lin is playing well ABOVE his contract of $8m/year.

13.4ppg, 6.2apg, 5.4 rebounds, 3 steals, 3.2 TO, 94.1 FT%, 38.3 FG%, 29.4 3pt%

Even if this is as good as he gets, he's playing over his contract.

As for Harden, his shooting wasn't great, but he still got 18 points and is averaging 30ppg. 4/18 shooting, but 9/10 from the line. So, that's 18 points on 18 shots.

And Harden doesn't start his $80M contract until NEXT year. This year he's being paid $5.3M.

Way too much panic over crap that isn't real...

 

Like it makes any difference. Rockets play better on the road than they do at home.

 

If we are rebuilding team then why are we paying superstar level salaries to certain players?

 

Wow.. I'd hate to be your kid.

 

Get the Memo - we are contenders ~ we are suffering from coaching. Leashing and trying to force squares into triangle holes!

 

true ~ its really about how fast we want to see results - change the coach or be patient as he molds the team...

 

There is no such thing as a "superstar level salary" in the first place. There are many max contract players who are among the league's best or most promising talents, and then there are superstar players who make exactly the same amount of money because that's how the CBA works in conjunction with the free agency market.

 

I hope you mean contenders for the lottery.

 

Harden is getting a STAR salary. And you pay him that because that's what he gets on the open market. In the NBA, pretty much anyone that's at Star level or better will make $15M+.

Asik and Lin are getting average STARTER salaries for their position, and frankly they're both playing better than their contracts.

And you pay them because getting those players is PART of the rebuilding process. You get them young, integrate them into the team, and they develop over the next 1-2 years while they build chemistry.

In that timespan hopefully you snag another star or superstar, and then you're in the race.

Right now, there's enough talent and experience to contend for maybe a 7th or 8th seed. That means slightly above .500 team. And that alone is impressive with the youth of this team.

.500 team means you lose to other playoff contenders MOST of the time (like Denver and Memphis) and beat bottom tier teams MOST of the time (like Detroit).

Then, in 1-2 years, hopefully you have a legitimate team to contend for a deep playoff run.

You don't build a team in a year, especially if you don't have loads of veteran talent. And right now, there's not enough supporting players on the bench, or even enough good players on the starting 5 who are good enough to make a serious playoff run.

Will they develop into that? Possibly... that's why you have young players. However, development takes time.

Just look at OKC's first 3 seasons with Durant, Westbrook, Sefolosha and Harden. It took them 2 losing seasons before they had a winning season.

There are no shortcuts to contention. The sooner folks accept that, the happier they'll be.

 

The Rockets do not have a player on their roster that could not be easily moved-

-Asik- Quickly becoming a steal at the rate they got him at. Compare his 8.3 mil to Biedrins' 9 mil he stands to make this year and next.... come on dude.

-Lin- MSG's business earned 71 million dollars in capital in just 7 days of Jeremy being in the starting rotation. If the Rockets wanted to move him, alot of teams would love to get their hands on him. He more than makes up for his salary off the court alone.

-Harden- Call up Mark Cuban and ask if he would mind taking Harden's salary off Les' hands. He's an unselfish star with no off the court baggage, great healthy, and he's only 23. He would be the most sought after free agent this Summer if he was going on the market and would ABSOLUTELY get offered the max by numerous teams.

-Whats Left?-

expiring contracts, and players on rookie contracts....

Please oblige me with your thoughts on how you disagree with this.

 

ye even though we've got harden. were still crap.

 

We're not crap, haven't been blown out in any games. All the pieces has shown to perform at a high level in spurts. Just have to work on consistency.

We're not very deep, if 1 main piece has a bad night, we can't go to the bench and sub in a replacement. There is very little margin of error.

 

This.

Unfortunately, the drop off from starting 5 to bench is pretty steep, which forces us to put Harden or Lin playing bench minutes as well as starter minutes.

It's pretty tough for both of them, considering we expect them to not only play defense, AND to facilitate, but to be Scorers as well while playing 35-40 minutes per game. All this while adjusting/adapting to switching lineups between the starters and the bench unit.

Think it's hard to build chemistry on the starting unit? Try doing it while switching between units multiple times per game.

It would be unrealistic to NOT expect lapses in focus, errors in terms of passing or multiple minutes of drop off in terms of their play when you ask that of anyone.

 

As a fan, although this may be wildly naive and optimistic, I always like to think of my team as contenders. I want them to succeed, so I try to stay positive.

Before Harden came, I was thinking this team of rookies could be like the little giants (rick moranis classic) - overcome all odds!

 

No problem with not contending. The problem is with the way we play--ugly. We keep committing the same mistakes over and over again.

We also won't mind losing if we play the rookies. But nah, we're losing AND not playing the rookies. Bad bad bad