Dwight Howard Not Happy With The Effort in Houston [NBA.COM]

No, what happened in that game is that your team was shooting 33% from the field and 25% from 3 land with 2:00 minutes left to play. Not a single Rocket shot 50% from the field. Literally everyone that played shoot poorly.

The Rockets were without Lin, Asik and Parsons. Having said that, the Rockets need to learn to beat inferior teams even when shots are not falling. Teams don't win 55+ games without grinding out wins with obstacles and injuries.

I don't really have an issue with the coaching last night. However this team still doesn't have an identity and still hasn't learned how to just take care of business. They lose to teams they shouldn't and they blow leads. Some of it is their relative lack of experience as a unit and injuries (Harden has been hurt all season). The switch can flip at any point or not at all.

Some losses are promising ( Mavs loss hurt but knew offense was starting to click), there is nothing positive from this loss other than showing just how important Parsons is.

 

last season harden's d wasn't over analysed. i wonder why

 

Lol because he wasn't so bad last year that he stood out like he has this season. More often than not he usually stayed in front of his man. This season, he is a straight up turnstile...lets defenders go right around him and he does his little "reach around" right after. Lazy, shameful defense.

Honestly, I really believe last season has really given him a big head, and he needs some humbling to do if we ever want to sniff a championship.

 

Mostly people were just excited to have Harden on the team. His defensive lapses were noticed, but a big part of it was attributed to them not having a training camp or a lot of practice time.

I think many assumed that they would just sort it out over time as a young team and figure out the defensive schemes.

Folks are going to be more critical this year because the team had a full off season, pre-season and training camp to work on team defense. So this year there really is no excuse to not contest shots or rotate properly.

The only person that should get anything remotely near a pass on missed rotations are the 100% new players... ie, Dwight, Brooks and Casspi and they're actually getting most of the rotations right.

Finally, the bar for expectations have gone up this year. We were anticipated a jump of about 5 wins just through normal development (close to 50 wins). With the addition of Dwight it pushes the bar even higher (50-55 wins).

When you're looking at actual HCA and a deep play off run, then the smaller details become significantly more important.

You can just blow opponents off the floor like last year and be a fringe play off team. If you want to play with the big boys, then you really need to start cleaning up the small details.

-Take good shots
-Play good defense
-Protect the ball
-48 minutes of effort

That's what people are focusing on and rightly so. If we want Houston to be a legitimate contender, or to grow into a legitimate contender, then those are the things that need to happen every game.

 

Because he was burdened with carrying the offense by himself, he got a break. This season, with the addition of Dwight, improvement in Parsons+Lin(+Jones), Harden doesn't have the same excuse anymore. He needs to trust his teammates, play within the flow of the offense, and start putting effort on D. He knows this, he himself said he wants to start defending the opposing team's best player. Expectations are high because he can do better!

 

Really? I felt like it was to be honest. I've always pointed out his horrible defense myself, and recall people getting angry at him on a regular basis for it.

 

Young immature team with a lot of growing to do.

 

Where is this criticism coming from? Everyone seems to be so sure Harden's off court activities are to blame for his lackluster effort.

 

We have many NBA coaches that post here, so they have been enlightening us the last 24 hours.

 

Howard was the No 1 lazy bum.

 

I think Van Gundy would faint if he saw our defense in the last two games. The other team's guards penetrate at will, we don't stop the ball in transition, we don't pack the paint when the defense is set and we seem to be confused as to who closes out on shooters. I can understand the offense stalling when our two best play makers are injured but the lapses on defense are absolutely horrible. Dwight is right, all these things are just effort and focus and this squad does not have it right now.

The other thing that bothers me is the stupid calls that Dwight gets when he posts up. Everyone keeps complaining about his turnovers, but none of those offensive fouls that he gets called for are legit. I like to see them keep going to Dwight over and over again and force the refs to keep calling those flops to make them see how stupid they look.

 

We really need to let go of this excuse.

Howard - 10th season been to the finals
Harden - 5th season been to WCF
Parsons - 3rd season but 4 full years in college
TJones - 2nd season acceptable
Bev - 2nd season but plenty of European experience

Along with veterans like Garcia, Brooks, Casspi on the bench

Yes, we are young but any team with the 2 best players at their respective positions ought not to lose against garbage teams like the Jazz and the Suns who were on a back to back.

Those teams are more inexperienced than the Rockets.

 

This. Mchale gets burned by Harden and mchale rewards him with 40+ minutes.

 

You get to the 4th quarter. Your backup is playing decent. Your superstar is having a bad game.

Who do you play in the 4th quarter?

 

Meaning Beverley or Brooks!

 

Oooo Popovich would play his backups.....

Oh wait wrong guy, of course McHale will play the superstar!

 

Who exactly is supposed to call out Harden? I'd say it would have to be another player who is hustling and playing hard, and I don't see that guy. It's certainly not Dwight.

 

I'm not entirely sure about that, and with any coach really. I think almost any NBA coach will bring out their superstar in the 4th quarters 99.999% of the time when no other player is playing particularly well.

Especially with Harden's history of 4th quarter breakouts.

Had McHale left Harden on the bench, we most likely still lose and people complain that we should have brought our superstar in to dominate the 4th quarter like he has done so often.

 

Dwight has always spoken out.. that's his problem! He say's the stupidest things sometimes.. he's right in this case but the problem I have is I rather him LEAD BY EXAMPLE He doesn't have much credibility if he struggles and cant lead a team against CHANNING FREAKNING FRYE of all people..

 

Uh, when you're getting significantly outplayed by the bench, then yes, Popovich would leave his bench in.


Just 1 of many examples...

http://www.beyondthebuzzer.com/2013/04/15/popovich-benches-tony-parker-for-playing-awful/

Pretty sure, the way Harden was playing, he was also "awful".