I was going to insert a "Breaking Bad" gif, but I feel bad enough as it is! Someone please insert the Ronny Paul, for nostalgic purposes... ....... ....... .......
19 pts in the second half and you are still talking defense? I know Rockets defense is not good, but that's not why all the people in the world are laughing at them now.
I'm usually right there with you, but I don't blame anyone this time. 19 points in a half (in a national spotlight, no less) Our 48 minute defense and overall mental fortitude leaves a lot to be desired. We should have been up by much more at halftime with the way OKC was shooting. Hopefully Asik gets back soon and contributes off the bench. I'm all for shipping Lin and any combination of our bench players for an upgrade somewhere...we just flat out need players that are consistent shooters and can play some D. With two stars in place, our window is open starting now and we desperately need some quality depth if we're not going to be able to get that "championship 3rd best player" right away. That said, let's get Beverley and Asik back and see what we can do in the second half. Hopefully that serves as a nice wake-up call and we can build some momentum going into the playoffs. Screw the "young team" excuses...I want to go for it all now. You never know when that window is going to shut.
This was a scheduled loss. The bench has been terrible lately but for the 2nd quarter they played flawless basketball. If you take away what they did then the game would've been closer and nobody would be talking about it. McHale felt the bench could continue the hot streak so that's why he went back to them early on. That is why both Dwight and Lin played very little in the second half. Also, Scott Brooks used Perkins and that other douche to pester and bother Howard and it worked to perfection. The refs weren't calling it and he was getting irritated.
Yes, I still talk about defense. We are a small-ball team feeding on offense right now. The Thunders in the second half clamped down on us and made their offense easier as well. Defense is not just stopping others from scoring, it also gives you easy opportunities to score, which we didn't have (that's what Steve Kerr was talking about).
I thought I'd be more ticked off. Surprisingly not. This team is too up and down and can't stay healthy enough to really expect consistency.
This. People need to understand that last night is who this team is for better or worse. Its the tale of two teams trying to find middle ground. They are a team of runs, and a team that has to play small and fast to beat the big dogs of the NBA. That's just how it is. The Rockets have been considered a 2nd class team since Dwight joined, and nothing has changed. However 2nd class is still pretty damn interesting in the NBA. Do you think Golden State and Clippers fans are this miserable all the freaking time???.... Its time to loosen up, relax, and enjoy the ride while it lasts folks. The formation years with this core will be a great setup for the future. The first season of Breaking Bad had a great premise and ingredients to be the best show on TV, but had to allow a season or two for character development and to introduce those great side characters that helped the show progress along. This is just like that first season of Breaking Bad. At some point Walter White will finally choke out Crazy 8, and will go full blown Meth Kingpin, and at some point this team will finally click, find an identity, add supporting players that help drive along the development of this team, and they will settle in for the long haul. They are a 48 to 52 win team right now just starting out in their first year together with lots of off the court and on the court drama. However, the good news is they are just a few roster moves away from being a more consistent 52 to 55 win team for years into the future. The hard part is over. Morey got 2 foundational players on long term contracts. Now is the last and final piece to the roster puzzle. Filling out the roster with good role players, and developing players into key roles. Lastly comes the coaching. I can almost certainly promise all of you knee jerker McHale haters out there that Morey and Les WILL EVALUATE and decide McHale's fate THIS SUMMER when his contract is up. However you need to get over it right now, and just relax on the subject. He's not going to get let go until the Summer unless for some reason they drop out of the playoff picture.
Bullsh-t. The Rockets scored 73 points in the first half. 73 FREAKING POINTS! They had entire games in the Van Gundy era where they didn't score that much(and actually won some of them). Hell, they put up only 80 against the Hawks just a few days ago. To score 19 points in the entire second half has nothing to do with the schedule. It's because they played like crap. They didn't execute any basic plays like a simple pick-and-roll to get themselves an easier shot. They didn't make any adjustments when it became clear that scoring was a problem. They did nothing for 24 minutes. I mean seriously. How in the hell does a professional basketball team score only 19 points in 24 minutes? In this era where there are more possessions due to things like the 8-second rule and the 14-second reset shotclock. At home. It's pathetic.
This team is waaay far from being a finished project. Considering that Lin is an average PG (at best) and Asik isn't even playing, we have a lot of dead money that's of little use to us now - that will change sooner rather than later. Considering how young are rotation players are, we can improve a lot with just time - think how good Jones and D-Mo will be in 2 years. Finally, I don't think anyone, including the front office, ever considered McHale to be a championship level coach. I think he was hired to mentor some young kids, but we got two all-stars even quicker than we thought we could. McHale will be replaced soon enough by someone with better credentials.
The problem there is McFail's ineptitude could undermine the development of the younger players on this team. Despite have a team that's sorely lacking in quality depth, D-Mo has gotten almost no playing time. To the point that he's demanding a trade. And while Jones is playing and mostly doing well, recall that he never even got off the bench until it became obvious that the Twin Towers experiment was a disaster. I also don't like how he's handled Jeremy Lin. He's prone to yanking him from the game when he screws up, yet he tolerates way more mistakes and bad play from other guys.
The Rox just set a new NBA second-half collapse record and will be remembered for many years to come folks. If this is not the time we fans and the entire Rox team, starting from the coaches, get serious, I don't see when we will.
It's not all dead Money, since Parson is hideously underpaid, but if Morey plans to wait 13 more games before trading Assik (assuming he waits until the very last hour of the very last day), I don't see the Rockets finishing in the top four.
What do you expect to see? It's not like the Rockets haven't had bad losses this season. The blowout in Sac-Town. The blown 18-point lead in Dallas. The horrible home game against the Lakers. The loss at home to Sac-town. The drubbing in OKC. The home and away drubbings against the Clippers. The loss in Utah. They've had player meetings. They've said all the right things in post-game interviews. But nothing changes. They still don't try on defense(did you see the first 3 minutes of yesterday's debacle?). They still turn the ball over. They still struggle to pass into the post. They still miss free throws. They still rely on ISO ball too much. Nothing's going to happen after yesterday's disaster. The problems plaguing the Rockets are foundational. Until the organization comes to terms with that and starts to deal with it, the inconsistent play and effort will continue.
