The series could have gone the other way with so many close/overtime games. But it remains that if the Rockets want to substantially increase their odds for winning a title, they need to have the talent to win more games convincingly and not put themselves in coin-flip situations in the first place. Sometimes the coin just comes up tails 4 times out of 7 if you keep on flipping the coin. The Rockets are pretty good-- 54 wins, 4th seed-- but pretty good isn't usually enough to win titles. It's on Morey to make them a whole order of magnitude more talented.
i'm sure he didn't think harden wouldn't be as much of an offensive liability as he usually is on defense. i'd bet that if harden was close to his reg season averages we would be in the second round right now. this series we had 1 superstar and a bunch of role players. the talent is there, one of the strongest rosters in the league. top 6 for sure. morey's done a great job, but if he keeps mchale its strike 1.
He was good tonight, but was terrible for several games in the series. The guy does hustle hard, but the typical T-Rob play is "grab an offensive rebound, then immediately miss a putback attempt or turn the ball over."
My biggest criticism is our lack of mid-range. I don't care what the stats/numbers say, when you limit yourself to 3s and layups, you make it easier for the opposition to gameplan defensively. Would you tell your enemy how you're going to attack them going into combat?
all you can expect from role players is to play big in a couple games a series. he clearly made a big difference for them in the 4th while LMA was resting.
He brought the spark off the bench. Every time he would enter the game this series, the Blazers would make a run.
Top 6 is nice, but you really need to be "top 1." As for coaching, we'll see which side of the bed Les Alexander wakes up from. There are certainly some candidates out in the market and Morey will consider his options. I still think talent is the most important thing.
It's not like it's a secret how any team plays basketball.. I mean, every team has all 82 games on tape. Every team knows how every other team would attack them.
yup. Been saying for a long time, never met with a favorable response. The rockets absolutely failed this year.
Is this a joke? First off, you are saying the Blazer's aren't talented. Lillard, Wesley, Aldridge, and Batum? Those are some pretty goddam solid players plus a good coaching staff. You're talking about a guy who found a Somalian looking pirate playing in Europe and turned him into our defensive spark. Top rated SG in the league with the best bigman in the game, and having a defensive starting level center as a backup. I'm placing the blame sorely on the coach. The way this team was built, we are easily a conference finalist.
Talent is important, but who's to say this group has peaked...? Outside of Howard and Lin... Even Lin could improve just by being more consistent and being made to follow one direction that doesn't kill his confidence rather than following several contradicting directions and trying to stick to all of them at the same time... Remember now, that game 5 win came with the help of outside intervention from Hakeem and Elie... Dwight pumping Lin up... Don't underestimate the importance of a proper coach... which McHale is the farthest thing from... The man isn't competent... let alone good... A lot of room to work with between incompetent and spectacular.... They need to get rid of him first and foremost...
I would say we had the talent but not the right game strategy. I dislike our style of play relying on fast breaks but not having strong enough defense to fuel the fast breaks. Ultimately, we played two completely different styles of basketball between the regular season and the post-season. Regular season was all about running, getting fouled and trying to blow out our opponents by out-hustling them. Playoffs have been about defense and pounding the ball in the post, where the hustle level was matched by the Trailblazers. We just didn't practice enough of the playoff style basketball. We didn't have enough off-ball movement, including cutters for Dwight passes. We certainly didn't (edited in) defend as well as we can with our talent level. Morey has said there isn't a difference according to the stats, between playoff and regular season basketball. This series should PROVE that there is. We need to adapt to it. 1) Commit to defense in the regular season 2) Commit to feeding Howard properly 3) Practice more off-ball movement on offense 4) Commit to the PnR with Harden & Howard and deflate the egos that are against this. 5) Set your eyes on the ultimate prize from day 1 of the offseason. Obviously this was year 1 of this group and we need more time to practice the above points.
