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Is there a path that leads to a Championship in the Harden era?

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Sweet Lou 4 2, Sep 14, 2020.

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  1. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    Harden - the greatest scorer right now in the NBA - with whatever issues people want to ascribe him, still is an amazing player. But clearly there are problems with the pairing with Westbrook - namely that it's too easy to take the ball out of Harden's hands and put them into someone who is far far less deadly. Westbrook - is not the shooter, playmaker, or basketball savant that CP3 is. And we see the impact in these playoffs.

    So the question is, which the current rosters, contracts, and availability of picks - is there a path to a championship? It appears to me that the Westbrook contract leaves this team stuck. You can't move Westbrook, and he takes up too much space to add anyone else that could be the guy you need with Harden.

    The whole reason of acquiring Chris Paul was because Harden was getting doubled teamed and couldn't do it alone. He needed a 2nd triple threat player - which CP3 is, but WB is clearly not.

    I don't see how to move forward. No cap room, no picks, and no trade pieces. How does this team solve its problems and get significantly better to challenge the upper echelon of teams, including a refreshed GS?

    The Rockets are trapped in no man's land where they are too good to miss the playoffs but too weak to be a top tier team. Is there any possible move to improve this team significantly?
     
    #1 Sweet Lou 4 2, Sep 14, 2020
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  2. Reeko

    Reeko Member

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    get a real tactician as a coach...get a big...bolster the bench that has been the worst in the league for 2 years with guys that aren’t low skill specialists...pray Russ learns how to dribble, pass, make a free throw, and become respectable from midrange (him being decent from 3 is a lost cause)...then hope for the best

    Rockets with all their issues still had a chance to win games 2 and 3 against the Lakers

    Harden has gotten better every year in the postseason...there’s been a clear progression from 16-17, to 17-18, to 18-19, and then this year where he averaged 30, 6, and 8 on 48% shooting...hope that continues as well

    other than all that I just came up with off the top of my head, I got nothing else at the moment
     
    #2 Reeko, Sep 14, 2020
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  3. lnchan

    lnchan Sugar Land Leonard

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    [​IMG]
     
    #3 lnchan, Sep 14, 2020
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  4. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    1.Acquire Chris Paul
    2.Put together historically great team around Harden & Paul designed around switching defense to negate the warriors motion game
    3.Get Home court
    4.Keep Paul healthy/avoid Scott Foster for big games
     
    #4 SamFisher, Sep 14, 2020
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  5. kjayp

    kjayp Contributing Member

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    There's always a path... just a matter of finding it...
    First thing we can do is quit painting ourselves into a corner with high risk/high reward gimmicks...
    Try to draft and develop some guys... never know when u might catch lightning in a bottle...
    Get a coach that can push our guys - and hold them accountable if they're not hustlin...
     
    #5 kjayp, Sep 14, 2020
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  6. bingfei236

    bingfei236 Member

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    Pray and every other teams get major injuries or...

    Owner get rich
     
    #6 bingfei236, Sep 14, 2020
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  7. ksny15

    ksny15 Member

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    Not really. No picks to trade. We have overpriced aging players in EG and Russ so no cap room. Tough. But it is what it is.
     
    #7 ksny15, Sep 14, 2020
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  8. Cstyle42

    Cstyle42 Member

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    This path to championship is not merely all about having a championship team full of capable players. It's a mindset and mentality the Rockets organization has to truly commit to and from there it trickles down to the players and the coaches.

    Once that's in place then it's being able to defeat the agenda the league has scripted. After that you can win a championship.
     
    #8 Cstyle42, Sep 14, 2020
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  9. YOLO

    YOLO Member

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    There is if you find a way to get rid of westbrick. Until then, he holds harden and entire rockets organization back for years to come
     
    #9 YOLO, Sep 14, 2020
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  10. javal_lon

    javal_lon Member

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    Food poisoning
     
    #10 javal_lon, Sep 14, 2020
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  11. Hank McDowell

    Hank McDowell Member

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    I don’t really think so. The salary issues and lack of trade assets means we would need to luck into something. Possible, but going to be tough I think.
     
    #11 Hank McDowell, Sep 14, 2020
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  12. javal_lon

    javal_lon Member

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    Agreed.. I was so sick of the word "assets" in the Morey era
    Asssets described our plays after timeouts in the clutch..
     
    #12 javal_lon, Sep 14, 2020
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  13. s3ts

    s3ts Member

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    The head coach that can establish a clear system and light fire under the asses of the players on this roster is one of the biggest keys to this puzzle.

    In-game adjustments, but also a system that can prove to be a 55-win team without putting too much pressure on our star players.

    If some of these role players step up mid-season, we can definitely make some big trades to flip the script on these guys.

    I believe that Morey can do a lot for us. I'm sure Harden and Russ believe that too. If Tillman would stop getting in the way, this can get a lot more interesting.
     
    #13 s3ts, Sep 14, 2020
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  14. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    Give Westbrook the ball more and have Harden move off ball. That way Russ will stop being inefficient and Harden will be able to run off screens and score because no one will be watching Harden.

    [​IMG]
     
    #14 HP3, Sep 14, 2020
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  15. HP3

    HP3 Member

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    In reality....Westbrook will never be good enough to back Harden up.
     
    #15 HP3, Sep 14, 2020
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  16. snowconeman22

    snowconeman22 Member

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    get boban
     
    #16 snowconeman22, Sep 14, 2020
  17. TexAg713

    TexAg713 Member

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    trading harden to golden state for luxury tax savings. oh you mean for the rockets
     
    #17 TexAg713, Sep 14, 2020
  18. larsv8

    larsv8 Contributing Member

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    Westbrook retires and we get that cap back.
     
    #18 larsv8, Sep 14, 2020
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  19. utgrad97

    utgrad97 Member

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    Nope. You need to completely rebuild. Harden, House, Tucker, and Covington are the only guys worth keeping. Probably McLemore too. You need shooters and he was statistically the best on the team, but for some reason D'Antoni thought it was smart to give watch Rivers and Gordon brick shots left and right.
     
    #19 utgrad97, Sep 14, 2020
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  20. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    If Houston were LA you got superstar FAs lining up to join Harden.

    It's just fate.
     
    #20 daywalker02, Sep 14, 2020
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