the supporting cast is atrocious appalling dreadful terrible abysmal lousy godawful

Before the season started, most people on here were saying how deep the team the was.

 

The talent is definitely there, it's the lack of system. Our offense is just stand around and watch.

 

Should be a good team. But a combination of everyone coming in out of shape, having not touched a basketball all summer, injuries, bad coaching with no system and no integration of the new guys....

We don't have the team we should. We have the dog's breakfast.

 

On paper we're amazing. It's no accident many people thought Rockets would win regular season.
If when DMo returns and we get to play couple weeks with everyone healthy and we don't go for like >.600 in that stretch I say get rid of entire coaching staff, because the problem is too deep and we need people without ties to Morey, who are actually good at coaching and will squeeze the most of this roster. Not the most along Morey's rules.
Wish I realized it this summer, that these depth additions wouldn't work, since you just can't add people to a non system and expect to make it better. There's no IT so IT can't get better.
And I think it's too late to implement new system under new coach during the season, we gonna have to wait offseason

 

Usually players may go into shooting slumps......
Right now it feels like everyone is having a shooting slump at the same time.

It will come together, everyone will get their form back -- then watch out.

It's not over just yet

 

I was the only that thought this team wasn't that deep. But yet I was bashed for it.

 

Is the talent really there? Forget the lack of system, coaching, etc. Based on talent alone could you say we are comparable to Spurs, Cavs, or Warriors?

 

If we were to disregard this season's outlier performance then yes, we are absolutely a contender on paper.

Howard = Best center in the league

Harden = Right behind Curry and perhaps LeBron as best player in the league

DMo = Top 5 post player in the league

Bev = Ideal complementary 3&D guy next to Harden at PG

Ariza = Ideal complementary 3&D guy next to Harden at SF

Lawson = All-star numbers on paper who was supposed to help Harden with playmaking duties and bring us over the top this year

T. Jones = Capable starting PF on a loaded team, better than backup PFs of vast majority of NBA teams.

Brewer = One man fast break which meshes perfectly with our hounding defense

Terry = Veteran PG who's 3 point shooting is more ideal to Harden's game than various other PGs for a similar price

Thornton / KJ / Harrell / Dekker / Capela = All guys that are worthwhile projects at this point in their careers. Harrell exploded early on and Capela seems to be a nice surprise at this point too. If even one of these five surprised us with contributions I expected at least WCF again.


Then the actual season started. DMo was injured, Bev injured early. Dwight plays 60% of games. Harden mentally checks out 80% of games. Chemistry and injuries are things talent on paper doesn't directly inform you of.

 

It seems no matter who the Rockets step on the court with, they are always outmatched at the 1 and the 4. I was hoping Lawson would be a significant upgrade at the point, but so far he has been a total bust as a Rocket. If D-Mo can come back healthy at the four that will help on the offensive end, but he's still soft when it comes to rebounding and defense.

 

you are not going to win the west when you are weak at the 1 and 4. Every contender in the west besides us has dominant players at the 1 and 4..

 

There's been too much 1 on 1 by players like Ariza and Brewer and just too taking too many contested shots.

I think we're looking better as JB is finding different rotations that keeps the ball moving and players moving. Hopefully, the law of averages will start to work in our favor.

 

Agreed. There also appears to be a team chemistry problem. It seems talent was able to cover that for awhile.

 

But what's the major difference from last seasons squad? Dorsey, Smith, KPap and a few other scrubs.
Yes we miss DMo, but no more than we missed Howard and Jones throughout last years regular season.
This team is a basket case in comparison.

 

I just think it's the system. Morey needs to get away from the teams strategy and just hire a good coach and let them do their thing. We tried the whole 3 point thing it didn't work time to move on. Morey will make some amazing trades soon, we all know this, but will it be too late and will it matter because we have the same coaching staff and 3 point shooting philosophy.

 

Dorsey and Smith had defensive presence down low and could rebound their asses off. They weren't good offensively but the Beard was balling outta control and Dmo was a low post threat so they made up for that.

 

We had Josh Smith to play PF defensively and run the offense through. Hindsight is 20/20 but we are really lacking what JSmoove brought.

 

the supporting cast would look a lot better if the big 3 were delivering

 

The supporting cast is fine. Many other playoff teams have much worse. But they are all currently playing like crap. Esp Brew and Lawson.

 

They are the supporting class; but, what is there to support at this time?