The biggest difference is Harden. He was lazy and entitled two seasons back, he became even lazier and more entitled last year (i shuda won MVP), and even more so this year. if you are the centerpiece of the team, that sort of attitude infects the entire team. and yes, it's on mchale also for enabling this before. harden's sense of entitlement grew out of control and the result is plain to see
even the most diehard of rocket fans, such as myself, incredibly and unfathomably start to lose interest in the team..
Yeah I'm a Rocket but love everything GS is doing.. they're playing the best basketball the game has ever seen
i have no intention of following another team. just waiting until our franchise finally gets it together. and i don't know if that can happen without big changes first. whether that means players/coaches/management/owner, i'm not entirely sure and wouldn't be surprised if changes to all of these might be necessary before well-played bball returns. but in the current state, the product on the court is simply an affront and disgrace to the game itself, making this team a torture to watch.
[Homer and Bart are chasing the rolling rotisserie pig. It rolls through some bushes] Homer: It's just a little dirty! It's still good, it's still good! [the cart falls off the edge of a drainage culvert, and the pig floats down the stream] Homer: It's just a little slimy! It's still good, it's still good! [the pig reaches a dam at the end of the stream and plugs the drain hole. The water pressure builds up behind it, until it launches out of the hole into the air] Homer: It's just a little airborne! It's still good, it's still good! Bart: It's gone. Homer: I know.
They played a Dallas team with injuries and lockeroom turmoil and the Clippers had an epic choke job. Otherwise this squad was always a first round exit
this pic belongs to the "what's wrong with the rockets" thread. it's fine to try to build his personal "brand". but at some point, harden has gotta realize, that, in order to successfully build his own brand, he needs to back it up w/ what he does well on the court. after all, he's a pro athlete. everything he tries to build really comes from that. many players have come and gone, and they had more/better talents than harden. you dont ever see them successfully build a "brand" (maybe for a short while), and this is why - winning matters.
The same product on the court that your looking at is pretty much the same product that made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals 7 months ago!!!!
the same players for the most part and the same coaching staff for the most part. the product on the floor, however, is nothing comparable to that playoff team in terms of effort, awareness, competitiveness, cohesiveness, attention to detail, defensive intensity, basketball IQ, etc. not even close.
Hate to tell you this Opie, but Capela ain't exactly a sharp knife in the drawer either. He's got pretty lame brain activity. You can see he's slow to process on the defensive end. And he's being exposed and exploited right now by our opponents because of it.
I sat behind morey and sorta near LA last night and I have to say there were several Morey Facepalms. They know. They're going to make a big trade. Tried to read his blackberry (he was rattling off a bunch of emails) but i'm not a great spy.
