We were terrible on D last year so they address it by hiring a coach who's system puts way more emphasis on offense as well as going out and signing two FA (Anderson & Gordon) who are really weak defensively. Your best player is horrible defensively as well. What am I missing here. So all these assets that Morey has acquired over the years has left us with this ragamuffin bunch? Glad Les will enjoy the style of play, but when they continue to get beat, because they can't stop anyone, don't b**** Alexander as this was your vision and you'll have nobody to blame but YOURSELF!!!
He's definitely relying on good teammates to be effective, but my main point is this (you'll also see those sentiments in Pelicans articles and threads): Gordon gives you good shooting numbers, but doesn't help the offense in any other way. Bad ball movement, gets stuck easily, doesn't see easy opportunities for teammates etc. Add his bad defense and the question is this: How valuable is a pure shooter who doesn't give your team anything else, effectively hampering your offensive versatility, ball movement, etc and making your team worse on defense? Is that guy really helping your team, or would it be better off with a just okay shooter that contributes in all other aspects of the game? Seeing the Anderson+Gordon signing and the MDA hire, it seems Morey tries to attempt a full run&gun team with little offensive schemes and barely any focus on defense. Maybe Gordon could thrive in that system, but I still would've liked to see Morey hiring an allround-player that contributes in a variety of ways. We already have enough one-dimensional players.
He definitely used to be a stud on ball defender, and before his injuries he used to LIVE at the free throw line. That is why peeps thought he had star potential. Since his injuries he has been reluctant to attack the rim and just not as good on D. If he can get that attitude and toughness back he could be a monster for us. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ycMHuEqgleo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Last year set the franchise back more than people realize. The Rockets did not win enough to attract elite free agents like Durant and Horford. Les Alexander wanted D'Antoni which meant Howard was gone. So instead of Harden/Howard/Horford you just have Harden. The GM has his job on the line and an owner that isn't patient and wants "names" added. So Morey went after the first tier of free agents that would talk to the Rockets and then went after players that can play the style D'Antoni and Les want to play. This whole thing is going to end up imploding because of the owner. The Rockets will win 45 games a year the next few years, Harden will leave, Morey will be fired and the Rockets will be a 25-30 win team.
I don't know if anyone else reported this, but apparently Memphis and New York were also after Gordon. Memphis couldn't clear up enough cap space, and I'm glad. Despite the injury prone combo of Gordon and Parsons, that team would have finally had some legit offensive firepower on paper. I don't get New York, though, after they just got done signing Courtney Lee. Or maybe they were after both guys and Lee signed first?
A lot better, when he plays, but he is one of the most injury ridden players in the NBA, he is always nicked up. Some guys bodies can't handle the grind, that is Gordon. DD
Doing this against Golden State in the playoffs. Gotta be excited about the potential. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xESiJFUSA3Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If Horford wanted to play with Howard, he would've stayed in Atlanta. He believed in the Celtics and their mediocre and above average talent over Harden.
Excited for this signing, hopefully being out half the season from a broken finger let him fully rehab his knees and labrum (his real injuries).
Agreed. This is eerily reminiscent of the Francis era. I always assumed it was Rudy and Carroll responsible for that mess(and in part, they probably were), but I never factored in Les at the time. But now that I reflect back on the moves made back then like handing out big contracts to subpar players like Mo Taylor, Moochie Norris, Kelvin Cato, and Shandon Anderson while trading for washed up vets like Glen Rice, it reminds me a lot of what we're doing now with Anderson and Gordon. Les didn't wanna rebuild then and he doesn't want to now. He wants to go for a quick fix when there isn't one there. Hell, we're even trying to reload around similar players. Francis just like Harden was a dribble happy ballhog who refused to play defense. Mind you, Harden is absolutely a better player than Francis, but there are definite parallels. The only thing that saved Les' ass back then was that we had a down year in 2001-02 thanks to Francis' migraine issues and Rudy being unable to adapt to the new defensive rules. After a lucky ping pong ball bounce, we were rewarded with Yao Ming. I don't wanna imagine where this franchise would've wound up had we not landed that #1 pick.
Dwight was gone way before any of that MDA crap. It was obvious there was unfixable chemistry problems and he just didn't want to be here anymore, especially with Harden. When he did that confessions episode on ESPN, everyone realized the Dwight era was over. We had as much odds of getting Horford/Dwight as getting Durant, which was always 0%. I also hope Harden leaves and we tank for realsies.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In 2017, Eric Gordon's salary will comprise < 12% of the projected salary cap. In 2014 cap terms, that's a $7.5M salary. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Relativity?src=hash">#Relativity</a></p>— David Weiner (@BimaThug) <a href="https://twitter.com/BimaThug/status/749641466583011328">July 3, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
