Can replace him but at the end of the day it doesn't matter when harden isn't a true alpha in reality
We need a enforcer/loud player that can get the crowd and the team hyped up. In these past games I haven't seen any emotion on the court, they all look like zombies out there. Also another star player like PG13 or whoever wouldn't hurt. Obviously the Rockets front-court is incredibly inconsistent and lacks depth. The SF, PF, and C position could use one more player.
I'm not sure this is priority #1, but I want to see some specific development in the young guys: - Get Harrell some rebounding/shooting practice/turn him into a 4? - Get Dekker a consistent shot - Get Onuaku tuned up for some backup minutes next season - see if Zhou Qi can develop some muscle - Wiltjer...see if he can get some real playing time? - see if Troy Williams can be a true 3 and D threat - see if Isaiah Taylor can shoot better as well. These guys are all projects with some varying levels of potential. We have two second round draft picks this year (not our own), and I think they are almost unnecessary. We should probably trade them or use them on high risk/reward draft and stash prospects that have a Nikola Jokic chance to be more than just role players.
get another star if possible, if not, get another big man at least and get rid of ryan anderson, just waive him, we don't want this guy to be our starting forward, streaky shooter and not a good defender, can shoot 3 for sure, but nothing else
I think you take hard looks at Ibaka, Hayward, and Joe Ingles... but Ibaka and Hayward probably aren't going anywhere (will probably stay put for big contracts). Ingles may be the one guy that's actually available. Can we snag him? I don't know. But, most likely best case, is just keep the team together and keep developing the young talent, i.e.:
Getting a star should be the priority, as always...everytime you sign a star you just made a big step in the right direction. Problem is...i'm not sure we're going to get one, and yes, i do fear this last two games might be a big reason why this isn't going to happen. I still remember cyberx saying that Love didn't have interest in coming to Houston because he wasn't sure about Harden and Howard desire to win, well, that's probably the same thing LMA, Durant, Horford thought so, at this point i kinda expect Hayward and Paul to think the same and go to the Spurs, Boston eventually. My dream scenario would be the one where we trade Anderson Spoiler: Side note about Ryan love the guy but, aside the fact that i didn't like this signing from the start, in the long run it's just not sustainable (especially at that salary) to have a player who's just going to be a no show in every home game and play 4 on 5 everytime...maybe that's bearable during the regular season, but in the playoffs it's not and Lou, sign Hayward and after that Llull finally decides to come here for the MLE to replace Lou. Too bad i expect nothing of this coming true. We will be lucky if we can somehow get Millsap (maybe via sign & trade) or Griffin (even if i actually prefer Millsap at this point, we need more winners and fighters here, Blake is starting to look like a soft loser, also always injured and he's probably going to be paid more). Most probable scenario i see happening btw is we trade Lou and eventually one/two kids to sign Gallo and keep Ryan.
You don't need your best player to be an alpha to win a championship who is more alpha Wade or Lebron? Shaq or Kobe? KG or Pierce? Curry or Green? You just need your leader to also be a good player so he has cred, we already have that in Patrick Beverly. What the ROx need is more talent, period. Gordon, Ariza, Harden, Nene, Capela, Bev that's already a solid core but unfortunately the Rox play in a league that has multiple stars per team, we need at least one more instead we have mental midget Ryan Anderson making star money. If we had another star there's no way Rox lose this series.
the thing is i don't believe he is a true leader either. I've always questioned that and with good reasons. he portrays himself to be and all that but that's just by default because he happens to be the best player on the team. He folds all too much in the most crucial moments and doesn't take responsibility in 100% focus on the tasks at hand. This has happened way too many times and people are going to need to accept that. Yeah the rockets could use more talent but that talent means nothing if you're "leader" is a fraud
Need another Nene (or just resign him). Need to improve our bench/secondary shot creators. Need Capela to take dancing lessons and undergo electroshock therapy to prevent him from bringing the ball below his waist.
Sorry to ask again but how much cap space would ariza and Lou create? Is moving those two along with our cap space create enough close to max?
Griffin would be but good but given how frail his body is i'm not willing to offer the max. I think we go after Millsap Add depth at the 1 spot fortify the 4 and 5 spot with Nene and another big .
A BIG BIG so Capala can be allowed to properly develop and eat a lot of cheerios or something. Bulk. Then he can play power forward or at least have a freakin enforcer in there. NENE is Perfect as backup center. I can see anderson or Williams being swapped or traded if possible for a solid ariza backup up. Rebounds and those stupid gimmes I talked about deciding games definitely stuck in my crawl in game 5. The rest was just a fast slide down hill.....what crap. Ariza played his ass off and Bev never quit. Oh how broken I was when NENE left the game...
Ariza + Lou salary is basically 15M, add this to the 12 (pretty much, can't remember exactly now) we have by default and we're close to 30M so yeah, a max basically, maybe in this scenario we would still need to dump one/two young guys, not sure now but yeah...we're right there. Keep in mind that Ariza + Lou salary is still 5M less than what Ryan is counting by himself so, assuming we're goin to pay 30x for Hayward, do you want to keep Ariza and Lou to have a great bench and you trust Harrel/Dekker/Wiltjer to handle some important minutes in the spot (while they still won't finish games though, a small ball 4 will)? Or you prefer to keep Ryan cause you don't trust the young guys but you lose two guys like Trevor, Lou (and a couple of young guys) in one shot? Personally i'd keep Ariza and Lou (but i'd still look to trade the second during the summer or during the season) since they would keep our bench strong and the first can play in a small ball lineup to close games. Also, when he's going to expire, there's a good chance Trevor will be ok in staying here for cheap.
I agree at this point, between them bring in Millsap, they guy is a fighter who lives to play basketball, he would make us better and we need that player profile badly.
Well IMHO in a perfect world of course you want your best player to be the leader. In the real world that's not always the case though, for example in Apple Steve Jobs was clearly the most talented person in the company but he hired Tim Cook to be the leader, that's because leadership is different from ability or skills, although some are in-born leaders for most people it's an acquired skill you develop from interacting and learning from other leaders. OKC never really had a guy to teach them to be leaders, notice how Westbrick, KD and Harden are all lacking in leadership that's cuz they were all young and had no idea what was happening. The Rockets right now have an all world talent in James Harden, you have to work with what you've got. I think the season is still a success, I mean they made the 2nd round and lost to the team with the 2nd best record in the league, that's not something to be ashamed of. Before the season started everyone would've been happy with an 8th seed the Rox got 3rd seed and lost to the 2nd seed, that's not exactly an unexpected result.
Does it really matter who we get if Harden has performances like last night? The team thrives and dies with Harden and if he doesn't step up we'll still lose.
Thanks. Tough question keep ariza/Lou vs keep Anderson? While Anderson was a major let down he does do something elite which is shoot regardless what he shot this series or playoffs as a whole. Ariza and Lou aren't elite at anything. I would hate to see ariza and Lou go but if I had to choose I keep Anderson and trade ariza and Lou and try to find other replacements for them. Also I'm not saying for Anderson to be our end all be all. I wouldn't mind him coming off the bench and he seemed ok with it also. He would just be a really expensive role player.
