When it comes down to our talent we have a very good team. However their comes a point that we need to get maximum effort from everyone to win. Does our team sacrifice for each other or is their an opportunity for improvement.
Heart is not a thing. "Heart" is just a basketball buzzword for people who are unable to properly articulate what is actually happening on the court.
With Golden State being out of the way, i guess we will find out this year. My definition of a team with heart, is a team that will fight no matter what the circumstances or odds to the last whistle. Even in a loss a team can exhibit great heart. Teams with heart never quit and don't make excuses. As far as Rockets teams go our 17-18 team had incredible heart. Our 95 championship team showed more heart than team in NBA history. I hope this team has it, but there is only one way to prove it.
Heart is an unwavering, irrational belief you are going to win or overcome adversity to win no matter what. Even when you are down, have missed a ton of shots and have every reason to believe you are going to lose, you still know and believe you are going to win and will do whatever it takes obsessively to make it reality through practice, game planning, training, team building or just sheer effort in the moment. Some call it sports psychology, but mental toughness or "Heart" is a real thing. Jordan had it, Kobe, every sport you can find those athletes. Russell Wilson, Brady. People often think these guys are crazy, but they are ridiculously mentally strong. It's never too late to change your mentality, it's a decision you consciously make over and over until it becomes habit. To be the best you have to believe you are the best, then make a plan and obsessively execute it, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. When the team decided to keep teams below 100 points they were a top 3 defense over that span, they can do it but it's a decision and belief every day.
Question - Did the KD Golden State Warriors have the heart of the champion or overwhelming talent? Does it matter? Rocket River
to me it seemed he burned out his heart trying to teach harden how to have it so he run out of it... kinda harden taught him how not to have it....
An example of mental toughness and heart is the 2011 Miami Heat team that lost to the Mavericks. They had overwheming talent and should have won that year, but LeBron by his own words was mentally weak and needed to work on "Mental Fitness". When he did, he started destroying teams in the finals and breaking the barrier to win championships. You need talent to win, and overwhelming talent of course will help. But what happens when you meet someone just as good as you? Just as athletic, smart and talented? They can even be less talented and still consistently win with the right mentality. They both play a part, but mental strength is much more important if both teams are reasonably competitive with each other talentwise.
I say the Heart of a Champion is what made the Rockets take the Warriors to 7 It is that Heart that made them the only team to be competitive with the Warriors at their full strength. They just ran out of Talent on some levels Rocket River
I'd say "no," but then I remember we have Westbrook on the team. Westbrook has enough "heart" to power any team in the NBA to a championship.
You will never hear the word heart associated with that team. They are THE exception to the "heart of a champion" rule imo.
Heart (or effort or willingness to sacrifice or whatever you wanna call it) has long been our shortcoming... Stats, awards and future contracts are the driving forces... whether its MDA, or Harden or whoever... I know I'll get hate from people who wanna white knight for the team - but it is what it is... I'm not saying we have a bunch of lazy slugs that dont put forth any effort... but our org has for a long time tried to figure out ways to manipulate the system and take short cuts - rather than putting the nose to the grindstone... We had more heart, effort and hustle back when we were on the 'treadmill of mediocrity' with Scola, Lowry, Chuck, etc... didnt have the talent - but we had better more consistent effort.... imo... Also, DM and his willingness to move guys around like he's playing a video game (rather than dealing with real people) is prob also a contributing factor for the lack of personal sacrifice... I'm sure these issues/concerns are prob present with all organizations to some degree... but I aint worrying about other teams - I want our team to pull together and win a championship!