Remember when Bill O'Brian traded Hopkins For a bag of magic neans. Because Nuke would not kiss his ass That is the culture change everyone wants. Kiss the ring or be traded. Rocket River
Rockets will exist after Harden is gone and while it's likely they won't ever find a player like Harden for some time they can still be a relevant team and even field teams better than the Harden led ones. I'm not sure what to expect when Harden is gone but the gold standard for this organization should not be almost winning championships, it should be winning them. The Rockets under Harden have 0 finals appearance. So for some people to go "Yeah, after so long of this I'm ready to move on." Is not that wild of an idea for me. Some people simply don't think Harden can be the lead guy on a championship team. I mean the fact is we're not always going to have Harden, eventually, the team has to move forward and Harden is the one requesting a trade. As for the culture, Harden has to take some of the blame, along with the coaches, and FO members. They should all get blame
It’s not likely to be true for a very long time. Some way somehow they going to have to get lucky and by the looks of the FO in the last two years what gives anyone any sort of confidence of that happening. There’s next to none the gold standard has been competing for a ship. That’s what the rockets have been trying to do while other teams for the last several years just waited for GS to fizzle out and didn’t even bother. They didn’t do all they could in the last 2 years though the specific amount of blame you want to throw around is irrelevant. That doesn’t solve nor mean much. What matters is what has been the primary reason the rockets have been as relevant in the last near decade. Harden. Rockets will exist after this. So what. Doesn’t mean they will be any good. They won’t be. And that culture talk bs is just that.
These folx loved the Bob Sura teams that "tried hard and played the right way " That barely made the playoffs. @DaDakota loved that squad. Rocket River
Miami’s structure of hardwork and discipline got them to the finals. Along with team based basketball.
Hopefully this "culture change" involves spending money this time instead of moving Heaven and Earth to avoid the luxury tax. In this day and age, being willing to go into the luxury tax to fill out your roster is MANDATORY to compete for titles...not optional. Shame that we possibly won't have a player here worth pushing all our chips into the middle of the table for so I doubt it. We were robbed of seeing what could have been and now we're left with a bunch of what ifs. You never know what tomorrow will bring and we were sold on tommorow. We'll pay the tax next year because we're worried about the repeater tax down the road. Now the road is a dead end. Shame...
They aren't a family, most of the players around the league are not super close to the majority of their teammates. Players are traded all the time, new players enter in the draft and older players are dropped from the league. On top of that coaches change often. They are professionals and that is all. They need to have some degree of chemistry but that is it, and that doesn't require being friends or like a family. The NBA isn't like "youth/HS basketball", they are not 10 years old. The best players have for at least 40 years have played by a set of rules completely different. Be that Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan or LeBron James getting coaches fired...... or players practicing when they want and how they want (Larry Bird, Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, James Harden, Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon or Gary Payton). The rules for the top of the NBA are and have been different and they will continue to be. There is a reason that teams give super star players a separate set of rules, they will leave otherwise. That is why someone like Pat Riley would allow Shaq to practice only when he felt like it or party late.... just like he did with Magic Johnson and James Worthy....... that is why Phil Jackson turned a blind eye to MJ and Rodman being out in casinos at 2 pm the night before a game. When teams try to limit superstars, they leave..... like Moses Malone, Kwahi Leonard and Paul George. This is the league and how it has and will be and role players KNOW that and the vast majority of them know that the very best players play by a separate set of rules. What is so funny to me about all of this is that sometime in the next 10 years the Rockets are going to get a player they think can become a franchise level player......... and there will only be like 1/3 chance he will become a franchise player, and the overwhelming odds are that he will not be in the same class as James Harden....... and over time, that player will be treated differently, like al other "franchise players" and everyone will forget all this BS talk about "changed culture" and everything else.
And Sura danced and drank the night away then too. Superstar or not, NBA players are used to and have received preferential treatment.
Which one of them was better (at the time) than the second best player on the team we lost to in the playoffs?? Rocket River
I dunno. I agree in broad strokes, but that's not the impression I get listening to JJ Redick's podcast, CP3 interviews, etc. I'm not saying the NBA is like high school basketball, but I think it builds a little more camaraderie than your average 9-5. There's a difference between being a star-driven league and letting your star player absolutely walk over everybody. I mean let's take it to the extreme - your superstar doesn't 'do' practices. He wants to show up for games and literally nothing else. You're suggesting every coach would just say "cool, you do you, we're nothing without you". I'm not buying that. I've been a staunch Harden supporter forever and don't blame him for wanting out with Morey/MDA/Westbrook all out the door, but I'd be lying if I said that ESPN article didn't disappoint me and change my opinion on him a little bit. The Celtics apparently lost all interest after in trading for Harden after an investigation unearthed 'major character question marks'. Clearly, teams care a little bit about things like showing up on time and being a team player. You have to draw the line somewhere.
What they do after is irrelevant. How can you expect to draw better free agents if we don’t have the ability or structure to retain the ones we get? If CP3 and Dwight don’t like playing with you then why would Jimmy Butler or Anthony Davis? Reputation matters
