USA Today: James Harden and Rockets impressed by Stephen Silas

Like I said before: If Kobe can retract his demand of being traded years ago, Harden can too.

From a coaching and personnel perspective, Harden's not going to land on any team that will give him this kind of freedom or depth once Wall/Cousins/Gordon comes back. Any team that trades for him is going to have holes up and down their roster after said trade.

 

How can you not be impressed with him so far?

 

He’s a good guy and he deserves a chance. It’s a moment of truth for James, he can buy in and give coach Silas the respect he deserves and see where this goes or continue to pout. One thing I’ll give Rah-fell is he didn’t cave to the lue thing

 

So they take out two sentences out of the post or pregame video and make a big story out of it. Lame

 

First positive national story about James in sometime.

 

I withhold my verdict until I see more of the defense. It might be personel issues for now, but it seems like we have been bamboozled on defense against both Portland and Denver

 

Well, he is 0-2.. I'm hopeful though

 

Get rid of house.

 

If CJ and Murray torch us on contested mid range twos, then let them. The back cuts and wide open layups that we give up are awful though.

Wall and Gordon are GOOD defenders. Having Cousins back to situationally start against bigger lineups will only help Wood. Harden is now a GOOD defender IMO.

Idiots like House getting less minutes and trash like Caboclo and Broderick getting NO minutes can only help us.

 

this was basically just recapping and repackaging post-game quotes

meh...

 

We're missing what could be our 3rd, 4th and 5th best players and lost against perennial playoff teams. The silver lining is that Silas is giving our young players a lot of PT and that helps to determine who can or cannot contribute once those players come back.

 

Hard to win when like half our salary cap is watching the game from home.

 

Bill Worrell's Clutchfans account confirmed

 

Not to mention that House is playing like crap. Our other role players are trying to do a little too much out of necessity so once they are settled into their roles and everyone is playing a reasonable amount of minutes including Harden, Tucker and Wood I think we will see this team start to gel around 15-20 games in especially on defense since offense is not likely to be an issue.

Wall, Gordon and Cousins are some of our top players on offense but also on defense since they have so much experience and fairly high IQ's for the defensive end so will likely understand what Silas and the coaching staff is preaching better than Tate, Brown, Nwaba, etc. and even House who has only ever had major minutes on an MDA switch everything defense. Wall, Gordon and Cousins can also help the young guys/new guys as 2nd coaches so Harden and Tucker aren't the only ones barking at the younger players. Having Bmac on the bench will help too when the situation calls for it and although his defense is suspect, I think he has a decent enough IQ to figure it out but does sometimes get lost similar to House.

I do think we will need a 3rd string backup C that can fill in minutes at time. I have a feeling that Wood can produce at the 4 alongside Cousins at the 5 for stretches depending on the matchup. That would put our big man rotation as Wood, Cousins and Tucker who barely qualifies as a big. Was hoping Bruno would take a step into NBA rotation worthiness but doesn't look like it is ever going to happen. Just no feel for the game at all.

I believe there are a couple of versatile bigs still available that had poor seasons last year like Dedmon but can't remember who else is still a Free Agent that could be a decent 3rd string PF/C. I believe Ian Mahinmi, Frank Kaminsky, or Joakim Noah could be had later in the season if he comes out of retirement. Another name to do the dirty work at Center would be John Henson. Just turned 30 and had a decent season last year with the Pistons.

I think House and Tate can fill in as PF a times depending on matchups but still need a reliable big off the bench that can fill in for Cousins and Wood especially since I assume Cousins will sit on back to backs? Hartenstein would have been a good fit as a junkyard style C on this team but I am sure we can find someone like that who has been cast off due to a roster crunch. Another idea is to trade players like Gordon, House, Tucker, pick(s) for someone like Aaron Gordon who could give good minutes at the 4 and 5 and would likely thrive playing with Wall and Harden.

 

Bbbut bbut Harden can carry a G league team on his back to the playoffs!

 

NEW on UNDISPUTED: Is James Harden warming up to staying in Houston?

“Harden says new coach Stephen Silas “did a great job”, is “very confident”. This a sign that James Harden could make things work in Houston?

 

I don't think James is changing his mind just yet but I think he should be upfront with the Rockets and maybe he is. If he wants to leave no matter what then let the Rockets know that. If he wants to give the team and Silas a chance till the trade deadline or this next offseason then go ahead and let the Rockets know that. I think the coaching staff and players deserve to know that either way and if the trade demand continues, it will be a distraction at some point although I believe Harden will still do everything he can to get W's since he loves basketball and competing.

Just think the team will buy in even more if they know their best player has bought in too. Wall, Cousins and Gordon will need to come out on point and show Harden how good this team can be with Wood as an up and coming star in this league as well as a fairly deep bench full of 2-way/3 and D/junkyard dog type of role players that seem to fit best next to Harden similar to Tuck, Ariza and Luc. Tucker, Nwaba, House, Tate, Brown and Bmac are about as solid of a 6-11 best players you can have on a team with 2 supermax players on a roster. Just have to start gelling on offense and defense sooner rather than later.

 

We have a few guys playing out of their roles. Let them settle in. This team will be solid. Nwamba is shaking some rust off. I loved his playing the passing lanes and tipping passes. Little things like that will start paying off.

 

get this media conspiracy outta my face!!!