The truly sad thing about that Drexler trade is that it cost us Otis Thorpe. Man, I really liked that dude! At least he was able to go out a champion.
I'm a Rockets fan, but I'm happy for James. He's an amazing player and great human. I'm very happy for his mother, too. James wanted to win. Period. He has a chance now, and what he said about trying to win with hard-working John Wall and Boogie, both with horrendous previous injuries, was accurate. I love Boogie, but he can't say a whole lot about respect with his antics. But, John Wall spoke from a place of hurt. He wanted to play with James, but again, those injuries don't make a once-in-a-generation talent feel confident. Victor is going to be great for Houston, even if for a short time. He wanted out and he and Wall can at least make us semi-competitive. Tuck, House and, unfortunately, with our horrible owner, Gordon as well. EGo is in great shape and arguably our best player at this point. Wood needs more time and still looks lost at times. He's really going to miss those easy lob points from James. Get Tuck to a contender. Do what's right. Tuck will be out shortly, but not because ownership knows what's right. He's in high demand and like his brother, wants to win.
tbh i'm not really bothered. i think even super optimistic rockets fan knew that the cp3 team was the only real shot we were going to get. That one was the real killer. This is more like having your wisdom tooth removed. It hurts but you know you have to do it. i just wished we had a player i could get invested in. I doubt many of these dudes will be here beyond a season or two.
look at Sacramento, Minnesota, Chicago, or Phoenix before this season. They have been stuck in the rebuild wasteland for ages. star players don’t fall out of trees, you really get lucky as a franchise if you get one. Look at Milwaukee, they were the laughing stock of the league since probably the 80’s and they lucked out on Gianis. Bulls have never recovered since Jordan left. They had what seemed like a quick cup of coffee with D. Rose and now they are back to the irrelevant Bulls franchise they were before Jordan. we can’t keep on finding the Hakeems, Sampsons, or Yaos of the draft everytime. We were also very fortunate and took advantage of rare situations with Francis and Harden.
I told myself and others back in 2013 (Dwight's first year) that I would not be a fan of Harden and his game if he was not a Rocket. It was just not aesthetically pleasing to watch and at that time his no defense effort and lazy play started to show it's colors. It was same year we got trounced in the first round by the Blazers. I had started to warm up to his playstyle over the last couple years, but now that he's out - we'll see if I really meant what I said!
The Bullls have had an MVP he just got injured. The Bulls had Butler after that, they've had some good teams.
I don’t know man. Harden is more likely to get a title, and so are the Rockets. Harden may have end up getting both teams a title with this trade. Maybe his biggest Rockets basket ever. I’m glad it ended this way. Sad because Tilman passed a title away by penny pinching during the reign of a perennial MVP, but still it could have been way worse. Brooklyn will be horrible in 2 years, they will not be able to keep all 3 on the floor defensively and won’t be able to afford anyone significant if they’re still there. We’re good. Harden good.
Remove Scott Foster from existence (let alone keeping Paul healthy), and there's a good chance Harden is hoisting one or even two trophies in Houston, and none of this bickering, pouting, drama, unnecessary hate, disrespect, or revisionist history ever happens. Everybody recognizes Harden for the amazing performer he is, and he has his rightful place in Rockets and basketball history with the greatest of the greats... <sigh> Between the bad luck of falling just short at our peak and getting a new owner that is content to watch the world burn as he stacks cash, though... The future does not look bright.
This is silly as well. The reason the Rockets never won a ship this past decade wasn't because of Harden... The primary reason the Rockets were even a consistent contender for all these years was because of Harden overachieving year in and year out... He overachieved with rosters no other player in the league would've won a ship with and he came pretty damn close to pulling it off.... LeBron needs superstars or multiple stars to win a ship... KD needs multiple stars to win a ship... You can go down the list... If Harden had led the Rockets to even one championship it would've been a more impressive ring than any current player in the NBA... Think about that. Compare the talent he's played with in Houston to the other stars in the league who've won championships... his 2nd options: Dwight, CP3, and Russ... All three couldn't stay healthy and were often injured and in decline... Cp3 going down multiple times a year and when he was needed most. Now this is what the NBA has become because when it comes playoff time you're going to likely be facing multiple stars and if you don't have that on your squad, then you're going to be in the position of Harden where he's constantly double teamed and trapped without another player available and able to consistently make the opposition pay.
More excuses for the Beard still I see....Don't worry all the stat padding won't be for naught if he can get past Lebron. Butler didn't and Miami played as a team.
two things are what kept Harden from winning a title here, Paul’s hammy and the Warriors dynasty, getting eliminated 4 times to them. Imagine half of his 8 years here getting eliminated by the same team. That’s pretty much it. The Warriors were always in our damn way. Why couldn’t we get a 1994 Denver Nuggets team to beat them just once.
the Rockets, particularly Daryl did the best that they could. You know how hard it is to create super teams in the NBA? If it was easy then everybody would do it, and to try to do it in a smaller market is even tougher. Daryl was obsessed with getting a big three here and tried many times, from Ron Artest teaming up with Yao and McGrady to the failed last minute ditches by Carmelo first time and Chris Bosh. So he did what he could and get him the best available options out there for Harden to work with. we were never going to get a Durant or LeBron here but we got a still in high demand Dwight, a Chris Paul who yes is injury prone but still a hall of famer when healthy, and Russ an MVP just two years prior.
I'm not faulted Daryl for that... I'm just saying the facts.... That's what it takes to win and we never really had it... The closest was CP3 and we know how that went.