It was time for him to go, but I can’t get invested in this team. It’s obvious this is just a placeholder team
I don't miss having seemingly every SG / SF having career nights against us practically every game. Remember Corey Brewer scoring 51 against us?
how come gsw was clearly the better team when rockets had better rs record by a lot and even won head to head matchup? and they even needed push by scott foster... clint cp3 and harden had 50-3 record that year or something like that... THAT WAS A HISTORIC DOMINATION Clearly the rockets were the better team and it wasnt even close, were it not for scott foster and the injury
I posted something like this on Reddit and it got downvoted by a lot of Rox fans...so, it's probably not the prevailing view. But in short, yes, I'm really missing having Harden on the Rox, even though the end was ugly and I'll admit that watching the Rockets now is more fun/less stressful as the stakes are way lower. My unifying theory on Harden is that he's basically just an odd dude who doesn't have any sense of PR and handles himself in a very different way than other superstars. As such, he isn't really buddy buddy with the media or with most other players, and probably is seen as aloof and someone who is hard to connect with...easy then for everyone to turn on him when he starts acting poorly (see Clanton, Adam in his bid for social media and viral fame). But I don't think Harden should be viewed as some hated villain here in Houston...his last few weeks with the team were terrible, but I think that goes back to him being fairly media unsavvy and not playing the PR game properly (he's more Kawhi than LeBron/Steph/Giannis when it comes to the media). I compare those last few weeks with the rest of his 8 years here, which were mostly tremendous. He almost never missed games, he had some really bad luck (i.e., robbed of at least a 2nd MVP, 2018 CP3 playoffs hammy and terrible reffing, 2019 playoff CP3 sucked)....yet he drew completely unreasonable levels of hatred from the national media and opposing fans. For Harden, moving on now made sense in this "ringz or nothing" culture which he has been taunted by ever since he became elite, not to mention he had reasonable reason to assume this owner would steadily run the organization into the ground through the remainder of his prime. All in all, it was a very good run here for Harden and for us as fans. I, for one, wish he was still on the team, but I'm happy to cheer him on with the Nets (whenever he's not playing the Rockets, of course).
Very true, John Wall is a very heavy iso player too in his own right. Actually John Wall is second this season in isolation frequency, James Harden is number one, and Gordon and C Wood are somewhere around the early thirties for isolation frequency too. That's why the Rockets as a whole are so high in isolation plays. Also for what it's worth Dallas is tied for tenth this year in isolation frequency and was number eleven last year. So isolations plays are something you'll more than likely continue to see here from Silas. But the main thing is Gordon and I think even possibly C Wood are low basketball IQ players. Once they get the ball they aren't passing it out much, that's definitely gotta change. I'm hoping in the case of Christian it's more so that he has something to proof here and that's why he's been so ball dominant, but I'm not completely ruling out the thought he simply might just be a low basketball IQ player. I still like C Wood a lot and think he's someone we should build around, but he really needs to work on his offensive efficiency if he wants to go to the next level and become a bonafide top 3-5 center in the NBA (all-star level). https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/isolation/?sort=POSS_PCT&dir=1&SeasonType=Regular Season https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/iso...&SeasonType=Regular Season&SeasonYear=2019-20 https://www.nba.com/stats/players/isolation/?sort=POSS_PCT&dir=1
Nope. Sports are a huge inconsistent mess. I’d rather my team suck this year than in a ‘normal’ year when they’re supposed to be good.
I loved him when he was here but this year you could tell he was tanking and quit on the team. It was time for him to go. I don't know how I feel about the new team. No real identity yet. I do like how the young guys play hard and are hungry! Its fun to watch I just hope they can win some because I get tired of watching them lose.
Harden is an MVP. Of course I want him on the team, problem is he didn’t want to be here. I think the Morey / Hong Kong /China controversy really messed with the Rockets mojo. And it spoiled a good atmosphere. I think all Harden needs is slightly average players and he can get you 50-55 win a season. With elite talent, it’s a 60-65 win team. So yes I miss a Harden who wanted to be in Houston.
Yup, but Harden's game isn't a recipe for championship. I maybe wrong but it's been tried so many times already. I'd rather start new and try emulating something that works. E.g., a moving offense not centered into one super player. Harden's not a Lebron or Kobe or MJ. Funny but I see him more like Wade. It's good that he joined BKN where he has a Durant. He's very good though at being 2nd or 3rd fiddle.
If only everything ends during the regular season... That year, the team starting from Harden clearly lacks heart when the it gets tough. They're good when everything's good. But when adversity comes, everything melts.
Yep, At least he went to the East. So I get the best of both worlds. I don’t get to see much Haeden stomping on us while watching a young Rockets team flourish. No one but Lebron is coming out of the West anyway.
No don’t miss him one bit. wish he was still here but the way he was playing not giving any effort. I don’t miss him at all. If he had played all out that would have been a different story. Maybe if we had traded him right after the playoffs or offseason but he gave us pretty much just 2 games this season Excited about our young guys and I like the effort. Even if we don’t make the playoffs it’ll be fine as long as we play with effort, energy and start developing our young guys. Plus I know the team will be different after the trade deadline too and probably next season as well. It’s just fun watching this team.
After the historic 73-win season, the Warriors were clearly coasting in the regular season. How else do you explain them dropping their win totals after adding Durant? They also had quite a bit of injuries in the 17-18 season, with Curry missing almost a third of the season and Durant and Draymond more than 10 games each, I think. But they were healthy and dominated in the playoffs, steamrolling over opponents. The Rockets were the only team that really put up a legit fight. I pointed it out elsewhere. If you watched the series without the homer glasses, you'd see that they were confident and relaxed while we had to work very hard, especially on the defensive end, from start to finish. The first three games were blowouts with us behind 1-2. The next two games were toss ups that could go either way. The series could easily end in five games. I knew that that kind of energy spent on defense would put us in more disadvantage the longer the series went. We had no chance in Game 6. Game 7 was a tough fight. Sure, Scott Foster screwed us. But honestly, even if the officiating was okay, we missed a lot of shots in the second half because we didn't have any leg left. I've watched so much basketball, I can tell that usually the better team plays with confidence, even when they are not playing well or even behind. They don't panic because they know that they have the talent to turn up a notch. The lesser team has to play hard the whole time and has little margin of error. I had that feeling when I watched that series. Except for Game 2, every game was a blood bath for us. We couldn't afford any cold shooting stretch or bad calls. Same feeling with the Lakers series in 2009. It's the homer in me that say if Yao didn't go down or a healthy Mubombo would have won us the series. But I know that the chances of winning that Game 7 weren't very good even with Yao. In a way, it's more fun to be the underdog. You watch the game on the edge of your seat the whole time. That's what makes sports exciting. Blowouts are boring. Lopsided talent matchups are boring. That's why this collusion of forming superteams by the players is something I really hate.
So it’s weird.. that first nets game I was hyped for and I didn’t care about rockets game. I almost felt like a fake fan. Since then I just catch the Nets when I can and I root for him to do well. Besides that I don’t miss him too much. I will admit though, all the **** he keeps talking makes it harder to root for him
I wouldn’t say it’s the exact same thing. For one our Harden Chris Paul team won 65 games; and had game 7 on their home court. But you’re right in that it’s definitely possible that Warriors could have still beaten us. I definitely think it would have gone 7 either way.
