Uh.... I don't see anyone on the roster looking like a young Olajuwon or probably even Sampson (before injuries)... I mean I think it's great to want to be optimistic, but if Sampson didn't get injured and other things didn't happen to the Rockets in the 80s they'd have probably been able to win one. But comparing this team to any of the better/best rocket teams is a stretch. Unless you get an injured playoff team in the 1st round, this team is probably 1st round fodder at best. Obviously as a fan of the team forever I want them to win but unless something changes by a miracle deadline trade or the rest of the better teams have players out, making the playoffs is the only bet I'd currently take.
Yeah short term people will say he joined a super team and left, but you start seeing the narrative change as seasons pass. I mean over time I expect people to just look up rings and the narrative to be less important on the "how", but more important on the number. We're already seeing that w/ lebron to an extent and I'm not comparing harden/lebron, I'm just saying years from now people won't remember the entire narrative. Like outside of historical sports fans, I don't think that normal fans are going to remember Leonard beating a broken GSWs team. They'll just look at the ring count. I mean even hakeems special run is already being forgotten, people outside of Houston probably think Drexler was probably on both championship teams etc etc
Imagine Harden buyung in and giving 100 percent in Olidipos role. They just may have been. Defense overall would still have been pretty good with Harden at least trying and the offense would most likely have been much much better.
Maybe when we're all dead and gone and people are just looking at numbers. But there are a lot of people to this day that still discount the Rockets rings because "Jordan wasn't in the league". People look at shaq's last ring and say Dwayne Wade carried him. Yeah in the grand scheme of things you still count those rings when discussing their resume but real life convos are a lot like this message board with people sitting around hanging out and talking sports and best believe when Jame's name comes up, IF he even wins a ring, folks will bring up (justified or not) that he was a notorious playoff choker who had to join kd and kyrie to win. One thing about lebron and kd they both at least carried a team to the finals before jumping ship and ring chasing. James won't be remembered like that.
Its a Rockets board and the 2nd most prolific player in the franchise history just quit on the team and was traded less than a month and you don't think folks are still going to be talking about him? Ok.
Not so, because Dirk Novitiski won his one and only title by being "THE MAN"..... I think his legacy is viewed differently than a Ray Allen, who had to join others to win a Chip
Oh, people can talk about him, sure. There's plenty of threads on him in the NBA Dish, since he's a current active player for another team. But do completely random thoughts like "Harden is a bad talent evaluator" really deserve their own threads? Doesn't really invite discussion, but rather, just turns the thread into a HOF vs HOH wasteland. Starting a thread based on a random thought + a clip of a postgame interview just makes you seem petty about him being traded rather than actually wanting a substantive discussion based on the 2nd most prolific player in franchise history.
Valid points, but I was just responding to the words on the page which were “move on from the relationship”....this was sports relationship that ended sourly. Moving on will take a bit of time for some on both ends of the spectrum. And I get what you’re saying about starting useless threads. This being one of them well that’s debatable. I think you’ll see a lot of pushback with threads like this because you have so many people who loved harden who have basically shitted on every aspect of the team (coaching, owner, all the players) in order to weirdly prop him up. Now that the team has had a stretch of good games folks are going to push back against that. Ironically enough, I am the one who originally posted this quip in another thread about Harden’s talent evaluation. Not sure if op saw it and started a thread about it or if great minds just think alike
I'm all for voicing an opinion on something like this in a post on a thread. I think you did it the right way. Just don't think it's worthy of a whole new thread. There's plenty of Harden-related threads in the GARM that are solid, like the one about Houston's defense post-Harden. Just, not every thought about Harden needs to be actualized into a thread.
Loved Harden but I was always pissed on him bringing the ball up the court slowly and wasting 20 seconds on the shot clock. Very impressed with Silas team keep pushing the ball and look for easy opportunity in transition. Team ball is much more fun to watch than iso ball.
At this point taking a lotto spot is a coin flip, so it doesnt hurt to aim for playoffs and get a good vibe for coaching staff. That okc swap should not be bad if we remain healthy Next year should be different and i think we'll know off-season whether ferntits wants a chance at picks.
As long as people are having fun about it. Enjoy the ride. I would be disappointed if those picks turn out to be not promising.
Overperforming middle-tier teams are always more fun than underperforming alleged contenders. (Analogy to dating deleted for sensitive readers.)