More importantly, what are we doing about this moving forward? The lack of a plan or strategy to address our problems is the elephant in the room. This is by far the most frustrating part - watching the team make the same mistakes over and over.
Phoenix is not the first team to try and hedge against Harden and play angles... it is a strategy that has been utilized off and on for the last two seasons with mixed results.
If people are posting exaggerated reactions on the heels of a loss (especially a bad one), that is knee jerking. 1. Does Harden's D suck? Absolutely. There is no denying that. Guess what though? TONS of stars and superstars suck at D. Precious few superstars are two way and even fewer excel at both ends. At any given time, there are only a handful of stars. 2. I actually like McHale as a coach. Sure I wish he was better at time management for players, but I have been satisfied with most of the on the fly rotations and adjustments I have seen and in some cases pretty impressed. This is the FIRST year where his team has not drastically changed, mainly because it is the first core we had worth keeping. 3. Post play by Howard has always sucked. I am not sure why anyone would be DUMB enough to actually think that will change just because the color of his uni changed. Also, Howard's FT shooting has improved, by quite a bit too, so not too sure what tree you are barking up here. 4. Defense is an issue, but that will improve as the team gels. The season just barely started and you are expecting the team to play like it has always played together forever? Are you freaking kidding me? As players figure out and settle into their roles, this will improve. If by all-star break it is STILL the same, then you might have a leg to stand on here. 5. We play in a high paced offense typically which leads to 2 things; a naturally higher TO rate as a result and our players look uncomfortable in half court sets. This will improve, especially as teams try to tighten their transition D to force us into half court sets. Can this become problematic? Yes! Is it worth running around panicking like a headless chicken? Eff that weak crap. 6. We are a young team with 2 new starters, playing with a superstar that we only signed in the offseason. Our superstar center was never good at closing games. Our other star in Harden only started learning how to close out games last year. Again, I am not sure what you are expecting here, but seems you are the type of fan that believes in magic. 7. Dwight is too dumb and silly and Harden is too inexperienced. I expect us to sign or trade for veteran leadership later on in the season once the FO is able to figure out where we are as a team. Again, not a big deal at all this early in the season for such a young team looking to gel still. 8. We are a very young team full of really talented young players. It is natural to expect them to be cocky and over confident. They will grow and mature as time goes on. I don't know about you, but the vast majority of humans take a long time to grow up. For many, that actually never happens.
chenjy9, if anything, your responses use hyperbole and are emotional or poorly formed. 1. Harden's recent defense is lacking basic fundamentals and/or basic effort. He doesn't even watch his mark nor bother to stay on him. I don't know how you can compare this to the "bad defense" of any superstar in the NBA; it's something I haven't consistently seen an NBA player do and simply in a class of its own. 2,4,6. Agree, these things take time and McHale has improved. However, you missed the entire rationale of the first post, in that these things are still issues and there's nothing wrong with pointing them out. They may not necessarily improve over time. Your rose-colored glasses are just as idiotic as the exaggerated knee-jerk threads you discredit. Some of these issues need to eventually be addressed for the Rockets to contend at the highest level. This idea is not difficult to figure out. 3. Howard and the Rockets are intent to feature him in the post. Unless that gameplan changes, you have to demand better performance. There is a clear opportunity cost, either running a pick & roll or letting someone else shoot the ball, and some of these have higher value. His FT% is under 55%. Yes you noticed he improved his FT% from last year to a point still lower than his career average. Congrats. You also failed to realize the objective is to stop him from being a liability in Hack-a-Howard situations. 5. The Rockets have the highest TO ratio (pace adjusted) in the NBA. It's not about pace. [Their pace btw (98.87) is only 10th in the NBA as of today, nba.com]. You should look up some stats to support your eyeball knowledge of the Rockets. 7,8. Ok, so you somewhat agree here. Just remember, pointing out recurring issues is ok. Windows of opportunities are short in the NBA. Much shorter than waiting for players to mature.
I don't have anything to add. I would have replied to your new responses by repeating the exact statements in my previous post.
What is your definition of a superstar? To me, a superstar is both an offensive and defensive force. That's why they're extremely rare and you build your team around them. LeBron is a superstar. Kobe was one and just a star living off his reputation. I wouldn't anoint Harden a superstar yet. Does he have potential to become one? For sure. He's young, but still needs to improve immensely on defense.
LOL, after the win vs the spurs there was no opposition from these people about knee jerking the other direction was there? It's not knee jerk when the same excuses are now becoming a broken record. "ohh it happens, the heat lost to whoever, harden is hurt, it's team defense not one guy, (insert garbage team) is actually kinda talented, blah blah blah."
Just throwing it out there, in the last 10 games, starting from Dwight's 17-24 FT performance against Denver, he's been shooting 62 percent from the line. So he has thoroughly improved on the 49 percent. Just throwing that out there.
Harden is not playing as well as last season, and it's a legitimate concern. The Rockets need to keep to be a top four seed, and that's not going to happen if they keep throwing away winnable games. And CF is always going to be stirred up over something, so it might as well be the fact that our best player is not living up to his contract or expectations.
Question to the OP. How good do you think Lin and Parsons are? Are they not good enough players where losing them should not hurt the team big time?
I don't think it's something that can be generalized. I think some complaints are valid, and there are also some that I would probably classify as knee jerk reactions. Example of a reasonable reaction: "Our guys need to pick up the energy and intensity. We need one of the players to step up and lead them in doing this every game.". Example of a knee jerk reaction: *After losing one game following a 12 game winning streak* "Can we please trade Harden already?! He's useless. Wow big deal he scored 38 points in 4 straight games, but that was only cuz Lin and Brooks were passing the ball to him. Now he's only scoring 15! I mean wtf all he cares about are strippers. Fine let's just trade him for strippers then. Beverley is SO DAMN overrated!!! He let an elite offensive player shoot like 23 points against him!!! Tired of seeing him get owned then coming here where erryone is like omg this guys so good. Don't even get me started on McHale's white board. Why doesn't he just throw it to Howard EVERY play? Why would he play our superstar who only scored 14 points that game when we could keep in our backup who scored 17?! It makes no sense!!! McHale never gets the most out of his players!!! Sure he nearly took a team full of backups and injuries to the playoffs two seasons ago, but that's all null and void because Lowry was so super duper pissed off". A lot of times, when people refer to knee jerk reactions, they're in response to posts like those- and we've had a lot of them the last few days.
But who doesn't love playing with a guy that plays defense with little effort and takes the most shots? Harden has been disappointing this year.
I guess what you are saying is the issue with Harden is actually a broader issue with superstars in the league.
This team is still in a state of flux. If you try to make a move too early, you risk making a very bad mood. Because you might say - hey, our team sucks at D, let's bring in defensive minded players. But the defense on this team is evolving. It's not the same as it was last year. So you have to wait and see where the defense nets out. That might take 20-50 games People forget how hard the NBA is on both ends of the floors. The athleticism and speed - you make one step of an error in one direction - and bam - you give up an alley oops dunk. It's not an easy game. Especially for these young cats. Give it time, then decide. Give it until the all-star break, and then compare the games at that time to the ones now. See if there is a difference.
Until the zerg fleet moves on to the next poor franchise's fan base, the knee jerk and agendas will continue full throttle
Hard to watch the Blazers and Mavs. We obviously have better talent on paper but they either have a better record (Blazers) or they have about the same record(similar)(Mavs).
Yes, it's been like a month already. I can't believe the Rockets haven't figured everything out yet. Just because Harden has sore feet and we are missing Parsons, Lin, Smith, and Asik is no excuse. We are 13-7 which is only like the 6th best record in the NBA, this is just unacceptable at this point in the season. There are only 62 games left in the season. I really thought we would be better than Miami, San Antonio, OKC, and Indiana. Oh well, I guess there is always next year.
