What do you have to say about the trailblazers who didn't make playoffs last year & the suns without "2 superstars" ?
Blazers never had the objective to stay competitive over 0.50 every season. Tanking, being bad or just developing talents came natural to them. Of course some fans always get frustrated but that's part of the game. I have not much to say about the Suns. Their fans should just enjoy the ride. They might stay mediocre or surprise them. Being good enough for the Top 3 spot but not able to play to your best is not as hard to accept as being always mediocre but it is still frustrating.
Tomorrow Harden will be matched up against Klay Thompson. I'll reserve judgment as to the issues raised in this thread until after tomorrow night's game.
The thing is we are hardly better than the Warriors, Clippers, Blazers (second tier contenders) in full strength as of now. Our record may be acceptable and rightfully meeting standards but if you watch the games against teams like the Lakers, Clips, Philly, Utah, Mavs and now Suns those games are downright sloppy and really not bearable. Not to mention some wins against the Knicks, Raps and Bobcats were ugly as well.
I understand where you're coming from with the majority of your points. I may disagree about whether or not they're "knee-jerK" related or not, but they are intelligent points to debate. However, I take issue with your final claim. I don't know if it's the basketball coach in me, but you cannot make a fair, logical assessment of a player or coach's commitment to winning, the element of humility and definitely the notion of respect. There is no way to measure a player's commitment to the game or the extent of an alleged ego, without being that player or having access to all of their thoughts, including subconscious thoughts/thoughts leading to actions. It must be the basketball coach in me because I immediately took it as shot at someone's character. For example, I coach AAU ball and a JV for an impoverished high school, and even though we work our asses off, we are having a difficult season. This is by far the least-talented team I have ever coached. But, if you implied to me that there was a deficit in my commitment to winning, or my players' commitment to winning, I'd probably respond with an "ugly" kind of question: "Have you ever played or coached the game at a high level to understand the work that goes into the wins AND the losses?" Look, every team has issues and a few of your points are valid, specifically the turnovers because it is measurable. But, I do consider some of your points knee-jerk type of responses because some have no statistical merit. I may be one of the posters that despises McHale the most. I despise his in-game decisions, I despise the things he says before, during and after games and I completely despise his responses to questions that he is asked about his role as a coach. I flat out don't believe he is qualified to be the coach of this team. But, I will not BELIEVE, to any extent, that he is NOT committed to winning, or lacks humility and respect. That in itself is a knee-jerk thought process. The same goes for questioning these aspects with our players. Criticize our Rockets all you want (like we all do as fans at some point), but at least admit that you are contributing to the "knee-jerks" that you have mentioned your annoyance towards. Love my Rox and fellow fans, -Cod
Agree with OP, but we could do without the actual knee-jerks, such as: - Howard is a scrub, worst C in the league, we would be better without him, trade him for a bag of chips! - Harden should come off the bench, loses us every game, trade him for a bag of peanuts! - Lin should go back to the d-league, forget 6th man, he can't be the 16th man! - Fire McFail! - Parsons is a 12th option at best, trade him for James Anderson! And so on...
Parsons is also in a state of flux. It's interesting because he played well in the last few games he played in and then he got injured and the Rockets started to play bad. Suddenly in the GARM, he's heralded as the glue guy that makes everything work. What people don't realize (or forget), is that before that string of good games, Parsons was the worst starter on the Rockets by +/- and was imo, the smallest value over a bench player at that time. It would be knee-jerk to make a conclusion about him in either extreme. Lin keeps improving, has a good head on his shoulders, and gets everyone involved. That's good enough for me. I kinda don't get these questions in the context of the rest of the discussion. Why do you ask? No, you're completely right in your response. I didn't mean to claim that it's a team-wide issue or that the coach or each player has all of issues. I meant that some parts of the Rockets have some parts of those issues; I just aggregated it into one bullet point. For instance, Harden waves off a play and repeatedly goes ISO. For me, that a lack of respect for your teammates or coach. After all these years, Howard still is bent on making his post game work, even though by several measures, he's actually taken a step back. I'm sure at some point, someone has shown him statistics of his pick-n-roll game vs. his post up. To me, that is a lack of humility. The rest of my comment is just about becoming a machine that is constantly refining how well-oiled it is (Spurs). I completely believe the Rockets as a whole are working towards that (but would finger-point at Harden again on commitment).
All real, sustained problems will have someone knee-jerking in the moment, but most knee-jerks are not indicative of real, sustained problems. That's why they call it knee-jerk, because it's purely reactionary and not analytic.
Mavs are a veteran team with a veteran coach and packed with stars. And we still have a better record than them! Portland is riding high but again, LMA has been there for years and playing like Tim Duncan. I mean right now he's the best big man in the game. I can't believe some people thought he was a low efficiency player. Ridiculous. But that team has had LMA and Batum, and Matthews playing together for years. They have had time to gel and are strong at every position. No weaknesses. But Portland will fall back to earth. They aren't as good as their record.
Good post OP...I'm sure those issues are being talked about but it is still the players decision to buy into the team. Team first, put personal goals or stats aside. Classic example is the Spurs get the most out of their players. Outside of Parker and aged Duncan, their talent level is not even that great. But most if not all their players buy into their system and coach. Team comes 1st before any personal stats or egos. Howard and especially Harden must sacrifice some of their play style for the team to succeed. It might not get them highlights or talked about but the team will do better.
Can you call 33+ yr olds Carter, Marion stars? Are Calderon, Monta and Dalembert stars? Nowitzki is the only established star they have. And Monta is playing well this season but wasn't always. Calderon, Dally, Marion, Crowder, Blair, Carter are all role players by now. I agree that Lamarcus is playing well now but he wasn't always that good. He was an allstar for sure but did not make his teammates better therefore the records were not always favorable.
I would say that Ellis is a star - definitely an all-star caliber player. Yes, they might be past their prime, but those guys are all very good basketball players. They don't make the type of mistakes our guys make, they know how to win. Dallas isn't going to contend, but they have a strong team so it's no shame to lose to them on the road or feel bad about their success. Portland - I don't think they will maintain it, they will fall back eventually - right now they are hot but I can't see them winning 60 games.
We should acknowledge that Howard is paid Orlando money but is nowhere near his Orlando days. Harden was said to have a fabulous offseason but he is not showing improvements over last season. Beverley has been widely inconsistent as is Garcia. Those were pillars last year. Parsons and Lin who have been playing fairly well are the only guys who can reproduce last season or play even better. You cannot always rely on Terrence who has been a nice surprise but it's hard to turn to him every night when your superstars are playing well beyond their abilities. He will be having inconsistent play as a young starter. The Asik dilemma cost us enough games.
He's always been the glue guy, this isn't new, he always guards the opponents best wing player while putting up 17/5/4 at a TS of 62.5%, to say he fits this roster like a glove isn't an understatement. He's probably the league's 3rd best secondary wing (yeah no one comes close to Miami's, and Klay is a shooting machine) You're misunderstanding of +/- aside, players have bad games, and he had a few at the start of the season, although ironically he was the best player against Utah the first time (24/12/6). Part of that is his consistency, his lowest score this year was 9, his highest was 25, even when he's playing badly, he finds way to chip in a few points, but he's never really going to be a guy who can run up the scoreboard, hence the glue guy moniker, he hangs around, plugs gaps, chips in here and there and ends up with quality production as a result. Contrast that to say Lin whose a bit of an X-factor guy, he might blow a team up for 35 and win a game 5-10 times a year, and stink up another 5-10 (and hope the coach minimises his impact), and just contribute solidly the rest.
*the stars are having a hard time reproducing their best seasons and it is showing. It is a small wonder that we have a relatively good looking record with this kind of play lately. (Suns, Jazz, Philly, Lakers)
I don't think that's the point of this thread. If we were to be satisfied with being better than last season, then sure we should be satisfied. But if we want the Rockets to be a CONTENDER, or even just a team to go deep in the playoffs, then all these issues are real. Yes, we are missing Parsons, Lin, and Asik. (Smith? Are you serious about Smith?) Even if we Asik disappeared in thin air, Dwight Howard would supposed be a huge upgrade compared to last season. So we are basically missing just Parsons and Lin for two games. But the two games we just lost was to (1) one of the bottom two teams in the league, and (2) a mediocre team at home.
Wow, I think Parson has done great all year. His three point shot was off at the beginning of the season, but the rest of his game was good in my opinion. Oh well, people see things differently I guess.
