TNT crew says Rockets aren't legit contenders; Howard isn't a great player.

Your in it right now. Game Action & Roster Moves.
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First of all, I can only speak for myself, but I never said they were a lock for the Finals. I think they have enough talent to be a contender(assuming they make a few more tweaks to the roster). But no one in the West is a lock for anything.

Secondly, it's not one bad game. We're now officially at the halfway point of the season. The Rockets are 26-15 which means they're on pace for 52 wins. And newsflash, they ain't gonna win that many games if they keep playing like this. Just take a look at their post-All-Star Break schedule. It's brutal. Right now, they'll be lucky to clear 50 wins which would be IMO a major disappointment. Hell, they could've brought back last year's roster as is and flirted with 50 wins.

If the Rockets started out the season slow and were gradually improving, I'd be fine with that. But the same problems that plagued them at the beginning of the season(stagnant offense, careless turnovers, lousy defense, a mediocre bench) are still issues for them 41 games in. If someone wants to point out to me what exactly McFail is doing to address the first 3, I'm all ears(or eyes in this case). And if they'd also like to explain what Morey is doing about our lack of depth, again I'd love to hear(or see) it. All I see is an organization twiddling their thumbs and hoping that things magically fix themselves.

 

I think the McHale hate is mostly pre-mature and invalid, but in this particular game I felt that McHale needed to do something about the fact Ibaka was camping in the paint. Either Jones needed to stop passing up on wide open 3s or McHale should have had Casspi in there, but with how well Jones has played lately can we really blame McHale for staying with Jones?

 

Legit contenders?
In fact, this team may have trouble even getting into playoff.

 

I said the rockets would maybe be WCF team at BEST after we got howard when most people on this board thought they were a "contender".

howard and harden are the best players at their position by default because SG and C are the worst positions in the nba right now. they're really good players but are very limited and their overall impact on the game is overrated. i won't even get started on the coaching....ugh.

so frustrating seeing this team embarrass themselves over and over on national tv and prove all the harden/howard haters on the internet that they are who they say they are.

 

Have you watched any games this season? We're a one trick pony that doesn't call barely any plays on offense. If you listen to most our timeouts, Mchale just keeps saying "C'mon guys, move the ball, move the ball". That's it. No adjustments, no real strategy. Shots not falling,"C'mon guys, move the ball, move the ball".




How can a coach not run ANY plays and his criticism be premature & "invalid"?

 

Howard has the potential to be an all time great. But he needs a good coach to get the best out of him and the team.

The free throws are on him though and may be the one thing that hold him back from being remembered as a great player.

 

R&R offense is a free-lancing one without structure. When D tightens up, Rockets' players are isolated into singles and forced to do one-on-one, which good D has no problem dealing, which in turn further reduces the offensive spacing.
But McHale needs excuse for his inability to coach. So, this is the vicious cycle.

 

I think this game proved that we need another elite play maker. Lin and parsons is not that guy period. When applied pressure harden is the only one comfortable enough to make things happen. This is not gong to cut it, we can't ask harden to start and finish every play I'm really disappointed in this game as we should have won. Dwight looked like trash he can complain and look mad all he wants but the bottem line is he got outplayed and blocked a lot by ibaka. He disappoints me a lot because some games he really does dominate while others he looks worse than asik on both ends of the court. This is very alarming because I thought he was focused bit his intensity is not their either. It's like if he's not scoring points he's not happy. Guess what Dwight until u develop a 15 ft jumper it's always gonna be hard for u to score in the modern nba.

 

If Howard was playing 20 years ago, he would not even be in the discussion of great centers. The fact that he is the best center currently is a sad reflection of the lack of quality centers in the league. You are correct that he has tons of potential, but if after 9 1/2 years in the league we are still discussing his "potential", then chances are he will never reach the level his considerable athletic ability dictates that he could.

 

i think for this team to really contend, we need another real superstar, i mean , howard is not, he is only a star, Harden is becoming a superstar, we need another one, simple as that, not easy to do.

BTW, i really think we need asik to back up howard, Dmo can back up tjones

 

Howard isn't a strong enough post player to dominate in the centre the way Hakeem did. And he never will be.

He needs to buy into the pick and roll and get easy finishes and find SOME WAY of being relevant on freethrows.

Thing is, I think he has matured and would be willing to do what's best for the team, but you need a coach to put all the pieces together.

Mchale's strategy is to : Try Harden. Try Howard. Try Parsons. Try Lin.

Rather than trying to fit them all together as a cohesive unit. Chemistry and teamwork take time to build so you can cut them some slack but I see nothing from the team or Mchale that encourages me that this is something that is even being worked on.

We have a limited window for a championship and we need to get a coach that can take us there asap. Even if our roster isn't complete, we have the major pieces. It's going to take time for them learn offensive sets and play instinctively together.

Mchale is gone in the off season, I'm sure of that. But I think we should get rid of him now and get in a coach that knows how to build a TEAM.

 

You are right, but what is the solution? How can they break down the pressure defense?

 

Ha - compared to that cesspool called the D&D, I'll gladly put up with that!

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>(Fixed) <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Rockets&amp;src=hash">#Rockets</a> 26-15 mark tied for 6th best mark in team history thru 41 games &amp; best since going 27-14 in lockout shortened 98-99 season.</p>&mdash; AdamWexlerCSN (@awexler) <a href="https://twitter.com/awexler/statuses/424078191381057536">January 17, 2014</a></blockquote>
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relax folks. while I realize that our pattern of losing is disappointing to say the least, there's another half season to go for this team to learn how to win more consistently and more convincingly.

 

More PNR plays would help against pressure. It's easier to pressure when the PG is on an island while all the other four guys are already asking for the ball even before the PG has crossed half court.

 

Honestly this is about what I expected from the Rockets this season. 4th-6th seed in the West. And we always seem to play bad on TNT and the guys kill us on the show. Every time lol

 

Does anybody really care what the TNT crew says anymore???... I thought we established a hell of a long time ago that these idiots aren't real analysts.... they are entertainers. They like to bash on Dwight because its something fun for people to poke fun at, but EVERY team in the league would kill to have the Dwight that is playing for the Rockets this year as their center.

Dwight was an easy target for the TNT crew last night but the loss was hardly his fault. The team didn't adjust well when the Thunder changed up their defensive strategy, and cut the tempo to a slow crawl half court pace that better suited the Thunder.

They had Ibaka/Perkins, Ibaka/Adams, or Collison/Adams all over Dwight the entire game. That would have been the perfect game to have a true stretch 4 who could have made the Thunder pay for clogging the paint to take Dwight out of the game.

The truth is the Rockets had no answer for the defense the Thunder played against them in the 2nd half, and thats not Dwights fault. You can't blame him for not being able to get the ball, and score consistently when he has 2 elite defensive 7 footers draped over him at all times.

I've been known as a McHale supporter (even though I'm really not) but last night McHale deserves some criticism for not being able to adjust at all, and force the Thunder out of their comfort zone defensively. It would have been a good time to emply the super small lineup they have had success with in the past playing against the Thunder.

 

This forum amazes me sometimes. Howard was taken out of this game mentally when he was out with foul trouble in the first half. It's happened before. I think Dwight's game relies on rhythm just a bit in that he needs his touches to get into a groove. I just cannot understand why our perimeter players CANNOT recognize or analyze when outside shots aren't falling, to feed it into Dwight more often. I can see him frustrated when he pins his man down and they don't give him the ball. And when they do he's way out of position by the time he gets the ball.

 

There's only so much any coach can really do in these situations. The idea that Mchale hasn't called plays is a total myth. In fact we seem to do worse with set plays many times coming out of time outs than just letting these guys free wheel it.

I am not sure changing coaches will do all that much. To a large degree you have a group of guys in unfamiliar positions. They aren't totally comfortable. People forget how inexperienced a guy like Parsons is. Harden is the most experienced crunch time player we have but he's never been responsible like this - there is no Durant to take the load and pressure off of him. No Westbrooke. Lin just doesn't have the experience. Howard is stymied by horrid free throw shooting and figuring out how to fit in.

McHale has run plays - it's not that his play calling suck, it's that the execution of those plays is not there. It's really hard to score in crunch time against good defenses. That's why these teams don't lose very often.

djimi basically has it. You just have to give it time. They are working on it, but it doesn't get solved in one day or one month. It might take all season or even longer. You can practice and tell the guys what to do, but until they have enough experience in those situations, they will continue to struggle.

That's why these kind of nights are great. Because you would rather struggle with this in the regular season than the playoffs. This is part of the process. They are trying different things and learning what works and what doesn't. That's how young inexperienced players become good ones. By trial and error.

When you fail badly like they did in the last game, by scoring 19 point, but totally failing, it forces the guys not to make excuses and realize they have to change. You saw Parsons first trying to blow it off - say it was just a flow problem...and then when he found out it was 19, it shocked him, he hadn't realize the gravity of the situation.

So that's why only having 19 and losing is good - it gives these guy the kick they need to change their ways. Young teams need that.