There is one other option. Trade someone like Brewer plus a pick to the Sixers. Trade Howard to the Lakers for literally anything. Let him spend the final year of his contract watching people glorify Kobe. Send a message to the guys on this team that there is responsibility associated with being on a good team and if they're not up for it they can collect their salary from the ****ing Sixers.
Morey doesn't know what he's doing in the front office. He is not a basketball mind, he trades based on stats only. If you want to fix chemestry and mindset/leadeeship issues you cannot trade only based on stats. That is why I think a trade will not fix the issues. We need a REAL coach who focuses on DEFENSE. Defense wins championships and right now this team is the most pathetic defensive team I have watched for a long time.
Trade Harden for an all-star level guard and the team chemistry will be back. Can we get Lowry or Lillard? And this is the 2nd time I said trading Harden.
Disagree. I think the comeback from down 1-3 against the clippers last year is hurting this team right now. It's obvious the team is talented, but doesn't show any sense of urgency until the final quarter or so. In an 82 game season consistency is the key, and not last minute back against the wall down three games to one comebacks. This team lacks discipline and it had lacked coaching strategy until JB was promoted. Let's give this another ten games. I think things will click at some point with a couple minor moves.
Sad to say, Harden is not the one. If Dwight agrees to a discount, I'll keep him over Harden. DMo and Clint are keepers too. Ariza, if he wants to stay. I'll give Lawson and Thornton until the end of the season to see if I'll keep them.
Needs whistles Rockets just had a game where 2 role/bench players scored 20+ points and 30+ points each... and we lost. Harden's less-than-stellar effort influences his teammates and makes them lesser players. Sounded more playful to me, but if there's truly a grudge... weak sauce.
This should include getting rid of JBB first and perhaps MAury too Or we will have another 10 years of asset collection turned into one pseudo super star and false hopes under some other broken form of Morey ball where coaching doesn't matter and it's still a coin flip Rinse repeat.
You say that Rockets won't trade Harden. But, the Rockets traded Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, Ralph Sampson, Pippen, Hakeem, Francis, and McGrady. Sometimes star players are traded. Sometimes it is for the best.
Is that what we want? To be a mediocre lottery team for 3 years before lucking into acquiring a budding superstar who was having a contract dispute with his former team? Do you know how often that happens? How about instead we suck for a year or two, get a couple of high lottery picks, draft a future star or two, sign or trade for reliable role players to surround them with, and hire a respectable, tough head coach who will implement a sound offensive and defensive system while demanding accountability from his players? If Les and Morey(or whoever the GM winds up being) decide to go down this "stockpiling assets while never tanking" road again, they'll find themselves constantly missing the playoffs or barely sneaking in as a lower seed who loses in the first round every time. In other words, it'll wind up being like most of the seasons this team suffered through between their 2 most recent trips to the WCF.
This organization is you could say too loyal for its own sake or too slow. They waited until Tracy was completely broken down to do a trade or never actually traded Yao. (I could understand with Yao but he never was the same, could at least gotten something)
Philly did what you said, and they're in year 3 and still terrible. That said I wouldn't mind seeing what Morey could do with the tanking option
Don't really have to dig too deep. He's been terrific during the entirety of his tenure with the Rockets. Definitely not having the season we all expect, no doubt, but labeling him a "cancer" is too extreme. Gonna need more than a down season to say Harden is beyond reproach at the age of 26. A real coach would be a start.
I agree what Philly is doing is a tad too destructive, they had MCW and gave him up and doing the same thing over and over. You tank for couple of seasons and build a team no matter if that is only a borderline playoff team and you go from there and retool
I agree he is not a cancer but I do not like his game. It is just one sided and not creative. Yes he gets the stats and looks good with it. He cannot adapt his game or add new nuances to the game, be a student of the game like a LBJ, like a Durant, MJ or Kobe or be very consistent on both ends like a Garnett or Duncan.
C'mon, Philly is a joke. There's no coherent plan over there. The Rockets have a superstar on their roster already. What they need is to surround him with a solid core and hire a coach who'll demand accountability. The Rockets don't need that long to return to contender status. But they have to be willing to sink to the depths of the lottery(and I don't mean the 14th pick) for a couple years first. Dwight is breaking down, has no offensive game outside of dunks, and wants way too much money. He needs to go. Ariza is 30 and is not a long-term piece. He should be dealt. T-Jones is not worth an extension next summer. Get rid of him. Lawson is a disaster and has a very appealing expiring contract. Someone will take him off our hands. Morey loves to stockpile assets. Well, he's got plenty of opportunities to do so with this roster if he's willing to bite the bullet and suck the rest of this year and possibly next year by having a fire sale.
This isn't on Morey. Morey finds the pieces. Look at Capela, Dmo, Thornton. This is on Harden pure and simple. How was Morey supposed to know Harden was heartless when he traded for him? He was 23 at the time. Put Dirk on this team and we're at least 6 games over .500 based on leadership alone. Coaching has a lot to do with it too. The players don't respect the coach. Why throw the baby out with the bath water? Morey would be swept up by a team before he reaches the elevator and for good reason; he knows how to turn nothing into something.
