Doesn't this season validate Morey's "3 STARS OR ELSE" strategy?

For Leslie Alexander, not so much..

 

And smart money would say neither ends up winning it all.

 

By 2016 a championship team will need 4 superstar level players.

This is the reality of the Lebron Era.

 

Indeed it does. I've actually always wondered how we'd get three stars to work together with our bizarre team. Harden creates a massive of offense on his own. Dwight is not much of an offensive threat and actually tends to muddy up our offense when he's trying to score the ways he does. D-Mo is the second person in our offensive hierarchy at this point, and he does a good job at being a post person that scores efficiently close to the basket, so we'll treat him like our legendary Third Star power forward we were trying so hard to find. So that's two.

What does the third star player do? If we'd gotten Melo and he wasn't bricking everything like he was at the All-Star Game, he could've been a go-to lockdown shooter, but that would necessarily take away possessions from Harden and your post player. With James getting ever better, I think you want the ball in his hands a lot, and I'm not sure there are possessions in a game to satiate him and someone who wants to score just as much.

Wade and Bosh had to take secondary roles to Lebron in Miami, so that's not really a Big Three per se. They managed to find a compromise to let their Big One do his thing. San Antonio's Big Three includes one Sixth Man, who's happy to be in that role. SA also has the best coach in the NBA who makes anybody into a solid role player, so he doesn't need to put everything on Duncan, Parker, and Ginobli.

I don't think we have the coaching to have three superstars willingly and effectively work together. Harden, an effective post player who embraces a secondary role, and an entire team that plays balls-to-the-wall, lights-out defense would be ideal. We sort of have that while Dwight's not here on the offense side, but our defense has slackened with his absence. We should probably look like a kitchen with Head Chef, Sous Chef, and bunch of assistants and specialists. The key is that everyone is competent, knows what their role is, and does it as best as possible.

 

2nd round u mean

 

Morey obviously didn't think Harden and Howard was enough for a title. That's why he chased a third star. Now that Harden has exceeded everybody's expectation, the story will be different.

I still don't like shuffling role players, taking two steps forward one step back, turning over the entire rotation every two years or so.

 

We could add a third star, because Dwight doesn't actually take that many shots. For example, in Cleveland people are talking about how Love is having some trouble fitting in, but he actually takes more shots and ft than Dwight does. That's with 2 super high usage guys, not one. Love, Lebron, and Irving take 19 more shots than Harden and Dwight.

 

Smart money would say the team that does end up winning it all won't have 3 max players, since that hardly ever happens. Not sure why Daryl insists on clinging to that formula.

 

face palm thread.

 

Firstly, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that Morey will keep flipping players every year. The Rockets team in his hands had never been one that is really contending. They've never been a good team like what Klay Thompson said about the Warriors, "Why make changes when we only lost 9 games."

Then, I'd say we are a 3-stars team now. I don't take Josh Smith lightly either because he didn't play well at Detroit or he is taking small checks from Rockets owner. He is playing better and better with time on this team.