[Grantland] Bill Simmons & Zach Lowe Rate the Rockets the 10th Best Watchable Team in the NBA

Lower than the Pistons, Wolves, and Cavs?

Interesting.

 

We aren't very watchable with Clyde + Bill Worrell + Dwight/Harden's free throw parade.

 

Bill Simmons' opinion on basketball is about as insightful as your average college roommate's.

 

The OP title isn't accurate. Simmons and Lowe were rating the best league pass teams. Pistons, Wolves, and Cavs will be fun teams and won't be on national tv as often. Rockets also have a kinda bad announcing team. So yeah, it's probably a better pick to have one of the teams you listed as one of your 5 LP teams for someone who isn't a Rockets fan.

 

Lol, sounds like they could only take so much "Dwight" on LP. I wonder if they would rank us higher if Dwight wasn't here.

 

Awful announcing crew. Boring uniforms. 129031293021930812 free throws. Harden while great doesn't have that awesome supernova mode that Steph Curry or Durant have. Plus everyone hates Dwight right now.

Yeah, that makes sense. 10th is about right. We should move up as the season goes on.

 

These guys are going to watch the Pistons before the Rockets, the Thunder, the Grizzlies, the Spurs. . . . I just inhabit a different reality from these people.

 

opinions:elbows

but seriously, below bobcats? shiet

 

Yeah you gotta factor in our horrible announcers. They're not the worst in the NBA but they're close to it.

 

i'll still be happy if we're the least viewable champs.

 

Bill Simmons like watching Cousins but not Dwight. Cousins takes the dumbest shots shooting a horrid %, has the worst body language, plays selfishly and draws the stupidest fouls.

 

That makes him much more entertaining than brick-every-other-free-throw Dwight.

 

This is why you watch him or Javale, it could go either way in terms of being something good or completely bad that it is funny.

I thought we would have been ranked lower, 10 isn't bad. We are going to be living on the line this year.

 

Zach Lowe is an idiiot. How can one hate Harden?

 

Because he plays no defense and constantly flops to get calls. It's not aesthetically pleasing offense. It's efficient but I don't particularly enjoy watching someone run into people and shoot a ton of free throws.

Please don't call Zach Lowe an idiot. He's by far the best basketball writer IMO.

 

What are they talking about? HOU fans loved watching the blue-collar line-up of Lowry, Scola, Hayes, Brooks, etc etc during those lean years.

We don't need to be watchable by non-HOU fans, we just need to win.

 

He doesn't. Just says that Howard + Harden = a lot of free throws. Which is true.

 

You don't particularly enjoy watching Harden???

 

Honestly, if I were a fan of another team I wouldn't like to watch the Rockets either. Can you imagine how bitter non-Rockets fans would be watching Harden and Howard getting to the FT line every other possession? I bet there will be a lot of "Stern rigging the game" and "Harden get superstar calls" after we out-FT the other team by like 20.

One thing I find people outside the NBA may not realize is that Morey didn't come up with a system and then found the right players to play in that system. It's the other way around. The Rockets staff figured out a system based on their best players. And Harden/Lin were both heavy PnR/iso players in OKC and NY. Asik known for great screens in Chicago and nothing else on offense. etc.

The Rockets will have no problem adjust to Howard. Morey certainly didn't recruit assistants from all over the NBA so that they only know one system of play.