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    Jalen Green looks like a legit star, Amen Thompson is shining and the Rockets have found something without Alperen Sengun. Clutch is talking about the 10-game winning streak at 11:00am as we talk Rockets live!

    Talking Rockets - LIVE!

Happy Times!

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by anonmau5, Jul 11, 2014.

  1. anonmau5

    anonmau5 Member

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    I know things aren't final, but I think we should all take a moment to collectively take in just how awesome things are for our community at this moment.

    And yes I say community. ClutchFans is special; I feel a bond when I'm on this site, reading posts by all the familiar people here. Together we've been through so many hard times... Watching players we love fall apart, watching bitter endings in the playoffs, dealing with horrible contracts and issues related to money (almost losing the team at one point need we all be reminded), etc. We're here for this team through all the lows and the highs. And I think we're about to have some highs together, my friends.

    Just think of where we were only 3 years ago... Lost. We could've gone into the blatant luck tornado that is the NBA draft lottery by losing on purpose for years on end and see what happened I guess. But instead we chose to try to win, and to leverage the value of winning into getting A-list players. We chose to try to win so that we can find a better way to achieve the ultimate goal: Clutch City's 3rd NBA championship.

    Here's to Clutch for creating ClutchCity in the first place. Here's to us, the fans who come together to support our team. Here's to Les Alexander and Daryl Morey for doing everything in their power to get this team to win. And last, here's to our beloved Houston Rockets and some amazing seasons ahead.

    PS: Don't let my join date fool you. I had an account previously that I chose to ditch and I've been an active reader on here since a little before the Yao Ming era started.

    PPS: Bye LOFs! :cool: We're glad to have the GARM back to normal.
     
    1 person likes this.
  2. JCDenton

    JCDenton Member

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    Happy times indeed.
     
  3. FTW Rockets FTW

    FTW Rockets FTW Contributing Member

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    No graphs?

    Your comment is futile.
     
  4. Progs

    Progs Member

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    Yes!!!!
     
  5. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    So much Fail
     
  6. Postcall

    Postcall Member

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    Good job good effort
     
  7. Matt78777

    Matt78777 Contributing Member

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    Reasons to still be excited:

    1) Clint Capela will be coming over for next season. Kevin Pelton rated him as a huge sleeper in this year's draft.

    2) Nick Johnson has shown grit and put up numbers in summer league suggesting he may be Parsons 2.0.

    3) Ariza may not be better than Parsons, but in some ways he is a better fit for this team. He is dangerous from more areas on the perimeter than Parsons, and plays better D. And we all know that Ariza is capable of being a starter on a championship contender.

    4) Terrence Jones averaged 13 and 6 on 57% shooting and 34% from 3 after the all-star break. I know we all have a sour taste in our mouth after the Portland series, but don't forget it was only his second season, he's only 22, and had a higher PER in both of his seasons that Parsons has had in any of his three seasons. With a little work on that outside shot and some experience playing defense, next year should be a breakout year for Jones.

    5) Two years ago, Houston traded for Harden in late October and signed Beverley mid-season away from Russia. Those two are now our starting backcourt. Before trading for Harden, our biggest acquisitions in the offseason were Lin and Asik. Our projected starting 5 was Lin/Lamb/Parsons/Patterson/Asik and everyone was debating which one of those guys would be our big star (but now they are all gone!). My point is: The offseason is not over yet, not by a long shot, and don't forget that the unexpected is definitely a possibility for this team.

    6) Speaking of Lin and Asik, while they will be missed, we are ultimately better off without them. For all the hoopla surrounding Lin, he averaged 12 points and 4 assists on 44% shooting and 36% from deep. Those are good numbers, but definitely not irreplaceable. Houston has experience replacing numbers like that: in 2004-05 Mike James put up 12.5 points and 3 assists for Houston. We moved on. Paying a backup guard huge money is never a good idea (see Norris, Moochie) and especially when you have a GM who will consistently churn out productive point guards from nowhere (as well as undersized power forwards). As for Asik, while his production is a lot harder to replace, I think the analogy that someone else made (BimaThug maybe? apologies that I forget) that trading him for a good pick is like turning a gift certificate into cash. Once again, while a good backup center is a great thing to have, it's ultimately a luxury that should not be prioritized over finding a more productive starter at another position.

    7) If Houston does somehow manage to trade for that third star before the trade deadline next Feb, they still have trade exceptions from Lin and Asik that can be used to add complementary players to make a run for the title this coming year, rather than wait for the summer.

    8) This might be the most flexible Houston roster of Morey's tenure with the Rockets. There is not a single contract on the team that is untradeable, or would cost picks to get rid of. Other than Ariza, every player is either a max player or on a rookie contract, the two most efficient kinds of contracts in the NBA. As many have already remarked, Ariza's contract is surprisingly reasonable, and even moreso when you consider that it descends in value.

    9) Although at this point Houston has taken a step back, none of the three teams that finished ahead of us in the standings took huge leaps forward. OKC and Spurs both missed on Gasol signing, and Clippers have been mostly stagnant. Below us, the Blazers, Warriors, and Grizzlies all added back up players. Would you really rather be a team like the Grizzlies, who add a few backups to a 7th seeded team and call it a day? It's a nice team, but there is no way that is the difference between 7th seed and a championship. The same can be said for the Mavs. They made the largest move out of anyone in the West, but is Parsons the difference between an 8th seed and contention? He is a big improvement over Marion, but not that big. The Mavs have basically maxed out their team with this lineup. Cuban said he feels like he owes it to Dirk to be as competitive as possible to end his career, and it seems like he really means it, and is willing to be a very good team, at the expense of the possibility of being great. Who knows, maybe with some luck it'll work out and they'll win a championship (it happened in 2011), but for my money I'd rather have Harden/Howard as my two top guys over Dirk/Parsons.

    10) and lastly, this is still H-town: Howard + Harden. We have two superstars, who happen to be top 3 at their positions (and arguably play at two of the hardest positions to fill in today's NBA). One of them is young enough that it isn't unreasonable to expect improvement. They are the foundation, the talent to build around.

    So cheer up Rockets fans, all is not lost, not by a long shot!
     
    1 person likes this.
  8. Texanasiafan

    Texanasiafan Member

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    1. Capela is still trying to learn how to walk.
    2. Nick Johnson is short.
    3. Ariza last season is a fluke because that's a contract year.
    4. TJ, well, is just TJ.
    5. Love is not walking through that door - to us.
    6. Instead of Lin and Asik, the great news : now you get Cannan and D-Mo.
    7. I repeat : Love is not walking through that door.
    8. You have 2 years left with D12.
    9. Its just sad that you used the Mavs as a team to compare to the Rockets.
    10. Football seasons starts less than 2 months....oh wait...NVM, the Texans are going to suck worser.
     
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  9. knickstorm

    knickstorm Member

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    Just for the record Trevor Ariza was a role player on that championship laker team, not a starter.
     
  10. anonmau5

    anonmau5 Member

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    Thank you, Captain Hindsight!
     
  11. Texanasiafan

    Texanasiafan Member

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    Thanks, please also remind us what happened the next year after that season when he was a Rockets.
     
  12. knickstorm

    knickstorm Member

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    1) If he could make an impact, why did the Rockets pretty much plan to stash him overseas until now? Cause he's not ready and they need bodies.
    2)Chandler Parsons started as a rookie....so Parsons 2.0? Johnson getting minutes means this team's in trouble
    3)Parsons was a role player on the LAker team. He's not a 3 point specialist and look at his career fg%....not good
    4)Could very well be true....it's up to McHale not to yank him for long periods of time and let the kid work through adversity
    5) true....i'll wait till training camp, but not matching chandler is pretty much waving the white flag this year
    6)Not that easy to replace. GIve me names that are out there. Last year Lin shot 57.9% driving to the hoop last year, 2nd only to LeBRon, and when he misses it creates easy follows for others.
    7) they're not trading for a superstar mid-season, end of story
    8) Ariza is amazingly reasonable? its market value! people acting like we just bought apple stock at $50 a share.
    9) The Mavs took the Spurs to 7 games....they then pretty much ran roughshod the rest of the playoffs. Don't forget Tyson Chandler is a big upgrade over Dalembert. I wouldn't call their championship luck. They won because their superstar, played like a superstar. IF Dirk Nowitzki played like HArden has in the post-season the Mavs dont win the title that year.
    10)I supposed it's the only silver lining. But Harden has done nothing to show when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. D12 was going to work down low all day carrying this team in game 6. Harden had a disastrous post-season. MAybe he doesn't take his fitness seriously, or his body can't handle the minutes.
     
  13. reliableman

    reliableman Member

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    Well, Captain Foresight would've told you not to make this thread in the first place. :mad:
     
  14. ralphabetsoup

    ralphabetsoup Member

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    Heartwarming.
     
  15. CCorn

    CCorn Member

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    **** shaun11
     
  16. mfastx

    mfastx Member
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    He was a starter.
     
  17. DREAM ON!

    DREAM ON! Member

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    too soon for this read title, too soon!! lol
     
  18. treeman

    treeman Member

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    Thanks, OP. We are still in pretty decent shape with room to move going forward.

    And frankly, an offseason that lets us shed the LOFs is *NOT* a failure in my books. Addition by subtraction. :grin:
     
  19. Matt78777

    Matt78777 Contributing Member

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    Maybe I misinterpreted the point of this thread. I thought, with it's title as "Happy Times!" it'd be a place for the optimists, but so far you guys all seem to disagree...

    1) Because originally Houston needed the money/roster spot to do the Bosh/Parsons deal. Now that's not the case. He's raw, but there's no question he'll development quicker on the Rockets/Vipers than spend a year in Europe.

    2) By Parsons 2.0 I don't mean rookie year starter, I mean a player who people will look back on think he was a steal in the second round. You're right, if he's starting we're in trouble (unless its because he does so well that Houston trades Beverley in a package for a star forward, but that is probably wildly optimistic even for me). But I don't think it's out of the question to think he may by year's end play a significant backup role, and on the spectrum of Morey 2nd round/scrap heap pick ups he veers closer to the Parsons/Beverley side of contributing than the James Anderson/Olbrecht side of washing out.

    3) I think you mean Ariza, and he will also be a role player for the Rockets, a 3 and D guy. He did well in that role, and less so when Houston asked him to do more. His career FG% isn't great, but it was better last year. It may be because he was in a contract year, that is a fair point, but I optimistically hope he's just improved as a shooter with age (as some players do) and got better looks.

    I'm skipping to 9) because it's almost time to go home for me, but in response: I forgot about the Chandler trade in all honesty. True, that is an upgrade over Dalembert, given that he's healthy.

    And no, their championship was not just luck, they had a great player, but that team had a lot of things break their way at the right times. Even Cuban acknowledged it when he let Chandler walk. I still maintain that the Mavs are basically done with their team, and for them to win with their current lineup, they'll have to capture lightning in a bottle again.
     
  20. RocketFan

    RocketFan Contributing Member

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    So much negativity! I know you are trying to put things into perspective but be a bit optimistic... Don't be such a negative nate.
     
    1 person likes this.

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