Howard & Harden Era has FAILED

daywalker02 · Mar 22, 2016

Easy said: ↑

Sorry. That was not really a hard fought series, other than a little more than a quarter. You guys really forgot how pathetic their effort was in about 3 3/4 games? We got blown out at home by the Clippers who just finished a really hard fought series against the Spurs and lost Chris Paul.
Click to expand...

Then correcting to "hard fought" 6th game, 7th game?

Satisfactory?

zeeshan2 · Mar 22, 2016

Damn:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">James Harden is worth every penny of his 5-year, $79 million contract. <a href="https://t.co/pn6TlOaUuu">https://t.co/pn6TlOaUuu</a> <a href="https://t.co/qP1sExFX70">pic.twitter.com/qP1sExFX70</a></p>— Forbes SportsMoney (@SportsMoneyBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsMoneyBlog/status/711964090730565633">March 21, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Rocket River · Mar 22, 2016

Houstunna said: ↑

1) The 1-3 comeback was EPIC and will be mentioned every time a team is down 1-3 and plenty times when a team is down 1-2.

2) Advancing to the Conference Finals is a historical and a respected, notable franchise happening.

Those 2 feats are better than anything postseason since Olajuwon.

Does the 22-game winning streak beat either of those H&H feats?

2015 Rockets also have the best record since Olajuwon.
Click to expand...

Bingo

Everything else is bull****

Rocket River

chandlerbang21 · Mar 22, 2016

Rockets going back to bottom of barrel next season........... BE PREPARED!!!!

J.R. · Mar 24, 2016

This is why you got them, right?

This is why they get all the billboards, banners, bobbleheads, commercials and self-obsessed TV shows.

To lift you up. Carry you. Find something when it isn't there and do what almost everyone says can't be done.

Except they're James Harden and Dwight Howard. And they can't even beat the Jazz.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum will make a combined $38 million in basketball-only cash this season, not to mention all the free dough The Beard gets for selling fake tacos to dazed millennials. After a super sorry second-half no-show and 89-87 flatline against Utah on Wednesday in a "battle" for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, the superstar duo's collective strength is 72 games overdue.

Time's up, Superman

Increase the fine to nearly three full seasons for their weirdly uneven, mostly depressing professional and personal relationship.

"The whole team will fall in line when me and him are on that same page. … It takes time, you know?" Howard recently told USA Today.

Time? Time???

Dwight. Dude. Seriously. You moved your entire life to Houston in July 2013. You've been doing this whole pursuit thing with your "buddy" James for 282 pre-, regular- and postseason games. You're on your second coach in red, have been through Jeremy Lin and Josh Smith (twice), and Michael Beasley is now your team's second-best scorer.

You're out of time, Superman. And so is anything resembling respectability unless Harden and Howard start doing what they were brought here for.

Lifting up and carrying the Rockets.

Don't worry. I'm not talking crazy. The Astros are winning the World Series before this 2015-16 reality-TV disaster is handing Les Alexander his third priceless golden ball on the big stage.

But times are hard, and the stakes have changed. One year, you're three wins from outshooting Steph Curry in the Western Conference finals. The next, you're slumming with the baby Blazers, junior Jazz and geriatric Mavericks in a convenience-store parking lot, confusing the luck of a lottery ticket for the 1 percenter's dream of the postseason.

Here's where we stand with Daryl Morey's broken Harden-Howard monster and just 10 games left before the real year begins: Sixth seed or bust, baby!

How about ninth and completely out of it?

The Rockets closed last season capturing 10 of 13. One year and Kevin McHale firing later, they're doing everything they can just to extend their season past April 13.

Did I mention that Alexander's paying Harden and Howard $38 million in chump change to bring this city its first championship since 1995?

"They have to play well," interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "But we all need to play well. Our role players … are just as important to us as our stars are."

I wish Bickerstaff the best for the next few weeks. I honestly hope it all works out in the end. (It probably won't.) But the only truth in his overly diplomatic words was the first sentence.

You'd never say that about Curry. You don't even think it about LeBron James. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook? Yeah, right.

To possess two of the largest stars on the basketball planet and not be publicly comfortable with saying they need to carry your utterly fractured team when a season, jobs and an organization's future are all on the line?

That's so 2015-16 Rockets. And exactly what we've come to expect and accept from Harden and Howard three years into an impending divorce.

Howard doesn't own a ring. Harden is staring at three first-round exits in four seasons with the weight of a franchise on his back. Then remember that Howard - who can opt out for good as soon as this collapse is complete - might have fewer than 15 games left in red and white. Then try not to LOL when Superman begs for more time.

Don't expect a refund

But first, back to Wednesday's game:

"It was self-inflicted."

That was a hoarse and beaten-down Bickerstaff postgame, trying to describe how his 35-37 "team" coughed up a 15-point halftime lead when everyone in the Association knew Wednesday was pretty important for two drastically different squads fighting for a little more life.

The Jazz have Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, a locked-in coach in Quin Snyder, and a whole lot of promising youth. They're better than the Rockets and would actually make the playoffs if the season ended Thursday morning.

Morey gave Alexander two stars who were supposedly fit for the nation's fourth-largest city. But erase the Clippers' 3-1 collapse last season, and the entire Harden-Howard campaign has been the athletic equivalent of the 2016 presidential race: all hype, all talk, nothing real.

They lead the NBA in team meetings. That's it.

"No more team meetings (are) going to get it done," Bickerstaff said. "It's time to play. The time for talk is over."

Funny. Harden and Howard were saying the exact same things right after McHale was coldly axed.

Now they're ninth in the West, praying for sixth, and sort of trying to save their lives inside an arena that was a quarter full at tipoff.

"I feel sorry for the team we play tomorrow," said Pat Beverley after a team meeting last week.

I sort of feel sorry for Alexander, who was fooled into paying $38 million for two guys who can't even beat the Jazz.

I feel worse for you. Because you're never getting a refund.
Click to expand...

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...oward-combo-a-waste-of-38-million-7004551.php

Os Trigonum · Mar 24, 2016

J.R. said: ↑

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...oward-combo-a-waste-of-38-million-7004551.php
Click to expand...

thanks for copying that here J.R. Depressing, but a good read.

daywalker02 · Mar 24, 2016

"I feel sorry for the team we play tomorrow," said Pat Beverley after a team meeting last week.
Click to expand...

He should feel sorry for himself and the entire dilemma

pwnyxpress · Mar 25, 2016

Liberon said: ↑

No it didn't. It was hustle from 'discontinued' role players that set up the high seed. Harden and Howard still fumbled away fast break points in the post season on multiple occasions. Harden and Howard never developed any sort of high level chemistry. It's sad.
Click to expand...

Wait, last season didn't go quite well? I'm surprised. Pretty sure it went well, and also pretty sure it was part of the Harden and Howard era...

...now if you are saying they are the SOLE reasons we did well last yr, yeah no. But were they a big part? I mean come on, runner up MVP Harden played really well last yr. And Howard? Playoff Howard is like a top 5 performer out of all post-season players, and arguably our most consistently great playoff player last yr and the yr before that.

You can't pick and choose what makes us good or bad when defining whether the H&H era "failed" or not. That'd make no sense. It'd be like trying to name a single player as the reason why we SUCK this year. It's more than that for sure...

J.R. · Apr 19, 2016

J.R. said: ↑

<video width="500" height="500" controls="controls" autoplay="autoplay" loop="loop" muted="muted"><source src="https://cdn.streamable.com/video/mp4/720q.mp4" type="video/mp4"/>Your browser does not support HTML5 video. Please update your browser to view this media content.</video>
Click to expand...

Oops James did it again!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I'm done with this team <a href="https://t.co/wwQeLMTUsv">https://t.co/wwQeLMTUsv</a></p>— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/talkhoops/status/722280640444514304">April 19, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Surfguy · Apr 19, 2016

It be okay. They tried. Time to move on from this era and on to the next failed era. lol

Forums

Howard & Harden Era has FAILED

daywalker02 Member

zeeshan2 Member

Rocket River Member

chandlerbang21 Member

J.R. Member

Os Trigonum Member
Supporting Member

daywalker02 Member

pwnyxpress Member

J.R. Member

Surfguy Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!

Howard & Harden Era has FAILED

daywalker02 Member

zeeshan2 Member

Rocket River Member

chandlerbang21 Member

J.R. Member

Os Trigonum Member Supporting Member

daywalker02 Member

pwnyxpress Member

J.R. Member

Surfguy Member

Share This Page

Os Trigonum Member
Supporting Member