I hate to admit this. I have been a Rockets fan for 30 years, and watching Harden the last three years has not turned me into a fan of his. He's pretty good and will get his share of points, but I find it hard to root for him because he has a limited offensive game and almost no defense. I went through the same thing with Stevie Franchise. At first I was excited to get him, but his antics grew old real fast. Consistently losing the ball while dribbling with noone close to him was the last straw. I hope we don't see the same thing with Harden with. The city of Houston really needs a winner and with Morey at the helm, we actually have one of the more shrewd front offices. Can't say the same about the Texans. They are unbearable to watch.
is harden a lot different from mcgrady (other than the fact that mcgrady's more gifted)? #2 guy... is what i keep telling people. adjust your expectations of him and this current team, and this board could have more meaningful bball talks...
I absolutely share your viewpoints as well. While it saddens me to speak poorly of our supposed "best" player, Harden really hasn't changed all that much in his game since he's been here. Yes, he's gotten a little better here and there, but I attribute that more to his familiarity with the league and the fact that there is no other players on the roster that can take his shots away because they are even worse at creating. I have made the same points repeatedly dating back to last year. Harden can sometimes be a net negative on the court if his shots don't fall, because he plays no defense and on offense, he seems only interested in getting his points regardless of the flow of the game. In other words, I have always thought of him as a selfish player. He vanishes on defense, and on offense, he only shows up when he has the ball, otherwise, he kind of disappears too. I am just not sure we can win big with a "leader" like that. I am not really sure other players on the team are following him. You look at Curry, or even Lebron, they are superstars and MVPs, but during games, they are just one of the guys. Then you look at Harden, he seems to be all about himself on or off the court. Just listen to his interviews, when things are going bad, it's "we", but when things are going good, it's always "me".
I would argue that Harden is nowhere close to McGrady when both are in their prime. The biggest issue with McGrady has to do with his mental state of mind, but physically, he was a far better talent and also made his teammates around him much better. It unfortunate that T-Mac had to be on a team that's depleted of youth and atheleticism, and of course, an oft-injured Yao. Just imagine if T-Mac were on the current team, we would just steamroll the competition.
dont you argue with me... because i agree with what you just said. i did say mcgrady was more gifted, eh? what i meant was, both him and harden had/have a lazy attitude. you cant rely on either to be a true #1 guy or a leader of a title-contending team. i shoudve made it more clear in my last post.
The biggest problem I have with the coaching staff, or McHale specifically, is that he doesn't seem to hold his players accountable. In other words, he's not making demands because I guess he wants to uphold his reputation as a "players coach", whatever that means. Our players seem to be pampered too much. A good example from today's game is that during the 4th quarter garbage time, even when we are down by 20, our starters sitting on the bench were joking with one another. You think they get away with this if Pop were our coach?
Them two healthy would still not be good enough to win it all. Neither is completely reliable and I think they lack the killer instinct. With Yao it's more of a cultural thing, with McGrady I think it's because the game was too easy for him until his back went out. They also didn't have the supporting cast like we do today. Remember our starting small forward was Bruce Bowen against the Mavs in the playoffs?
i'd venture to say that the rockets overachieved last yr., and mainly due to some luck (granted a necessary ingredient of sports). it's such a pain to be a sports fan in the city of houston right now. we have a new football franchise that still cant find a real quarterback in over a decade, a bball team that has virtually done nothing truly meaningful in 2 decades, and a baseball team that hadnt been in the playoffs for a whole decade. that, often coupled by the fashion they lose games,,, smh... /rant...
i like your posts. back to the jvg era, i often wished yao had gone college here in the states like hakeem did, or that he was from france or uk...
Not writing Harden off, but just calling it like I see it. It's a well known fact that Harden plays little to no defense around the league. Whoever he goes up against is probably asked to just drive on him because Harden plays matador defense. And on offense, when he doesn't have the ball in his hands, he usually just disappears. His game has a lot of flaws, but he's good at getting his points, and because there are no others on the team who's as good at getting points, his contribution to the overall success of last season gets magnified. I was around the Rockets in the late 80's. Probably watched very single one of Rockets road game because it would be on TV (back then it was channel 26). Ralph was never really in the conversation all that much because Hakeem had outplayed Ralph even as a rookie. After Ralph was sent packing (I was really hoping we make a trade with the Blazers and bring Kersey, Duckworth, and Drexler to the Rox, but instead we got JB Carroll and Sleepy), it was clearly Hakeem's team. But he was playing selfish for a couple of seasons, and was well deserved of his criticism at the time. I think what really changed Hakeem was during one stretch, he was out due to blood clot or something, and the Rockets went on like a 15 game winning streak without him. Then when he came back, he began to trust his teammates more and would share the ball more. That was the beginning of Hakeem's MVP years and as we know, the rest is history.
It was Ryan Bowen, Bruce Bowen played for the Spurs and was actually a decent 3 & D guy. I know it's in the past but T-Mac atleast had the humility to blame himself for the Rockets not making it out the 1st round even though he played with a paper thin squad for most of his tenure as a Rocket. Also he was always an above average defender when healthy, he was one of the tops in terms of opponent FG%. Harden is a better offensive player (although so far this season he's been cringe-worthy) but I still feel Mac was better all-around. T-mac and Harden are also night and day in terms of off-court lifestyle. Tmac had a relatively quiet life and did plenty of charity work locally and in Africa (Darfur) whereas Harden is notorious for banging a plethora of dirty strippers/hookers and partying with the Kardashians plague.
Once again, I am in absolute agreement. I didn't think we'd get past the Clippers, then a miracle happened and J Smoove's 3 point shooting single handedly brought us back. I really thought the Clippers were already preparing for the Warriors and then once we tied the series, the momentun swung too much our way for them to ever come out on top. A good lesson to all to never get too complacent because one could just lose it all in a snap. As to our football franchise, well, I really don't know what to say other than that the city is probably cursed. I had to endure the days of Bud Adam's Oilers, and the worst comeback in the history of the NFL (or best, depending on your perspective). Everything was clicking in that first half in the Run n' Shoot offense, and nothing worked in the second. But what's worst was we had to lose to a backup QB. It's been hard to root for the Texans ever since its inception. Just dumb move after dumb move, or one bad draft after another. When you let down your fans that often, how could you blame them not to support you? I would say I am a bigger JJ Watt fan that I am a Texan fan. Just love his fire and his heart to the game.
Sorry, I was thinking Ryan, but don't know why I typed Bruce. Bruce was a much better player than Ryan so I would gladly have him on the roster over Ryan. Bruce can at least shoot the three, and also played a much dirtier game. Ryan was all hustle and pretty much nothing else, but for a 6' 9" white guys, he had a heart of a lion.
