Jeremy Lin Didn't Make the Cover

otis thorpe · Oct 27, 2013

of the chronicle's nba preview. what does this mean going forward. seriously, I think its pretty disingenuous to keep putting this guy in commercials with howard harden and parsons. thanks chronicle for coming to sanity.

website picture, not hard copy picture

kaitanuva · Oct 27, 2013

Read this as "Lin didn't make the cut"

conquistador#11 · Oct 27, 2013

troll so hard university

TheBornLoser · Oct 27, 2013

Can't tell if LOF or LOH.

tehG l i d e · Oct 27, 2013

Bad thread, feel bad

rockbox · Oct 27, 2013

Who cares!!!!! Why are you stirring stuff up for no reason.

RocketPowerNick · Oct 27, 2013

otis thorpe · Oct 27, 2013

rockbox said: ↑

Who cares!!!!! Why are you stirring stuff up for no reason.
Click to expand...

because I do think this is significant shift in how this team is reported on. I was tired of the guy being driven down our throats. he is a role player and that's fine.

lets focus on our stars

Haymitch · Oct 27, 2013

You're just asking for a poo flinging

rockbox · Oct 27, 2013

otis thorpe said: ↑

because I do think this is significant shift in how this team is reported on. I was tired of the guy being driven down our throats. he is a role player and that's fine.

lets focus on our stars
Click to expand...

Then focus on the stars and stop making Lin threads.

J.R. · Oct 27, 2013

<img src="//cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/451040323099951105/1024/10/scaletowidth#tl-451040323099951105;1043138249" style="max-width:100%" /><script async charset="utf-8" src="//cdn.thinglink.me/jse/embed.js"></script>

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...ope-to-be-winning-combination-for-4929329.php

History sets the bar but makes its demands of only a few. There is a compliment with the expectations but a burden, too.

The Rockets' James Harden wanted that expectation. Dwight Howard welcomed the burden. They considered the great inside-out combinations of basketball history, the one-two punches as Howard called them, and believe they will belong in that exclusive club.

Dues might have been paid along the way, but membership comes at a price, with a championship required at the door.

"Everybody expects us to win a championship," Howard, 27, said. "That's our goal. That's what we're playing for."

Both have been to the Finals without the other, Howard having carried a young, overachieving Magic team and Harden having been a sixth man with the Thunder. They have never had the expectations that come with their partnership.

Great expectations

The Rockets not only accept the pass-fail, championship-or-bust measure of success, they embrace the pursuit of a championship as the expectation for the Howard-Harden partnership.

"Absolutely," general manager Daryl Morey said of that expectation for some time with Harden and Howard. "Obviously, it's the goal for any franchise.

"Right now, by any objective measure, they're both among the top 10 players in the game. When you have that, you have a chance to win the title. Just look through history. That's the case.

"I understand we haven't proven anything. But both have been to the Finals. There is a history of teams in their first year coming together winning the title. That said, we have a lot to prove. We have a lot of young players.

"But I do think ultimately, while we have James and Dwight, our plan, our goal is to win the title."

Indisputable as it is that there are other ways to build a champion, basketball almost seems to have been designed for a combination of inside-out excellence to work, as if the differences best complement players and lift them to greatness. Could Bill Russell have been all he was without Bob Cousy? Could Shaquille O'Neal have triumphed without Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade?

Their individual talents were undeniable. Yet, if their excellence had not found a talent that was more than a second star, but a partner, could they have made their teams champions?

Either way, they set the standard Howard and Harden will try to reach, knowing they needed the other to get there.

History lessons

"You look at all the teams that had great seasons and won championships, they had a one-two punch," Howard said. "You look at Shaq and Kobe, Magic (Johnson) and Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Clyde (Drexler) and Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon). You can keep going.

"Even though John Stockton and (Karl) Malone didn't get one, that one-two punch was very powerful.

"That's what was very intriguing about coming here to Houston, me and James being that one-two punch and what we can accomplish if we're both at the top of our game."

Both are in their prime, assuming Howard completes his return from his back surgery following the 2011-12 season. But more than both being at the top of their individual games, there has been a growing sense they can be more than they were before because of each other and the nature of an inside-out combination.

"The positions, the frontcourt, the backcourt, it's so complementary," Olajuwon said. "You don't need to do a lot of sacrifice or communication. They are communicating. They like each other.

"You see, wow, what each other brings to the table. The more you see, wow, it's fresher. You have an effective stopper in the middle. They can't leave him when you drive to the basket. You open up everything for the team. From what I can see, the chemistry is wonderful.

"It is complementary. You need each other. When you bring a superstar to the team, it is easier. He is not taking away; he is adding, making you achieve more with less effort. It's more of a one-two punch. It's wonderful."

Howard and Bryant never seemed to fit with the Lakers, though by season's end, their pick-and-roll combination worked well, and better than with playmaking master Steve Nash. Still, there seemed to be a sense Bryant and Howard were taking turns rather than lifting each other.

But Harden, 24, argues he will do the things he did in his breakout first season with the Rockets but will do them better with Howard at his side.

"It helps in so many ways," Harden said. "Offensively, for me, the big can't just step up easily. You have to always be conscious of Dwight catching lobs. He's so athletic you have to always be conscious of him and where he is around the basket because if you give him position and a shot is missed, he's going to get the offensive rebound.

"You have to be aware of him at all times. And defensively, I have the confidence that if I do get beat, he's there to protect me. Whenever I'm in trouble, he's going to be there.

"I've never had this, no, not someone this powerful."

For Howard, joining a high-scoring, playmaking guard will not only help Harden but will make things easier all over the court. Howard has averaged 18.3 points in his nine NBA seasons but described his potential influence on the Rockets, when combined with Harden, as more like Russell's through 11 championships with the Celtics or Wilt Chamberlain's with the 1972 Lakers.

Big comparisons

"Bill Russell realized the best thing to do was defend, rebound, get it out quick and get easy buckets," Howard said. "They were blowing teams out. Bill Russell, especially, took pride in his defense. I do the same thing.

"We're both undersized to play the center position, but we were great defenders, got a lot of rebounds and blocked a lot of shots. I look at Wilt. He realized he didn't have to score 50 points a game to win. He played defense. He dominated the paint. He kicked it out and those guys hit shots. That was the best thing for his team.

"With us, you have to pick your poison. We have, with me and James in the pick-and-roll, him driving down the lane, putting all kinds of pressure on the bigs to help, but also on the perimeter to step in and hit me on the roll, which will let guys like Chandler (Parsons), (Francisco) Garcia, all of these guys that can spread the floor, hit those shots."

That is the idea of pairing an aggressive scorer with an inside threat. But league history is filled with champions who did not fit the inside-out model. Rockets coach Kevin McHale won three titles in Boston by being part of a dominant frontcourt with Larry Bird and Robert Parrish. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen ideally complemented each other on the way to six championships. Wade and James have won the past two titles.

"There's different ways to build championship teams," Harden said. "You can be guard-oriented like the Bulls, like Miami has with LeBron and D-Wade. Or you can do it like Shaq and Kobe or Shaq and D-Wade. It's about putting the right pieces together for that team.

Influenced by Lakers

"Growing up, obviously I'm from L.A., so I watched a lot of Lakers. The pieces they put around Kobe and Shaq worked so well. You had Derek Fisher who did all the little things, took the charges, played defense, knocked down 3-pointers. You had the four men who stepped up and played. But you knew the ball was getting to Shaq and Kobe. I look at it as similar to us and what we have now in the Rockets' locker room."

If championship teams can be built only by putting the right pieces around a pair of stars, as the championship teams from the Russell-Cousy Celtics to the Shaq-Kobe Lakers demonstrated, it is considerably less complicated to build a champion when starting with one star inside and another out.

"If you have a player like LeBron, if you have the best player in the league by a big margin, you can almost make any combination work," Morey said. "Otherwise, ideally, if you look to history, a perimeter player and a big is generally your ideal pairing. (Paul) Pierce-(Kevin) Garnett. Kobe-Shaq. Kobe-Pau (Gasol). Wade-Shaq. The list goes on. Clyde-Hakeem.

"Ideally, to win the title, you need at least one, better two, best three of the top 10 to 20 players in the league. Clearly, if the top two players are balanced it makes it easier to fill out the roster at other positions."

Interdependence

The Rockets' pairing is now a partnership, its success to be measured as an entity. If only a championship will be considered sufficient, Howard cannot reach that standard without Harden; Harden cannot achieve it without Howard.

It does not have to come immediately. It does not even have to come this season. But for Harden and Howard to be viewed a success, even by themselves, they know they must become champions. Together.

"I have somebody I can lean on. He has somebody he can lean on," Harden said. "I think that's key. You don't want to feel like you are on an island by yourself. We'll be on the same page to where I look at Dwight and he looks at me and it's go time. We're ready to go and nobody can stop us."
Click to expand...

CasaDolce · Oct 27, 2013

So does it mean we can also start a thread every time Jeremy "makes the cover"?

otis thorpe · Oct 27, 2013

rockbox said: ↑

Then focus on the stars and stop making Lin threads.
Click to expand...

Bro

I don't post in this forum cause of lin threads. I've started one other lin thread in the past in a former life last season.

NotInMyHouse · Oct 27, 2013

otis thorpe said: ↑

Bro

I don't post in this forum cause of lin threads. I've started one other lin thread in the past in a former life last season.
Click to expand...

Banishment?

Pumpedupkicks · Oct 27, 2013

rockbox said: ↑

Then focus on the stars and stop making Lin threads.
Click to expand...

You would think so, right.

rockbox · Oct 27, 2013

Thanks JR. I'm so excited about this team.

Pumpedupkicks · Oct 27, 2013

otis thorpe said: ↑

because I do think this is significant shift in how this team is reported on. I was tired of the guy being driven down our throats. he is a role player and that's fine.

lets focus on our stars
Click to expand...

You know why Lin's being "driven down our throats? Because of the same ***** you just pull. Anything Lin, regardless of substance, will get hits and clicks. You know who still promotes "Linsanity"? Freaking Rockets beat writers who never fail to hashtag or tweet #Linsanity when he has a good game. Why do they do that? Because it draws attention to the organization and any or all attention is good publicity. If you don't like it, simple ignore or skip the page instead of whining and wasting threads on Clutchfans. It's that *****ing easy!!

RockingRox · Oct 27, 2013

otis thorpe said: ↑

of the chronicle's nba preview. what does this mean going forward. seriously, I think its pretty disingenuous to keep putting this guy in commercials with howard harden and parsons. thanks chronicle for coming to sanity.

website picture, not hard copy picture
Click to expand...

Pathetic in bashing a current player of my Rockets.

ttdestroyer · Oct 27, 2013

otis thorpe said: ↑

of the chronicle's nba preview. what does this mean going forward. seriously, I think its pretty disingenuous to keep putting this guy in commercials with howard harden and parsons. thanks chronicle for coming to sanity.

website picture, not hard copy picture
Click to expand...

Still rubbing brain cells together trying to understand the point of your thread. Troll much?

charlieaustin · Oct 27, 2013

rockbox said: ↑

Then focus on the stars and stop making Lin threads.
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^
THIS!

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Jeremy Lin Didn't Make the Cover

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