sry, that’s a soured-on-harden version of the Morey build ... and probably too focused on last year. Morey and Harden correctly built the best defense they could around Harden (incl getting byzdelik) which provided enough offense for Harden (and Paul) to work with. The 3&D route was the correct path, since Paul was the only big trade Morey landed, in that critical window. i think by “more balanced team” you mean role-player offensive guys (Lou Will as example) who would’ve ruined our top defense in 2018. After, we naturally tried to keep that formula following year, and last year was just a mess no one wanted, but tilman ... with one last-gasp trade to the 3&D extreme with 48mins of Smallball via covington expect pain when you have a formula for 3&Ds surrounding a superstar scorer, and you lose that scorer out from the middle.
Goodness gracious, that was both cheesy and horrible! I can’t believe I watched it twice... ....... ....... .......
Agree totally with your last line. And I don't fault Morey for designing the team as he did, given what Harden was willing to do. But I do fault Harden for not being more flexible. He was awesome at innovating in his 1-on-1 game, but tragically stubborn about not developing more of an off-ball game. Had he done so, he could have significantly improved his chances of winning a title. I'm not trying to bash Harden here. He's a genius at what he does. But he also has some personality flaws that limited his ability, and ours, to maximize the use of his talents.
You can't dismiss the huge role that Tilman's salary cap directives had on Morey's ability to build a championship team. Trading draft picks to move tradeable contracts to stay under the luxury cap meant they had few assets to deal to patch up the Trevor Ariza sized hole they had in the lineup *and* they lost out on the value of those cheap, young players who could have brought energy to an older team. See: Melton, De'Anthony.
Agree about Fertitta (and Alexander) as a factor. But wasn't Melton a Morey casualty? i.e., a casualty of the bad decision to overpay Anderson? P.S. I freaking love Morey. All I'm arguing here is that our failures at the pinnacle of the NBA in recent years, and our failures at the floor of the NBA right now, are part of the whole package of how the Harden Rockets were built.
Melton was a LTS casualty. Rockets saved $3.4 million in salary and $7.9 million in luxury tax for a total savings of at least $11.3 million.
You are clearly a Harden fan. we get it. You call John Wall “Johnny Ball Hog” can’t figure out that it’s Christian Wood with no s Tilman is a disaster and every rumor on Twitter is fact. No way player x is available because I read it. It’s ok, you’re not a Rockets fan. It’s fine. It’s okay to move on.
Get a grip Nancy. I’ve been saying this is woods team and not Johnny ball hog. Is that wrong? Pretty much everyone here has been saying it to. John is in it for himself and that’s all apparent for all to see Also the it is not Hardens fault Wall can’t even carry this team to one single win without Wood. Not one buddy. What did I say that’s wrong. As for harden yeah, I’ll appreciate what he did here for 8 years unlike you
waahhh he did for CP3. so Harden should have played off ball last year and let Wb playmake? and this year Wall?
That's the system we put out there and that's an organizational decision. We've also put him off-ball and tried to put someone else at the point. The only person who was able to do that at the same or better level to Harden is Chris Paul. Overall this is an organizational failure. We sucked at getting good PGs so Harden can truly be off-ball. And then when Harden was on-ball because he was simply the best person to handle the rock, everyone else wanted to throw him off the ball and call him a ball-hog. It's not his fault that he's good at point. Using him there is the correct approach if he's the best to do that. I think it's a done deal when Kyrie Irving defers to him to play point over him. It's really time for all of you to look at why Harden didn't have that much help around him when he really grew into a ball-dominant guard.
That's where I'm at now. This last game left me feeling embarrassed. Not for the team or the organization, I felt that way a while back. I feel embarrassed personally. My team has reached a low that is truly horrific. I have a relative in SA with season tickets for the Spurs and I dread the next time I see the guy. Not having to see him now is the only good thing to come out of this pandemic. I was looking at the standings earlier today and hell, we're only a few games "behind" Minneapolis in the loss column. Keep losing!
True but we need to start turning things around ASAP. It may take a few drafts honestly but it has to be done. Hopefully a star gets disgruntled but the draft is the path until then. Asset collection too. Stone already had an eye toward this strategy when he acquired KPJ - which has shown thus far to be a move with excellent upside
Exact reasons bad teams stay bad. That's why the same shitty teams 10 years ago are still shitty. Bad ownership and a toxic culture.
