Your comment makes no sense. We SHOULD be a good team. And we SHOULD do better than +1 with Harden in the game. What a RADICAL idea!!!!
Quit saying "SHOULD" like we are the same group. We aren't. Wake up. But sounds like you got it figured out why we aren't, like what everyone else is saying n this thread, except KlutchQT.
I don't think I'm saying anything all that different from her. Maybe you are just putting some kind of over-interpretation on smh.
If that were true, Harden would no longer be the team's best player, so you'd get your way that way. Harden is also as close as anyone to Kobe, he certainly looks up to him, and Kobe may have well convinced him that you can't win with Dwight, Durant too, i tend to agree, at least as anything but a bit role player. However, Harden iced Dwight in the conference finals, i think it was under 10 passes to him, not assists, passes, in the front half court (at the same time, Dwight averaged 8 post possessions per game at the worst ppp league wide). But here's the thing, and it's not just a personality thing, passing the ball to Dwight is a waste of a possession, he can not post up, he sucks at it, yet that's what he wants to do, Dwight trying to be a post player has hurt this team immeasurably, it hurt the Lakers, the increase in analytics across other teams is leading to less possession waste as well, and we're really good at wasting possessions, especially with Dwight and Jones right now. Dwight used to be one of my favorite players, even before he got here, but man, the guy's unwillingness to stick to his strengths has been infuriating. It was probably responsibility of someone to tell him, be it his sycophantic **** stain of an agent, or maybe someone in our coaching staff to make it plain as day, heck cyberx even alluded to Morey implying that last year. Dwight doesn't want to do what's necessary to win, he wants to do what makes Dwight look better, that Harden is the one copping that criticism is complete dog**** (and don't even get started with that chucker Josh Smith, him and Dwight are complete wastes of talent) And then there's the defense, no doubt its awful and its entirely a coaching problem, there's no structure in the defense, how many times have you heard Clyde say they have to double when the post player gets that long to work, our players don't do it because there's no structure about how the help should work, this has been going on for years and is totally the fault of our coaching staff. Look at Golden state, Curry can't defend for ****, he's good at literally one thing on defense, so what do the warriors ask him to do? that and just that and nothing else, rushing help (albeit in a very structured manner, watch for example what they do if he gets posted up in a switch, do they sit and hope like we do? does anyone else?!?!?), it makes him look decent on that end because they're not setting him up to fail like our "system".
Not the same mentality. Stop going in games thinking every shots will fall. Stop thinking they'll fear you just because you've made it to the WCF. If anything, it makes you a bigger target. Opponents will come in and try to take down the "big dawg". They'll play with much higher intensity and energy. It's up to the rockets to match their intensity and energy. Rockets need to humble themselves. They need to realize they haven't won ****! Warriors have managed to done that and much much more.
Here's the thing #1, Dwight is as good as gone. The writing is on the wall. He's opting out after this season. Kobe and Shaq all over again. Except Kobe with a beard Ty Lawson's $12 million team option will obviously be declined We will be rebuilding all over again. This time with $200 million Adidas James Harden Question: Why would Durant come here to a gutted Rockets team with only Harden???? Food for thought.
In regards to some Harden/Howard friction, here's my guess. I'm not defending Harden because I think he's one of the biggest culprits among the players. But he might feel it's not fair that Dwight gets a lighter workload in the season (albeit due to injury) while he has to carry the team. I'm sure Dwight saw issues with Harden's inconsistent effort too, particularly in the playoffs. Of course there could be plenty more once you go down that path.
**** man just ****. i was hanging out earlier with some friends and then i saw this thread i was just like ****. and then as i was driving home i was thinking **** this is terrible. i can't imagine what that locker room is like. worse yet maybe the locker room is just dead silent with no one giving a ****. ugh i hate this so much. 15 games in and it's just over after such a great season last year and what seemed to be such a great offseason. where is that angry hitler video when i need it? this season is ****. my friend who is a casual spurs fan and never wants to do **** said "hey robbie, what are you doing christmas day?" i reply "i don't know yet." he says "hey let's go to the spurs rockets game down in houston!" he wasn't even being a dick when he asked. i replied "i don't know. i'm just so beat down from this season." what the **** man. why is it this bad so quick? normally i would be like "hell yeah let's do this!"
And then Capela comes in and it's the first thing Harden runs. It really is amazing the way he seems to have shut Howard out. And it's getting really frustrating for me as a fan because Howard is playing really hard and he could put up a lot of points if James would play with him. I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes but it's hard for me not to feel like this is about Harden and the way he relates to his teammates. And when I let my mind run wild I imagine we might be having a great season if Ty Lawson was still Harden's drinking buddy. Lawson didn't just turn into a bad player.
Once again, I find it absolutely hilarious that some of you think Smith is some amazing prognosticator and keystone talent. Dude made it quite clear why he didn't re-sign yet "there must be another reason why"??? Give me a break, lol
weird how last year one of the biggest complaints about Howard was he refused to run a PnR and was not good at rolling to the basket....all he wanted was post-ups. Now suddenly, Harden is icing him out Are you guys saying you want Howard post-ups? Good luck with that. You'll see a "Official Don't Post-Up Howard" thread very soon, if you do that. For whatever reason, Capella has a knack for rolling to the basket that Howard doesn't show as much. Maybe the defenses don't follow him.
The truth might come out soon, but Smith didn't re-sign here for reasons not mentioned...nothing to do with chemistry, things said at the end of season, asset management or clashing egos, but I'll let you believe that Smith re-signed for less money in LA because of minute allocation. I just take my hat off to J-Smoove for being professional about why he left and not airing out his grievances...Jet though is at the end of his distinguished career & doesn't need to be politics correct. Take what you want from that mate...
There's nothing deeper to say. They were drinking buddies when they decided they wanted to play together. Now, assumedly, they're not. And, though they were good friends (maybe still are), their chemistry on the floor has been very poor. Sometimes I imagine the two things might have something to do with one another. I'm not saying it's true or that there's any basis for thinking it. I'm just wondering what's up with Lawson and trying to fill in the blank.
This is one of the reasons I posted Harden's +1 in 41 minutes, when the other 7 minutes was a -10 for the team. I'm not big on +/- stats, but when three players play 40 minutes each (of the possible 48) and they are drastically different, it's interesting. Ariza played 39 minutes at -14 Howard 40 minutes at -12 Harden 41 minutes at +1 Rockets as a team -9 That's pretty uncommon
