Objectively, these Rockets are unwatchable garbage

I usually DVR the games now, and fastforward when they start to frustrtate me. Which means I usually move right on through the whole game. Even during the Francis years I was never this miserable watching this team. At least they played hard. An ugly offense that has no flow, and a defense that is embarrassingly leaky, mainly due to effort.

I'm not ready to trade harden because talents like him are so rare. But his overall effort this year has often been downright embarrassing. He certainly isn't the only problem, but with great power comes great responsibility, and he hasn't shown anything resembling leadership.

This is an awful, awful product.

 

Agreed. I really hate this team. They are almost impossible to root for as a basketball fan because they seem to embody everything bad about professional sports. They are lazy and entitled and mostly unlikable with a few exceptions. Les really needs to blow the whole thing up.

 

Please direct yourselves to the Astros forum if you'd like news on a team that plays with spunk, fire, and an unwillingness to go down without a fight. Even during the days of the "process" (similar to the 76ers eh), the Syria played hard, but lacked talent. The Rockets have a gluttony of talent, but just lack the "intangibles" a championship team should have. And I have no idea if they'll ever get it either.

 

Lol damn autocorrect changed Astros to Syria.

 

Doesn't make sense. Since acquiring Harden, we've rarely had the issue of not being a good enough offensive team. We almost always have the issue of not being a good defensive team.

Which by the quoted post's analysis would mean we need to get better defensive players and better creators on offense - and if we needed both of those things, we wouldn't even be a lower playoff seed, we'd be in the lottery.

There are lots of other teams who get more out of less talent. Right now, the coaching staff should be doing better to help all 15 players understand their role and execute the game plan.

This team is good enough talent wise to have home court in the western playoffs this season. The reason we're not is because of motivation to be persistent with defensive rotations, ball movement and player movement.

 

I'd say that all the empty seats at Toyota Center will be a nice way of shaming them. And that arena will only become emptier as the season wears on. Especially if they find themselves outside of the playoff picture by April.

 

harden for blake

 

I somewhat agree with what you're saying... none of these guys are iso players - that's why they need to play TEAM ball for ALL to make contributions...
They've looked their best when the ball is moving around with crisp passes, D12 getting lobs, playing to the hot hand on the perimeter...
Problem is our game is often all centered around Harden.. he does what he wants to do and forgets about D12, doesnt move the ball around and whoever he throws it to with 3 seconds left has to shoot (whether they're hot or not...). I'm not just saying this stuff to rag on Harden. He is a great player, but he is too ball dominant for everyone else to get involved and get a good flow...
With the players we have, we need to be playing a Pistons championship team type gameplan not an MJ or Kobe type gameplan. We need to maximize the players within the gameplan/structure - not merely as a fallback... if we had a few coldblooded shooters that could not touch the ball for 15 minutes and then drain a 3 - fine... but we don't...
If someobdy doesn't agree... tell me that the ball movement doesnt typically look better with the second unit - and those are the backups!

 

My question is how does Houston expect to get Durant? Last years team played tough and overachieved, but that team had a chance to draw interest from Kevin. This team plays horrible and with no heart at all. If I was Kevin Durant I wouldn't even take the phone call or visit.

 

That's worse than watchable garbage

 

Yesterday's game was an abomination. There should be hell to pay for that. The team is not advancing in the playoffs, so now is the time to make a point. Drastic changes should be in order. Hopefully the changes would improve the team, but if not, no big loss.

 

But harden said he was the best player in the league.

 

This team is not going anywhere this year. We, including myself, need to stop fooling ourselves. This is a disaster of a season. We can all but scrap this season. We just don't have the weapons or the players to compete in the western conference. We can't put it all on James Harden. He commits a lot of turnovers because he always has the ball. Who else is he going to throw it to? Nobody else can shoot and shoot consistently. As far as Dwight Howard is concern. we need to cut him. Dwight is a really nice guy, but has seen his best days as a player. They really need to let him go, and try to develop Capela. We need some gunslingers on this squad that can shoot. We need three point specialist and some hustle guys to play some defense. We have to stop being a one dimensional team, and that being James H. and get more players involved in the offense. When we do get good players in here, we some how or another let them go, like your Kyle Lowry's and your Rudy Gay's, Dragic, Parsons, Black, etc, etc. I like J.B. Bickerstaff, but he's over his head with this squad. Please bring in Tom T. as the head coach. Well, that's my take.

 

I agree, it's really bad... but they are still my Rockets.

 

morey cannot be held accountable for care / lack of care.

the right coach is needed for these guys..unfortunately thats a blue unicorn that might be tough to conjure up. these guys need a coach they look up to and respect. imagine if phil jackson walked in. this team would easily make playoffs and a genuine stab. it would have to be something crazy like that, and its not going to happen.

harden has 200 million. brewer is paid. howard been getting paid.

they know, you know, we all know they truly could 'turn it on' thats actually the sad part is that it is genuinely true...

but enter reality, and it will be an interestng 8 seed matchup against gsw ..that is assuming they even make the playoffs.if they can muster enough care for that.then lets see if they really can get away with it on any level.

I can tell you even in todays state of affairs, SA and GSW wouldnt be thrilled to play us as 8 seed. I promise you that.

'take it to the limit' should be the slogan this year.

I for one, only see inspiration being drawn from being in playoffs, or a monster head coach move. thats the only thing that will get them going in terms of care meter

a trade too perhaps but not sure who? we need to give howard harden its true shot and the only way to test that is one last try at a big name coach bring in.

im sure morey might be quick triggered on trades but for what?how long before morey relents on the howard harden combo vs. trade and or new coach?

I say a coach-
jvg,
offer the moon and all planets to coach k (pipe dream) same for pitino
jerry sloan if hes still alive
hail mary full of grace
auerbachs ghost
call me crazy but george karl
even.adelman
someone obvious big name that im not mentioning. help me out here.

basically we need an old school hardcore badass with the glory play being phil jackson coming in and taking harden and howard under wing..getting that motivation that no one can tap into now due to ego,lack of plays/strategy. and the fact they are sitting on millions..only phil can address that at this point in THIS season.

in the fairy tale - phil uses mind zen and we see it in a 30-30 years later-

8 seed barely..beat gsw,san atonio , lebron etc dda yada history books...streamers.

aint gonna happen but les is a billionaire. les offers 100 million just to be ridiculous.

if anything the call to phil needs to be made. we are talking miracles at this point..
after that, wake up from dream and know les cant afford it. no miracle is walking through this door. not happening. thank god i have suddenlink.

I dont think them making playoffs will be motivation enough to go past round 2 although any spark and run can happen we all know that. but i think from a haily mary point of view,without a big time splash coach this year is in question and on life support. a major coach deal would need to happen right about now.

with this kind of care I mean.

cant force care

 

How does a guy complaining about the whole team devolve into a bash just Harden thread? lol

 

I think that's what makes them unwatchable.

 

Well Ballstreams is gone now so I probably won't watch as many games. Probably will be replays after they've won a game against good teams (rarely)

 

MY question is, who would agree to be traded to Houston?
Given the way we've been playing, lack of effort, apparent lack of direction, complete ISO with James, incredibly poor coaching and systems.
Whether it's an all-star calabre player, an offensive threat or even a promising rookie. Who in their right mind would agree of their own free will to a trade to Houston?

IMO forget about which players can improve things. Get things right first and that starts with the coaching staff.

 

We're not getting Durant or any other respectable free agent this summer, but Morey and Les are delusional and don't really have any other gameplan. I think deep down they know they need to start over and that their indifference toward coaching bit them in the ass, but they'd rather try in vain for a quick fix than go through a lengthy rebuild.