Real Talk: The Rockets are Held Captive by Harden's Mood Swings

Whether the statement is fair or not, Harpring is one of the last people you should list as a source about Rockets' basketball. haha.

 

I've noticed a strange pattern that whenever one Rockets player scores 30 or more points, the Rockets tend to lose...

Harden 30+ points v. Utah (loss)
Dwight 30+ points v. Dallas (loss)
JLin 30+ points v. Philadelphia (loss)
Harden 30+ points v. LA Lakers (loss)

summary: 4 out of our 6 losses have had 30+ point performances

And get this: out of our 13 wins, only four of those had a 30+ performance (and most of those games were close or very close)

In the majority of our blowouts and/or decisive victories the top Rockets scorer scored no more than 25 points (which means the wealth was distributed via good ball and body movement, and good defense).

 

Please don't use Popovich as an example here of what any coach should or shouldn't do in the NBA. Lets be honest.... NO COACH in the NBA can get away with what he can get away with. They respect he commands both from the refs, and his players is un-parrallel. Pop has years and years of trust built through the years with his core players. He can yell at them like that, and he knows it wont implode the team.

McHale CANNOT and Should not feel comfortable demeaning and publicly humiliating his brand new team at any point in the near future. He hasn't earned years of trust and loyalty with this group yet. He also shouldn't have to give an Al Pacino Any Given Sunday half time speech to fire up his team. You can't do that every single game.

All of this doesn't mean he can't and doesn't hold every player accountable. I've seen it with my own eyes when he corrects Harden and Howard in a very stern manner at times. However, saying that he's not doing a good job cause he doesn't yell and scream like a toddler like Popovich does is very unfair.

 

I have complained about Harden's d as much as anyone but in all fairness Harden is still injured. He can not realistically be expected to play both sides of the court on a bad foot.

Missing Parsons and Lin makes it imperative we get scoring from him so asking him to play d as well is a bit much. I think his d has improved this year when healthy and even his iso'ing has gone down.

Last night wasn't the case but we were missing Parsons and Lin and playing with an injured Harden in an arena that is just as difficult to win in as Denver.

Dissappointing loss but not the end of the world. Plus McHale's decision to start Garcia hurt the D as much as anything.

Casspi would have been the better choice to guard hayward. Garcia could have came off the bench to give us a spark and Casspi could have slid over to sub for Jones. That would have helped the rotation as much as anything.

 

Harden was resting his sore foot last night. That Yames Haren fella can score, but seems a little lost out there on the defensive end.

 

The Knicks forum has a term for the way Harden plays basketball. They call it star*****ing.

 

I really don't know if Harden has the "X" factor where he can just enter that Jordan/Kobe and now Lebron mindsight and just will his team to victory.
Pretty dissappointed with him this season.

 

I know the thread starter has been here but this forum is subject to the mood of Lin only fans

 

eh in all of those cases they were also playing matador d. These guys went off.

Utah (Hayward)
Dallas (Ellis)
Philadelphia (Anderson)
Lakers (Blake)

Ball distribution is important but defense is more so.

 

Umm, it also means that the starters were on the bench for longer periods and not scoring as many points regardless of ball movement.

 

I guess I didn't make my point clear enough. When there is ball and body movement on offense, that energy tends to translate over to the defensive end. When Harden (or Howard) goes into his iso mode and dribbles the ball for like 10 seconds, the other guys just kind of stand around...they put into second or third gear. But then they have to gear back up on defense, which is not always an easy or automatic transition to make--you have to force yourself to switch gears. This team seems to play better on both ends when its "fifth gear" every time, all the time; where the defense and offense run seamlessly together in a kind of flow.

 

We can't compete if we can't get stops during the game. It amazed me that McFail didn't put a taller player on Hayward and force him to drive into the paint against Dwight...

 

he put brewer in and hayward scored 6 points on him in 4mins.

 

I'm talking about someone like TJ, Brewer is the 12th man and horrible at that... Casspi would have been the better option with his height...

 

I know right, everyone bit**es about how we were stuck in mediocrity and now that we have 2 stars/superstars they still find things to bit** about.

 

Is it causation or correlation?

Because it's more likely the team struggles to score, so one player has to take on the burden on himself to score. Remember the Philly game when only Lin could score?

The lopsided scoring is a reflection of our offensive woes.

 

You make very good points!

Your right McHale is not Popovich in more ways than one, and to publicly humiliate or demean ANY of his players will more than likely be counter productive, especially in regards to Harden/Howard. However blowing some steam, even if he's not directly blowing steam at a particular person usually transfers lack of intensity to the player/players who are not giving 100%. I am not advocating McHale do a pep-rally in every time out, but losing to teams that are far inferior is not acceptable! It's one thing to lose to Heat/Spurs/Clippers, those teams are contenders, but to lose to the wannabe's like the Jazz/Sixers/Mavericks/Lakers? A good team with a good coach wouldn't allow that to happen.

Regardless, I'm kind of in a sour mood this morning, and blaming the coach is always the easiest thing to do, at least until we win again. GO ROCKETS!
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We have problems with teams that use a lot of screens on the perimeter.

It's also because the schedule doesn't allow us to have a lot of practice time, when I'm sure the coaches will hammer in our defensive principles again.

 

When guys are getting paid 22 million dollars and are heralded as the "best sg" or "best center" in the league, there is a certain standard associated with that: just ask Lebron. Howard gets paid 4X as much as Asik, probably 8X as much as Greg Smith, and 20X as much as certain rookies and veterans. Why should a guy who's getting paid one million be held to the same level of accountability as a guy who is getting paid 20 million and who is also getting all the glory?

 

Seriously, the guy drops 30 and somehow the loss was his fault.