Rockets should only focus on keeping James Harden and PJ Tucker -Kendrick Perkins

Where is Harden's target for a lob? Maybe call DeAndre and discuss that hometown discount?

 

He is. Best in class for up to to low max than anything else available.

 

I agree with others saying we should keep Rivers. Rivers and PJ are the heroes of these playoffs. PJ gets more attention, but more quietly in the background Rivers was having extremely positive impacts throughout both series.

The team needs a new mentality as a whole. One thing you could tell about the Warriors is that they WANT to win. Like, really want it. Enough to go out and make it happen. The Rockets kind of show up and expect the chips to fall on their side of the table at the end. I think the Rockets were the better team on paper. But then you have to apply a scaling factor that considers energy, attitude, coaching, and all these human things that bring a team's performance down. Apply a ref-scaling factor, too, if you want, but I'm not doing that here. Say you assign a score of 100 to the Rockets and a 80 to the Warriors without Durant. But then the Warriors play at 90%, and the Rockets play at 60%, then 100*0.6 = 60 < 80*0.9 = 72. Warriors win. (These are just arbitrary numbers not normalized to any scale just to prove a point.)

Tucker and Rivers came to win. They busted their butts out there, and it shows in the numbers. I'd be looking for passionate players, not statistical peaks on paper. Guys that are skilled enough, are willing to improve (you need coaches to teach them as well, and we don't have that), and just want to go out and play like crazy to win every game. Guys whose charisma drives the whole team. As much as I hate him and don't want a dirty player like him, it seems to me that Draymond Green does that for the Warriors.

In this idealized world where we can move anybody we want, you keep Harden, of course. Harden is too good, period. You keep Tucker. Tucker's getting up there in age, but he's passionate as hell and makes things happen. The heart of the team. James is the brain, not the heart. I say keep Rivers. But you can spend double the current payroll buying stars and if you play at under 50% of your capability, you've effectively got less of a team. The Rockets are THE experts of the NBA at scaling their potential down. It's systemic and has got to stop.

 

Cavs will do it for the pick. Not like they are winning anytime soon with love anyways.

 

@codmanm, appreciate the post. Yeah, "#theKets" aren't going anywhere..... Harden, Tucker, Paul.

What I am interested in, was his post game response about "knowing what needs to be done." Coaching? Scheme/Tactics? Players letting him down, such as Capela? A deeper bench with *16 game players* versus bench depth of *82 game players*?