Many people have learned how damaging short-sighted decision making can be over the last couple years. Or at least I hope they have. The Rockets won’t recover from those decisions for a very long time.
I think you mean lol Lakers caliber... lol. https://www.nba.com/lakers/history/seasonbyseason Check 2010-11 season vs 2013-14 season, lol. Then surprisingly they had SIX CONSECUTIVE losing seasons. And everyone knows the Lakers are a joke of a franchise. In comparison, the Rockets shouldn't have more than 0.5 losing seasons after a player of Harden's caliber leaves. Anything more is a sign of incompetence in the front office... lol. We are becoming the Lakers. Lol.
I'm not talking about 17-18. Yes, they were great that 1 season with 65 wins and a contender, but couldn't drive the knock out punch against a juggernaut Warriors team. But that team was built on FA and trades, which are expensive. They didn't have 2 way players to replace Mbah who has been injured and out of the league since or an overrated Ariza who is "such an integral winning player" that he has bounced around 5 teams in 2 seasons. Even in 18-19, they had another shot at GSW, but couldn't take finish it off. Yes they found House and Rivers out of no where, but House has never been as efficient offensively as that season and is not really a 2-way player, and a notoriously hot/cold Rivers who had one of his best shooting months of his career those playoffs. The issue is that as those 2 stars become more and more expensive percentage-wise in 18-19 and 19-20 of the cap, you have to skim other parts of the roster. And you cannot keep that kind of team together unless you jump way into the LTS or keep cheap, good young talent with 1st round picks. The older players you were trying to depend on start get injured like Gordon. While CP3 has been great post Rockets, but that is partly because he doesn't have so handle so much of the load that he did on the Rockets, not just his great new diet. Even if they had kept Paul, this team was never going to recover. Him asking for the super max new contact was a ticking time bomb. They may have had a few more wins last year to face the Jazz/Clippers instead of Thunder/Lakers, but they still don't win a title. There is still a slim chance Harden, Dantoni or Morey is still here in 20-21. The plan worked for the 1, maybe 2 seasons. And when you mess up those 2 chances at the champs, the bill comes due and this is what happen. But it was never going to work for a full 3-5 year window. My point is that it is not a long term plan.
Nope wrong, it works if the owner is willing to play the luxury tax. The end. The absolute end. All he had to do was pay for it in 18-19 and the salary could be reworked in 19-20. You.Are.Wrong.
We should have kept Paul. The mistake was the horrendous trade for Westbrook, that trade ruined our franchise. Should have traded Harden before trading for Westbrook.
We should've kept Paul but James Harden ultimately ran him off. CP was the ONLY person that held him accountable, even more than the GM. That's says alot about the culture under Morey
I'm not sure where you are getting those facts from. Chris paul is doing better because he less useage? The year he left the rockets in okc he had a higher useage than the year before with houston and led okc to the playoffs. This year sharing with booker he has about the same as his last year with houston. In houston he basically staggered with James Harden, great role to go itno. Ariza is overrated if all you do is look at stats, but there is something to cohesive and keeping the locker room together. You don't have to believe me, here is a Chris Paul quote looking back last summer: Former Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul was on the Knuckleheads podcast with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson and explained the impact of the Rockets losing Ariza. “People don’t realize, that’s the biggest thing that we missed. That was tough when we lost [Ariza] because he sorta was like the glue. He was that glue for our team.” And The NBA is tough, I don't mind upgrading or replacing. Not only was Ariza a one year risk, tradeable at the deadline which he was. Our replacement was James ennis on the minimum contract, guess what while we're 'in contention going all out to win' he was traded midseason while he was in MDA's short rotation for....top 55 2nd rounder, that locker room and minutes were just lost. We ended up getting Daniel house who we also cut for months mid season until it was tax convenient. This is where nba economics are headed. The history shows the role players and cohesion matters. Haslem is paid in miami not to play, just set the culture. Kerr, Paxon, Horry, Ellie, Kenny smith, derek fisher, etc all are nothing special role players who made integral shots or plays that changed history. Theres a reason lebron also lost 7 years while statistically dominatin the league and went to miami for the right set of team to win. He came back, they over paid JR, Klove, Tristan, but they won and they wouldn't trade it. Raptors took a swing at Leonard, one bounce on his crazzy shot and the rest is history, its that close so margins, players, etc matter. They overpaid 50 million for 2 yars of an aging Gasol, but they won. Warriors, Nets, clippers all will resign and pay the cap when at least taking a shot. Unless you want to run it like the pacers, be mediocre, be good enough for entertainment and hope luck goes your way to a win, the nba revenues and new owners are raising the bar set by precedent. We will be prepetually mediocre and hoping on dumb luck with the formula you mentioned of cheapening out on the rest of the team. Thats why a 1 stars won't come here or they wont stay if thats our reputation.
Tilman dick riders, some posters r ride or die on that train until the very end. How we went from a championship caliber team to shttiest in the league in a span of 3 years, and people still defend our shtty owner and his luxury tax dodging ways.
Sorry my random anecdote doesn't fit your anecdote-fueled narrative. A little additional information - the Lakers would have continued to lose if Lebron didn't bail them out. And another piece of information - no matter how good or bad your front office is, you also need some luck.
I hope u don’t think your meaningless anecdote is something profound or enlightening because that would be sad
