The way we lost to Portland should of raised a red flag with leslie. We waisted one of Dwight years that year and it took 2 years after that for them to realize they messed up? Obviously they have been living in a cave because all of Houston have been asking for mchale firing. With James harden, I think he's getting tired of carrying this team with this inept offense and lackluster defense. Last year, he was great but this year instead of getting better with chemistry, we regressed in everything.
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The Harden and Howard experiment should be over... Morey needs to shed salary and start to retool for the summer. I think this team needs a complete overhaul. Find guys around the same age as Harden so they're all in their primes around the same time. Morey's mistake is he didn't hire the coach of the future when they fired McHale now he's gonna go into the offseason and start adding guys to the roster and the future coach will have to work with what he's given. Would have been nice if the future coach would have a say so in building the team.
Hardens effort and energy level are completely different when Howard isn't playing. I think Harden thinks he doesn't need Howard. He had so much success without him last year he probably feels things run more smooth without him. Spacing and ball movement are definitely better when Howard isn't playing
I would even suggest that those guys should find the next Morey get a young, talented assistant GM that can learn from Morey and has his own perspective without relying totally on stats. Groom his successor
It's not a organization thing. It's Moreyball & the coddling Daryl Morey's done with Harden. Moreyball is NOT a long term winning solution and whatever vision Morey had with jacking up 3's & begging for fouls hasn't panned out. We have talent. But the culture surrounding this organization is very entilted, crybabyish. Harden is the laziest most entilted superstar I've ever witnessed
so much success? not really. having a regular season stretch doesn't really make that statement true. make no mistake if Harden is going to want a chance to win he's going to need Howard and vice versa. That shouldn't even be questioned.
I agree! I think it's a bit ridiculous that they would suggest to JB during halftime that maybe he should start the 3rd quarter hacking. If the "front office" had gone and said that to a real coach like Thibs, JVG... They would have laughed in their faces. I think that did it for me. Morey needs to stick to his job description.
moreyball sounds logical and looks good on paper. but somehow i've never bought into it. 7yrs of execution has not worked, thus far. not sure if it's we dont have the right players or combination of players to carry it out, or it's never gonna work.
actually it does work and has been successful but that all goes down the drain when the defense is as pathetic as its been this season. If you can't at the very least be solid in that category, wins are going to be hard to come by and night like last night will come more often then not when you face a well discipline team like that
Harden carried a bunch of scrubs last season and even beat some of the better teams in the league with them. Yeah he may need Howard but not the version that is asking for the ball. I've always said that Howard needs to have a Tyson Chandler type role where all he does is rebound and play defense. It's obvious to me that as of late they're making it a point to get Howard the ball. It worked yesterday for the first few points then Pop called a timeout and Howard was no longer scoring easy. So now he's just clogging the lane. In previous games Harden got into the lane and was doing something last night he dribbled into the lane and would get stuck. To me in my opinion the ball movement and spacing is night and day when Howard is on or off the court.
I don't think it's necessarily Moreyball. The Warriors basically run Moreyball but they have the personnel to do it and they actually have an offensive system with screens all over the place and ball movement. Rockets haven't been able to achieve that. And won't. Not with this group of guys. They've already gotten comfortable and have bad habits that they're not gonna break out of
Carrying "scrubs" through the stretch of a regular doesn't mean "so much success" I don't know what you're seeing but Howard has by far been playing the DJ role. That shouldn't even be a discussion anymore. He has made the sacrifice a long time ago. However he's also the type of big man when hes down there pinning someone underneath the basket you give him the ball. That's just smart basketball. You can even hear the things JVG would emphasize when he calls our games. And that was one of his points last night. "You have to get the ball to Howard in situations where he has a clear mismatch under the goal". Being perimeter orientated will only get you so far. You need guys that can get you easy buckets in the paint to be successful period and that becomes especially true in the playoffs.
Yes he had so much success. That's the only reason he was in the MVP talk. Westbrook didn't have Durant last season and that team fell straight on its face. They were missing a focal point of their team. Howard missed half the season and Harden and the team didn't miss a beat. Don't you think a guy like Howard missing half the season would impact the team a bit more than it did? And yes I completely agree when he does his rim runs and has his guy pinned you obviously get him the ball. But that has nothing to do with what I'm saying. I'm saying that in last nights game where Pop basically took away the PnR with Howard after the first 8 points where all in the paint he was just taking up space. And as far as him taking the DJ role a long time ago and "sacrificing" for the team I don't think he's sacrificing. It's no secret that his post up game isn't very good. He's great running the PnR and finishing on alley oops but coaches like Pop make adjustments and after the first few minutes of the game that didn't work anymore.
I wouldn't call that so much success. Credit to Harden for keeping the team at a high level for a stretch but he didn't achieve anything more than a high playoff seed. After that, the real season starts. Yes DH is sacrificing. It's night and day the comparison of when Howard first got here and how he plays today. People say his post up game isn't very good but he still is able to get buckets down there. no matter if its pretty or not. He's not DJ who is scared to play with his back to the basket and also unable to. How is he not sacrificing when his shot attempts are cut in half of what its been in the past. How is that not even sacrificing? Do you hear him complaining like a lot of other players would especially being star caliber? Yeah I'd say that's the definition of a huge sacrifice.
I hear him complain on defense when guys don't rotate over when he comes out to guard. And I guess I don't see it as a sacrifice because to me the days where he gets 15 to 20 shots are over. We each have our opinion. I'd be willing to give him 15-20 shots on PnR but as far as dumping the ball down and letting him throw up his left handed hook shot. Ehhhh I'll pass. Maybe in a real offensive system Harden and Howard could work better together but I'm not willing to risk it not working and giving Howard a max contract where he would be 35 yrs old making like 30M lol I love Howard. He's been one of the most consistent guys Al season but Harden is the guy you're building around and they just seem not to mesh
so now you're going to talk about defense. Of course he should complain when the team sucks defensively. Why wouldn't he? I'm glad he does get frustrated. Anyone who wants to really win should. Is he supposed to sit there and act like nothing is wrong when your team gives up 100 pts in 3 quarters. There's no such thing as giving someone 15-20 PNR shots.
Team ball trumps superstar ball. If you can get SUPERSTARS to play TEAM ball - you have a great chance at winning, but if you have guys who don't play for each other, or are more concerned with making the all-star game and being famous than winning - then you are in trouble. The Rockets are in trouble. DD
