I'm tired of hearing this response by posters. These issues exist even in wins. Harden's commitment to defense and team ball, and not bouncing big bubble butt booties (good lord, how can one lust after those gigantic posteriors? to each their own, I guess). Mchale's progression as a coach. Consistent post play and improved free throw shooting from Howard. Team defense, defensive rotations, wing defense Excessive turnovers Learning to close out games and respond in pressure situations. Strong, clear, and respected leadership Commitment to winning and improving, humility and respect, and forging a Hanzo Hattori steel-like mentality... for every damn game. The Rockets need to address a portion of the items in the list... if they want to vie for a ring. Yes they are young and need time to grow. No, it's not becoming a perfect team with zero weaknesses. But pointing these things out after losses isn't just knee-jerk. It's recognizing that some of these improvements must be made to propel this team from a playoff contender to a championship.
Man, I don't even know what knee jerk reaction is these days. Arguments by analogy really suck, it's like lazy, atrociously lazy.
yup. Some of the posters tend to go overboard because of emotions, but these are legitimate concerns. Team defense, Interior presence from Dwight, and commitment are 3 things that the rockets REALLY need to focus on
I would like those who screaming "kneejerk!" share with the rest of us why they think this team would improve on these things, and how.
1. Harden's defense is not a commitment issue. Sometimes it is because he works so hard on offense (our play calling and execution doesn't help) but most of the time it is fundamentals and it is usually on the catch or when 1 or 2 passes away. Also, now teams plan to attack him more on that end to expose him and to make it harder on him to score. It is an issue that can be addressed, he must be in an engaged defensive positions regardless of where the ball is. You pass to his man and that man can go straight away because James is not in the correct stance. So by the time he closes out and gets down low the defender is gone. 2. Yes, I am frustrated by Mchale as a coach. However, the same questions were raised about Spo with Miami. Does that mean Mchale will end up being good...no, but it does mean we should give him a chance before declaring he is finished. 3. Howard is getting better. He will be even better once Hakeem is around the team more often after the all-star break. 4. Yes, team defense is a major issue. That is the biggest issue. The opposing guards blow by our defender, Howard comes to help and nobody goes to help on his man. There are times where 1 guy things the switch is on, the other person doesn't. It is a complete mess. 5. Yes, turnovers are again the 2nd biggest issue. From what I see it comes from poor decision making. The last 3 points I don't think are massive issues because we can't just work on those aspects at training. We don't have many vets on the team. Learning the close out games just comes from experience and so does learning that steel-like mentality every game. Your post is a fair assessments of where the team is at, even though we disagree on some small details. The frustrating thing is when our fans act like the sky is falling, like a conservative who hears that a state legalizes gay marriage. It sucks watching the team play like crap against teams we are better than. If the team can get home court and advance to the second round then we have achieved something pretty cool that we have done once in a long, long time. It is something to build on for next year. Also consider how tough the West is. If this team was in the East right now, the season would be so much easier. Remember, it could be worse and it will get better.
I wanna say some of Harden's issues is the fact that he's working too hard on the offensive end. Just like tonight, he struggled to get open b/c Tucker was sticking to him like glue. It's a problem I've seen in our offensive system, we barely run any plays. Other teams run plenty of off-ball action to get people open, why can't we?
Working hard on offense but without production. More than half of his shots were 3s, I wouldnt call that working hard on offense.
It definitely isn't knee-jerk if, after a sustained period of time, a team continues to exhibit a specific and consistent litany of faults and deficiencies. I mentioned at the beginning of this season--the biggest problems with this team were going to be its turnovers, its free throws, and its defense. Guess what? The three most fundamental parts of the sport of basketball are this team's biggest weaknesses. Now I'm not saying that this team sucks, because if we're talking raw talent, this team is absolutely stacked. I am saying, however, that this team at this point is nothing more than playoff fodder. A Memphis Grizzlies-tier team. The kind of team that does a few things well, makes a relative amount of noise in the playoffs, and then fades away in the end like everyone expects them to. Something needs to click if this team is going to go all the way. As it stands now, they won't.
Did you watch the game properly or under the influence? Tucker was always body on body with Harden meaning he had to work hard just to get the ball. Even when he had it Tucker was aggressively up in his face. If you cannot see the excellent defense of Tucker then you are not watching the game properly. He obviously did not deal with it well, but the entire team struggled with it. Scoring is not the issue with this team or James Harden. We lead the league in scoring, but we are last in opposing scores. I will take some jacked up 3's, if he can get rid of all these bad habits from his OKC days. (Go watch Durant and Westbrook, they still make the same defensive mistakes to this day).
The advantage is we are young and this season is young. You are 100% right about what the team needs to work on to be true contenders. They need to play like we did against the Spurs more consistently. I still have faith.
These problems have been going all season and last too. I like the posters that stay calm. "harden is a superstar, he'll be alright", "mchale is a good coach","Harden is only 24", "first year together", "x player is hurt", "trap game".
It doesn't matter how hard he works on offense. You think Kobe never worked hard on offense? Yet he was always a great defender, he put effort in atleast. Paul George works as hard as Harden does on offense, yet he still able to play defense. Defense is all about effort, if you don't have it you can't give it.
Responding to #1- Harden's defense just makes no sense. It's amateurish to the level of playground ball. He doesn't watch his defender and his eyes are on the ball the entire time. How do you explain it? These basics are basketball defense 101 and this is a professional in the NBA we're talking about.
i agree with everything except dwight's fts. dominant bigs have always struggled from the ft line. its just something we have to accept (no dwight's not a dominant big). im' ok with 55-60%. but anything under 50 is unacceptable, thats when he needs to man up and stop being so mentally weak
yep, otherwise those guys calling others knee-jerk, they themselves can be called knee-jerk in respond to knee-jerk. then what's the point. if knee-jerk is meaningful as OP says then so be it let's knee jerk. if it's meaningless then how about "knee-jerk to knee-jerk", it's the same **** and if they are tired of knee-jerk then they should tired of themselves' "knee-jerk to knee-jerk" too.
