You know, I have been wondering all these years where some people think the team has enough talent to win the championship or even just be a contender. The Rockets have two flawed stars whose championship mentality are both suspect and the rest of the team will hardly be starters in any of the contending teams at all. It is just amazing and your post is spot on but the content of it seems to be alien to quite a number of homers.
I still believe we have the talent. Calvin Murphy believes it as well. Morey thinks we just need more trades to fix the issue and fails to acknowledge the importance of coaching. Fire Morey#
Just like the last game of the Western Conference Finals, In spite of Harden throwing out the game with awful shooting, zero defensive effort and a all time record in turnovers, for 3 + quaters Houston was still in the game. Another thing I've discovered is that Dwight's game grows in big moments while Harden's game shrink in the spotlight. So the main thing to change is in Harden's mind, but I don't think anyone but himself can help him grow a pair in big moments.
Last night was pretty much what Morey has said all along, we were ok in the half court with Harden, even with Harden shooting bricks (mainly because Cleveland were letting us play 4 on 3 so that it would be anyone but Harden), but the moment he left the court all hell broke loose. The half court game needs players who can break the defense down, at least adequately enough that the opponents need to send help or you'll score.
OR we lost to one of the best teams in the league which was whooping everyone on a 6 game road trip except for San Antonio (22-0 at home) the night before. On paper are we good enough to win a game against the Cavs at home? Yes. Right now, are we as a team prepared and gelled enough to beat a red-hot Cavs team at home? No. And that's fine. It's the least of my worries. Lawson will adapt. D-Mo will be close to 100% after the all star break. Bickerstaff will improve. We might make a change to shore this team up. Things are going fine, considering the disgustingly bad start we had. It's not ideal, but it's fine. There is actually a place between amazing and terrible, and we're neither of the two. We're just fine right now. If Harden learns a thing or two about what to do when he doesn't have the ball, we'll be stellar come playoff time.
We don't. Even with last years team, we could not beat the Warriors Last years team couldn't beat this years Thunder, Cavs, Spurs, let alone Warriors There are issues esp Harden, but we simply lack a second threat who can get 25-30 points on a regular basis. This team at its best is not a contender. Only deluded Rockets fans believe that crap
9 months ago we had 1 playoff series win in the previous 17 years, now we have fans crying about not winning a championship 3 months before the playoffs start.
Abide our time, OP. It is not the time to be a baskeballholic and be all addicted to watching mediocre basketball right now
Nope. Scenario 1) Bench Harden more and let the team play more Scenario 2) Get a PF, a very good or great one and SF, play Brewer less Some options that could work 3) Get a coach that can effectively call timeouts :grin: oh yeah, that has been mentioned before
In addition teams like the Spurs and Cavs have lots of big guy depth which we don't have with even a healthy D Mo not a typical big guy and Capela not quite there yet on a nightly basis.. We need another skilled scorer and probably two bigs to compete. When Dwight goes to the bench we are relegated to small ball whether it is working or not.
Your statements are true, but last night we had no one being aggressive and taking a shot when it was available. We ended up being too tentative and afraid of our own shadow. It would have been a different story had some shots fallen in the first half because we were playing good defense.
LOL! yeh... "James harden - where playmakers go to become insignificant." lol nobody's gonna wanna play with this ball hog... James is only worried about HIS stats... "I don't have a shot and the shot clock is down to 2 seconds - CATCH"
We got exposed last season when we played the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Teams know to pack the paint, cut off driving lanes and put a body on Dwight before he goes up for the lob. They know to force us to take three pointers. They know to apply old school up in your face pressure on Harden and he will more and likely turn it over. Get out in transition because the Rockets are the worst in the NBA in getting back. They know anybody could drop 20 on Harden. They know the locker room is not completely together. So yes every team has taking notice of all our weaknesses and are taking full advantage of them.
