Right now.......shooting. We're a convincing 5-1 if we just get average shooting to this point, rather than a suspect 4-2. 2nd is perimeter defense.
Chandler Parsons hasn't showed up this season except in Portland. Plus I think we're struggling with two big azz centers clogging up the paint on offense. I believe its time to play Terrence Jones
Leadership, accountability, mental toughness... This team is young and its best players are nothing close to leaders. Harden screams at his teammates, passes the buck whenever there is any blame to go around, yet he doesn't own up to his mistakes, doesn't play consistently hard defense and takes bad shots at crucial times. Howard is a nice guy, but it's laughable to look at him as a leader.
this is 100% about effort. I voted hustle.We should be called the Houston Procrastinators. We are the genius prodigy.. content to smoke a joint on the way to the SAT and still get a perfect score. We are too good for our own good. Even when we were down and coming back against Lakers it was clear that we are the better team. We played like hot garbage and STILL brought the game back. By procrastinating we waited until the last minute and kept it too close. It honestly looks harden and howard are half assing it a bit. it feels like parsons is not meshing how he should be. Switching on defense and guarding was tight in the 4th against lakes when we tried. Even then it was in spurts. We are just procrastinating too much. Reminds me of my friend that always likes to take things too far and ends up biting him in the ass. When we care and turn it on we are unbeatable and have shown momentary flashes. The problem is that howard and harden know they can turn it on whenever. When they let it get a little too out of hand you get a shocker like blake hitting a shot. Normal effort would have never let that happen to even get to that moment. We just procrastinated too far and lost the game. Took it too far. Our team is fine and we havent even begun to gel as an overall team.As for harden and howard effort level I hope a game like this will bring their intensity up. They are better than this and they know it too. They just need to get a little more intense. Their skill alone willed us to 4 wins.. now they need to come to TEAM more and more intense. Then we wont see things like this lakers game since it wont even come to that. We need to not underachieve. For not its not an issue YET but down the line I hope it doesnt manifest itself. This sort of abstract lackadais mindset. I think howard and harden might just be too good in that sense. Same way like a carmelo. Really good just maybe not intense about it enough yet for a full 82 games. The real question is how far will howard and harden let it procrastinate? If their mindset is like last night. then frankly I could see them coasting all season and us getting 6 seed. Then the next question is whether or not we have enough of a chip on our shoulder to be intense? No one will want to play us at 6th seed. that proverbial 'nightmare' matchup. Thats all fine and dandy but it doesnt have to be like that. Perhaps this team will only be all the way intense with that scenario of adversity? Im hoping not and I hope they are not going to rely on the fact they are that much better skilled to just coast to playoffs. I do want to see more pnr harden and howard and if we are going to lose some I am okay as long as we are still developing the TEAM, plays, and the harden howard tandem. Im hoping this is not a coast team. Hustle is my fear with such guys. Howard is a beast guys and so is harden. Everyone knows it. They just need to beast all out and Im a little worried the hustle dept will be the undoing. Unless we just need that tension and adversity to push us through the playoffs as 6th seed ..us against the world. Maybe then harden and howard wont procrastinate
I'm not sure what THE biggest problem is because there are many. What I can tell you is it looks very clear Lin will be a first scapegoat. Dwight is on his a$$ more than in the paint and Harden straight ignores the guy on offense.
Twin Towers, there is no excuse. When they on the court our offense is non-existent besides some flashes. Defensively we are not a lot better (our defense struggles to catch 3pt shooters). If McHale will start them against Warriors - fire him emmediately! Blowout lose for sure.
Dwight is a PnR big who is failing miserably in his attempt to prove to people that he has a post game.
The chemistry is going to take time, adding a big piece like Howard isn't easy. Their winning on talent right now and starting Asik and Howard together isn't going to work, their digging themselves to big of a hole right out of the gate.
TT is direct reason for 2 of our wins. And even then TT is really getting only 10-12 minutes a game and in 2 of those games THEY ARE THE REASON WE WON! We had a 29-4 run to start the 3rd against utah and similar run against portland in 3rd. Please stop. Our biggest problem still really is that it is game 5 of 82. This is a work in progress.. rome not built in a day kinda thing too. Even then bottom line we are 4-2. Lots of people around here who are really really reactionary and really really p***y about their whole outlook on life. Its disturbing the negativity at 4-2 showing flashes just BARELY starting the howard harden era. if we were 0-6 I might say okay this is a bit tough of a start and geez.. but this team is 4-2 almost 5-1. Come on.
Small sample, but it hurts to watch how they play together either. Put Casspi+Howard just to see how better it works than Asik+Howard. With TT: FG% down, 3pt% down, more TO, less points, even less rebounds, +/- is negative. Also we are BAD on defense with TT. The only good is we protect the paint, but it hurts us from behind the arc badly. Don't know why FT% is so high, but I guess most of them are Harden's.
No, that's clearly first. This board is a ****ing joke in general (well, the board is cool, but the majority of the posts are ridiculous). In response to the poll results I just looked at: "in Houston’s five games this week, they’re 9.4 points per 100 possessions better than their opponent with Harden on the floor, and -12.6 when he sits" I read this in an article and I didn't attempt to verify, but if you combine that stat with Harden's line last night (35pts, 9reb, 5assts, 4stls, 2blks), it really becomes amazing how many negative comments/threads there are about Harden. I've never gone on fan boards for other teams, but I can't imagine any fan base as negative on their best player (who is very young) as this board is on Harden. So much Harden negativity, and much of it demonstrates a very low b-ball IQ. I know a lot of it is driven by frustrated Lin fans, but it is tiring. If it's not Lin-only-fans harping about Lin, it's them and others bagging on Harden. If the team went 82-0 there would still be threads b****ing about "Harden ISO-ing". [I'm not saying he's perfect or doesn't have things to work on, of course he does, but if you watch the games and think he's the problem with the Rockets....wow]. Six games in and they are on pace for 54 wins. There was a thread started today that suggested trading Harden and Howard. ClutchFans!
