if yer saying signing one of them would made Bzdelik happy and kept him in the fold... then you could be right... and we might be fine now... otherwise, you could trade for both of them now - and wo jeff, this would still be a train wreck.... nobody on our coaching staff has a clue what to do on defense... and there is no accountability... for example, when harden returns from injury is MDA gonna push him to play the defense he's capable of? Would MDA pull any offensive weapon that wasn't putting forth effort on the defensive end? I've never seen him do it... i've seen him pull a guy that was hurting his offensive efficiency...
I blame the players and MDA, I know the roster stinks but MDA has to take part of the blame too, as a coach you have to get your players ready to play an ACTUAL NBA GAME, so far the entire roster seems disinterested in playing and they seem that they know the results from the first quarter
There is no rational and logical reason to pay Ariza 15 mil, as for luc i think the front office didn't want to bring him back
There are a lot of issues. Injuries, player performance, personell, defensive coaching, off-season moves. In terms of the last one, one issue certainly was trusting that players who haven't performed at a certain level could be coached up / put in roles that would basically drastically change their productivity and impact. From a personal standpoint, I am usually very averse to this it just doesn't tend to work. You can get a player who has shown consistent ability at some point in time in an area to focus and do well in it again, but getting a guy in or past his prime to be far more effective than he has shown ability or capability of is usually not a realistic proposition. Corey Brewer as a Rocket for example was still inefficient, still couldn't shoot consistently, etc, but he brought his wild, cherry picking, steal getting and decent defensive self which was stuff he always did, it wasn't anything new. If the Rockets expected him to shoot 40% 3PT and consistently have a TS% over 55%, it would have been delusional. People are dissaponted at MCW, but the guy is just being himself. If you couldn't be content with MCW playing like he has through his career, then signing him is not the best decision because that's the most likely outcome at 27. If he's 21, 22, 23, different story as players make big jumps at that stage still. The depth is not solid enough to handle all the early injuries, and that can come to bite you because the players get frustrated early, and the team might make changes based on early issues that can be resolved by health and time.
Look, we are playing bad even by bottom of the NBA standards right now. You don't get that way simply by one or two things not going your way. Some of our issues is simply effort, some of it is game planning or execution of game plan, some injury, some new players trying to fit in, some MCW, some just shots not falling, some of it has been bad matchups. New Orleans is a big team who very obviously was able to have their way in the paint. We didn't so much lose that game as New Orleans won it with an MVP performance by Davis. Clippers always play out of their mind against us, especially Harrell..It's like he's pissed we traded him or something. And the Blazers are tough but they also figured out how to exploit our size issue. The Jazz are on fire right now. So everyone here is right. Bottom line is we aren't competing with Golden State even if we iron out only some of these issues. And that was the entire point of everything. One thing that's striking to me is even after 3 days off, no one out there looks like they know where they're supposed to be on the court. Not on defense or offense. Players are receiving passes like they weren't expecting them. That's the scariest part of this whole thing to me.
There is something to that. Capela doesn't seem to have anywhere near the energy he displayed last season, especially in the playoffs. Even CP3 doesn't seem as engaged. I don't think it's because he got paid over the summer. It's not like he wasn't making a sh-t ton of money prior to that(unlike Capela). But maybe finally getting over that 2nd round hump took some of the fire out of him. Another factor may be that the team is burned out. Reporters said the players were devastated after the Game 7 loss. Maybe they knew in their hearts they had come up one game short of a title in what was their best(and maybe only) shot at it. It's not exactly a young team. We're not talking the 2002 Kings who also came up one game short(and also got screwed by corrupt officiating). Their 2002-03 team had only one old player(Divac was 34) and their star player, Webber, was 29(like Harden). The rest of the key players were young and still fresh which is why they were able to follow up their 61-21 season with a 59-23 record and would've gone deep in the playoffs had Webber not hurt his leg in the Semifinals.
All a byproduct of what's happened in the offseason. Everything has an impact on the team as a whole itself. 1. Loss of proven vets that are respectable and who guys listen to Ariza/Moute. 2. Loss of Jeff B. 3. Replaced w/ journeymen who haven't been part of any type of consistent winning culture. nobody is going to listen to ennis/mcw. 4. MCW isn't a rotational player on this team 5. Melo continued decline. He was supposed to be a ryno replacement and he isn't even able to even match that thus far. 6. Ennis looks to be more of a bench contributor rather than full time starter at the 3. and of course he gets hurt. Glaring hole still at the starting 3 spot for this team. 7. Injuries 8. Defense massively regressed as anticipated. New additions are nowhere near as capable as the defense that left 9. Defined roles have shifted due to lack of personnel The rockets have no clue what their identity is atm. There isn't one. When you put guys like mcw out there, it just doesn't fit what the rockets do at all. The rockets get punished by good ball movement/offense to get the open shot. but who gets the open 3 pt shot. MCW who will never be able to shoot. that's not on the other players. that's on mcw and whoever decided it was a good idea to have him on this team. You can't expect to have guys like this in the rotation and still be a good team that is predicated on a spread offense. He is no threat whatsoever on the floor and only makes it harder for hou's offense to score with an extra defender being allowed to roam. The rockets replaced efficient shot makers with inefficient ones. it's no wonder that side of the ball is struggling as well. A year ago, things were fluid. guys knew where to be on both ends. Chemistry was on point from day 1. they understood for the most part when or when not to take shots. Communication and rotations defensively were instinctual. Whatever this is to start the season is no team. And there isn't some switch that's going to happen where the rockets just turn it on if anyone really wants to believe that. harden coming back eventually will of course help but he isn't fixing a ton of these glaring problems.
Ultimately it's on the players. They have to play better than they are right now. Of course injuries/suspension didn't help but they have to work hard to overcome the adversity. Right now as a team we are shooting 41% from the field. The ofense has to be better. We are allowing opponents to shoot 49% from the field. The defense has to be better. It's simple as that. With that said the management also needs to share the blame. We lost some key pieces this summer and didn't replace them with adequate talent. Ennis is not a starter caliber player anywhere else in the league. MCW would probably be out of the NBA right now if the Rockets didn't sign him. I understand that Morey's hands were tied with a cheap owner but the moves he made this summer left a lot to be desired.
I think it comes down to Ennis who is not an NBA player and MCW who does not fit our scheme replacing Ariza and Luc who were defensive stalwarts and fit perfectly. That and Paul and Harden have only played together what 2 games this year due to the injuries and suspension.
Good post. A lot of people were naive in believing that these guys would suddenly become different by playing in a so-called "winning culture with two of the best play makers setting them up for wide open shots." I am not sure if Morey was that naive either. I think not. But that's how it is now. These new guys are what they are. MCW couldn't shoot . He still can't. Ennis isn't a full-time starter. He still isn't. Melo is Melo. Now, with all the Butler trade talks floating around, Gordon's confidence is shot.
