It seems to be a Houston Sports tradition to give contract extensions to coaches and players right before they go into a free fall.
Nah, he's right. I think the difference is that Doc Rivers probably contributed greatly to his team getting over that mental squishiness in the past year. The Clippers sought him out and acquired him through unconventional means, so that they would have an elite coach as well as a couple elite players, including one who's a fiercely competitive team leader who's also training another team leader. The Rockets have no such structure for getting over their mental bugaboos, so you can't correlate with them. I wish Barnes had elaborated more on how they got from where they were to where they are. I think it would be enlightening.
There is always the flip side of this. Some teams never make that next step, they wither away and then soon find themselves rebuilding. The difference with the Clippers then and us now was they were at least competitive. We aren't even that right now we look and play like a joke.
They kept the same core and key role players. We... traded away Asik, let Parsons go and dumped Lin. asik would have been huge for us...
We're more like how the clippers were two years ago. With a mental midget of a coach just itchin to be fired.
I'm not expecting a series win. I wasn't expecting a series win regardless of whether we played the Spurs or the Clippers. And honestly, I was perfectly ok with that. I understand that it takes a LOT to be able to take down teams like the Warriors, Grizzlies, Spurs, and Clippers. I just wanted it to take a lot to take down a team like US as well, and right now, that's not the case. It's not that we're losing.....it's HOW we're losing that's completely unacceptable. If this series were 3-1, with hard-fought games where we battled until the end, I'd be disappointed, but I wouldn't have this bitter taste in my mouth. Right now, I feel like this team has just rolled over and died, and when you've got this much on the line, that's a ****ty way to go out.
We were 3 years away from being OKC when we played OKC. So, if that assumption and Barnes assumption also holds, it all sort of makes sense.
The rockets have had a better season than last year. But if they lose tonight and just like last season... We're all left knowing that they could've and should've done more.
Oh come on. Asik would've just been another guy that would clang free throws off the back of the rim over and over. He didn't want to be here, and Morey did a hell of a job turning him into a first round pick. And Lin?? Seriously?? Stop it. Just stop it.
As I pointed out in another discussion, the Clippers' regular season point differential over the last 3 years were ranked 3rd, 2nd and 2nd among all 30 teams in the NBA. Those guys could legitimately argue that the Clippers have been a contender and just choked or ran into bad luck in the playoffs (injury to stars, matchup, etc.). The Rockets are ranked 7th in point differential this year. This isn't bad at all, but it is a step below the very top teams. In the Western Conference today, it shouldn't be surprising that a team at the Rockets' level gets beaten, or even gets beaten badly, when facing one of the very top teams. I am sure Morey knows that this team needs to take its talent level up a notch to become a real contender.
But they had three core all-star talents already. It's easier to lock in spots, when that's what you're starting with. We're still figuring out the spots around only 2 all-stars. Asik is yet another player who is not very good on offense. We have enough of those. CP is overpaid...Lin is Lin. It's not like the Rockets didn't have good reasons to let them go. 2 of them were just holdovers from the "faster, younger, fearless" group. Only CP really fit with the new group.