ale11

I watch soccer about the same as curling. It comes on once every four years and I root for the USA.

What's so interesting about soccer. I don't think there's enough action to keep most Americans interested. A typical score is 1-0.

 

It takes a great collective effort to score a goal most of the time. It's not like the NBA where one man can take you pretty much all the way to the finals (like Iverson's Sixers, LeBron's Cavs, Dwight's Magic, etc.). Messi might be the world's greatest soccer player, but he wouldn't be half of what he is without Xavi and Iniesta in Barcelona. The excitement is not just about the sport itself but the environment, the supporters, the love for your team. We (and Argentinians as well, and some other parts of the world) have another way to interpret soccer, we feel it like a lifestyle. We go to every stadium, we travel to other countries to support our team, we sing during the entire match, we fight the rival supporters, our mood depends on our team's results.

 

Most of you might see that sort of fandom as idiotic, but it's just the way we feel about soccer. Winning the World Cup is truly being "a World Champion", not winning the NBA or whatever league you have there.

 

Luck had nothing to do with that, we sucked, plain and simple.

 

We are all Rockets fans, so it would be hard to choose a team in an unbiased way, and my second team is Czech Republic (didn't qualify), but when Uruguay gets eliminated, I'll root for Germany, they are mostly young and play and interesting brand of soccer, sort of like the Rockets. Netherlands would also seem like a good guess, but I don't like making choices based on hindsight. And I always had some sympathy for Ivory Coast, but Germany seems like a safe way to go.

 

Called it 

Offensively is not working because right now we are approaching the "don't make Dwight disgruntled so soon" strategy, meaning that we are trying to post him up often, and it isn't working. What's worse is that not only we are not coming up with points, is that 2 out of three times it ends in a turnover, whether is Dwight travelling or the ball is just poked away.

 

Defensively is not working because Dwight is not successfully adjusting his mindset to playing PF in that end (hopefully, not YET). He is not closing out on the PF when he stretches the floor and also is fighting the rebounds that belong to Asik (it feels really ankward when the ball is falling on Asik's hands and Dwight practically runs over him to get the rebound).

 

Howard said it in the preseason: everybody needs to sacrifice a bit to make this work and so far I don't see him sacrificing for the team. Just for the record, I'm not saying that he should do it nor that it's not awesome to see him in a Rockets' uniform, but we know that Asik is a team-first guy and Howard is all about the stats. Don't get fooled by the hope of maturation from him, we all knew he came here because Harden is willing to share the ball with him unlike Kobe.

 

It takes effort to make this work, but our stars need to lead by example, and so far both Harden (defensive liability) and Howard aren't exactly "taking one for the team". I repeat, I still believe this could work given team, but so far isn't looking all that good. Maybe I got too hyped over the idea that we could bring Howard while keeping Asik, I'd hate to see Omer go.....

I agree with you. But part of finding the right rotation is so your main players won't get to the playoffs burned like Harden last year. During the regular season, we'll be forced to somehow get those two to play together effectively at some point, even though that won't happen much during playoff time. You have to keep Asik happy and integrated for two reasons: 1) having two 7 footers who excel at defense to anchor your team at all times is a luxury any other team has right now and 2) it's 90% sure Asik will get traded at some point and we need to keep his value as high as possible in the mean time.

The greatest accomplishment is a sum of all the above mentioned. This was a fun ride, and for that to happen, first Morey had to work some magic (and in some cases, take advantage of stupid or desperate GM). The team overachieved, and that's because of Morey, McHale, Harden, Asik, Parsons and everyone in the organization. Next offseason should be an easier task for Morey, right now we have to fill some voids and if we are lucky enough, land another star. Whether we do it or not, we will be better next season and that certainty is the most enjoyable thing about this season. We have a core assembled, with the capacity of getting much better.

Hahaha, don't get me wrong, you were the most consistent player throughout the entire season and it was well deserved. If I were going to be a buzzkiller, I would have told you long time ago that "hermanito" sounds a bit condescending, but don't worry, I don't take it personal

Well, I get that the priority for him was to stay put in OKC (only place he knew, comfortable and finalist last year, it was the best chance to get a ring as soon as possible), but I think, with all that being said, ultimately he was leaning a bit more towards leaving. If he wanted to stay that bad, he would have signed for 10M a year and that was that, but he asked for more. Of course, that whole "small market" excuse was bs, but....he knew from the beginning that Presti wouldn't bend over, none of them were willing to do that so....the rest is history and we have a beard in Houston right now.

 

Actually, to come to a middle ground, we both have a point. Harden would have accepted and embraced the whole "keep at that 6th man role", but with conditions that somehow exceeded that status and made impossible for both the franchise and the player to continue in the same path.

I know Smith has been performing very nice lately, but I suspect that his inclusion in the starting five has something to do with the absence of Harden. In my opinion, when you have Harden, is better to spread the floor and have guys who can shoot all over the floor, but when we are missing him, it's better to play a more conventional way (two guys inside). Maybe I'm wrong, we'll see once Harden comes back, but I feel that that change in the lineup because of the injury is plausible.

Thanks for the data, ST!

 

 

 

I've wondered the same...can anyone offer some reasons why we don't take our own advice?  Wouldn't a zone defense force opponents to shoot from certain spots (mostly mid-range)?

 

 

McHale might be allergic to zone defense. I know it's not the way to go full time, but we might take a shot at it when shots are raining from beyond the arc. It's an option, and right now, we couldn't defend worse even if we put 4 cones next to Asik, so no loss in trying.

Talking strictly about the title: I truly don't believe McHale has a real shot at being HC of the year. We have discussed in another thread about the true impact HC have on any given game. The players are the ones executing, making decisions, being creative and screwing it up. But when it comes to the line, the players get confused and coaches have to be the commanding voice, they are the ones that aren't allowed to choke and can very well be the ones deciding a game with defensive adjustments and calling plays. A coach has to be cool at any moment and adknowledge what a player in the heat of the moment can't. Our "crunch time decided games" record shows that McHale has failed more than what he has done to put our team in position to win close games.

We are overachieving, yes, but we have blown away our opponents too often to truly see McHale adjusting on the fly and net us the win, so our point differential conspires against assigning a lot of credit to the coaching.

 

To sum up: A blowout can be atributed to very poor execution from team A or an amazing night from team B (in some cases, both at the same time), but true coaching flourishes in crunch time, and our record in that category is negative, so McHale is not a candidate for me to win COY. I'm not saying he sucks, not even that he is bad, just that he is not as good as some (or one) thinks he is. He is our current coach, I support him because his success will be ours in the foreseeable future, and I really think he is adecuate to our current team, but he is nowhere near being a great coach or earning any kind of accolades as one.

 

 

 

 

Regarding to the other issue: As many have stated, we are Rockets fans, every single person who takes the time to discuss Rockets issues on this forum is a true Rocket fan, that's out of question. What most of us want is people willing to exchange some thoughts, insights or even constructive criticism towards Morey, McHale, etc. etc.. What we don't want is people trying to force their opinions on others. Nothing those people say would change the way I think, but it gets annoying and drives people away from any discussion. If we all keep it clean and fun to read other people's opinions, we can mantain the dynamic here.

 

I know I'm not a moderator, but I felt I needed to give a perspective. Thanks!

I don't want to discuss whether who has the higher ceilling. The hype that always abounded here regarding D-Mo was because we all thought that he could be special, and that's why paraphrasing this topic's title, we didn't want to trade Motie, and apparently, from what we've seen so far, there are tons of reasons to keep him for the long haul. He has lots of similarities with Dirk at 22, with addition that he is left-handed. And the kid seems to go all-in every minute, if he keeps up and has good luck with injuries, he could become into something great. Right now, we'd have to give an A+ to Morey and our scouting staff for fiding this gem. I read some time ago about him and Valanciunas, and everybody was more thrilled about Valanciunas' potential, right now I can't see why

When you have chemistry and are young, you have fun. And when you have fun playing the game, you are more prone to win. I loved that "whatever it's called" that johnnygold posted in the positive thoughts thread which shows a little salute between Lin, Harden and Parsons. It shows they are having fun, the results are on the table....

Chemistry is real, like Forrest said, that's why we are were we are. And the reason why Harden meshed that well that quickly is that the rest are also young talented players who are team-oriented

tombrokeoff: you are not the only one.

Good times ahead of the Rockets!

100% agreed with blake: 9-10 million for Harden alone, the max if someone else is coming over (Westbrook isn't worth the max either, but since Durant is Durant, he doesn't complain and Westbrook doesn't feel underrated).

Of course, someone is going to offer the max (if someone offered the max for Batum, it would definitely offer it for Harden, and of course, if we are paying Lin and Asik 8 million, Harden would be worth the max). Bottom teams will be desperate to sign him, so it's 95% sure he'll be getting a max offer next offseason.

Really nice piece....I never noticed all those things, all combined are awesome! Specially the part of salary cap, we could really go for two or three superstars (I'm not saying Morey will pull it, but it's easier to get two superstars at the same time instead of only one with our roster. It's likely that "superstar buddies" might want to play together and we could provide that environment salary-wise)