76 replies to this topic

[Jatman20]

Lockout is why LeBron reportedly wanted only the two year deal......so he can be a free agent at the right time with tons of money to be made from TV deal coming.

[slick shoes]

I truly hope that if there is a lockout, it will not be nearly as long and drawn out as the last. Having to wait until x-mas was brutal.

[rocketrick]

Hard for me to believe Parsons was out of the loop on the Rockets plan of signing a big fish and then adding him at a good pay raise. Poor job of conveying that message by Morey and company to Parsons. I'm guessing Morey thought Parsons might be moved in a sign and trade for a player possibly in a plan C or D. That miscommunication may have caused hurt feelings.....or Parsons just decided to chase bigger money.....or Parsons feelings got bent when we put Melo in a Lin (his buddy) jersey. So be it......time to move on. Three years is when most players start to get it. Time for Beverley and DMo and Terrence to make big strides in their progression. Hoping Canaan and Nick Johnson and Troy D can contribute sooner (this year-wishful thinking I know) than three years. Morey is thinking new CBA deal-possible lockout situation approaching.....players getting paid accordingly during that time or losing a year.

Blaming Morey for supposedly not informing Parsons of the Rockets plans seems a bit over the top to me. If Parsons and his agent didn't want to know what was going on, I would place the blame on Parson's agent. Truth be told, everyone involved are adults and I have no doubt all knew the situation well. I mean, how many more times does Morey have to say in the media what the Rockets intentions are?

[Jatman20]

No there is plenty of blame to go around to everyone.....Parsons agent included who also represents D12; which will have both D12 and Parsons free agents again at the same time due to player options. I anyone read my posts back in Dec...I wanted the Bass/C Lee trade because I felt GMs and the league were sick of Morey making them look bad. That coupled with contributors to all these forums suggesting Harden is a ball hog....hurt our chances of Free Agents coming to Houston. Hero-ball.....a team is only as good as the sum of its parts. Stars are great....but if the complimentary parts don't make their shots, the system fails. Miami wins championships while Ray Allen and Battier and Mike Miler hit their shots. They don't win when they fail to make their shots. When players make their 3's there seems to be good ball movement....when they fail to make the threes. Well everything becomes stagnant. Regardless of the system. It's all an illusion. Troy can shoot over 50% from 3; but he has to defend his man at the other end as well. Balance is important. Thunder getting Anthony Morrow (in hopes of lamb being another)understand this. they have the defense with Adams and ibaka; but they know they have to open things up for Durant and Westbrook. We need another shooter besides Ariza.....hopefully Canaan or Troy Daniels can fill the bill. Because Bev and Lin didn't last year.

[timetodienow1234567]

I don't believe fans saying harden is a ball hog keeps free agents from coming. That's nonsense to me. If other players around the league think that, that's different.

[Jatman20]

My view is if our team had D12/ Parsons/ Korver/Harden/and say DJ Augustine (who shot over 40% from 3 last year). There would not be any talk of "Hero-Ball"!!!!!!! Now I'm going to hear it again all this year because we changed out Parsons for Ariza (thats a wash). Im mad at Morey for the Adrien and Ish pickups. That's a waste of money. Dorsey has become top defensive player in European league....hope he translates back to the NBA.

We missed on Hawes and Frye and Augustine and James Johnson(tore a lot of teams up last year) and Mike Miller and Anthony Morrow because of big-game hunting. Some outrageous contracts I know like Parsons and Frye. Just a bad summer. If LeBron had only come straight out and told Bosh....I don't want to play with you any more; get the picture? Bosh may be in Houston and Melo and LeBron would be in Miami. Morey and Mr. Alexander were nice enough to let Parsons out of his final year to reward him for his production while being under-paid. Now every GM should be weary of doing such a thing. It's a shame.

Edited by Jatman20, 19 July 2014 - 09:06 PM.

[Jatman20]

Timetodienow.....just a friendly reminder that the Lakers were telling D12 that Harden is a ball-hog in their meetings last offseason during the free agency process(well reported, look it up)....prior to D12 signing with Houston. I don't think Harden is selfish.....but so many fans and contributors here give players in the league that impression. Players read articles and forums too.

[rocketrick]

My view is if our team had D12/ Parsons/ Korver/Harden/and say DJ Augustine (who shot over 40% from 3 last year). There would not be any talk of "Hero-Ball"!!!!!!! Now I'm going to hear it again all this year because we changed out Parsons for Ariza (thats a wash). Im mad at Morey for the Adrien and Ish pickups. That's a waste of money. Dorsey has become top defensive player in European league....hope he translates back to the NBA.

We missed on Hawes and Frye and Augustine and James Johnson(tore a lot of teams up last year) and Mike Miller and Anthony Morrow because of big-game hunting. Some outrageous contracts I know like Parsons and Frye. Just a bad summer. If LeBron had only come straight out and told Bosh....I don't want to play with you any more; get the picture? Bosh may be in Houston and Melo and LeBron would be in Miami. Morey and Mr. Alexander were nice enough to let Parsons out of his final year to reward him for his production while being under-paid. Now every GM should be weary of doing such a thing. It's a shame.

[rocketrick]

I didn't know where to begin with all the puffery Jatman just posted. I fell out of my seat when he proposed a starting lineup of 3 guards, 1 small forward and D12 (D12, Harden, Parsons, Augustin and Korver). I had no clue left field was so vast as this obviously came from way out in left field.........

All the puffery about Parsons has been discussed ad nauseum for days on this site. I would recommend that Jatman simply spend some time reading some of the member's valuable posts which completely shoot down his statements about Parsons and Morey and free agency, etc.

Not to mention Jatman's dream list of free agents were all (except Mike Miller) signed while we were attempting to reel in a big fish like Carmelo or Bosh. Sorry, that's how it goes in the NBA. You have to have cap space to make offers to players and when a team chases 1 or 2 of these guys, no money left to chase anyone else until a decision is made by the big fish. That's like NBA Salary Cap 101.

[rocketrick]

Timetodienow.....just a friendly reminder that the Lakers were telling D12 that Harden is a ball-hog in their meetings last offseason during the free agency process(well reported, look it up)....prior to D12 signing with Houston. I don't think Harden is selfish.....but so many fans and contributors here give players in the league that impression. Players read articles and forums too.

Jatman obviously fell for the hard sell tactics the Lakers employed in trying to convince D12 to stay a Laker. Are you really insinuating that players actually believe everything ever written in forums like this one and make a major decision just based on that? Really? Wow....

[thejohnnygold]

Yeah, You'd think all that first-hand experience of actually playing with these guys on an actual court would supercede fans' opinions....guess I am wrong about that.

 

I agree that the proposed line-up is a bit baffling....I'm not even sure that would work in the video game NBA2K.  I'm also glad we missed on Mike Miller.

 

As for Harden's selfish hero ball...did you know that Harden's 27.3 ast% compares favorably to players like Goran Dragic (28.1%), Damian Lillard (25.1%), Paul George (17.9%), Kevin Durant (26.7%), and Eric Bledsoe (27%).  Like Harden, all of those players have high usage rates and are leaned upon by their teams for scoring.  Look at that.  Only Dragic edges out Harden (by .8%) in the percentage of plays he is doling out assists.

 

I know people focus on the end of quarter/end of game iso's...and we've been over this.  Harden is a solid option there.  Yes, we need to do a better job of helping him succeed in those with some screens or having him come off a curl.  Still, to imply that he is hogging the ball against his team mates' and coach's wishes is really pushing the boundaries of speculation in my opinion.

[Cooper]

Even if they drew up more plays (which would make sense). harden would be the first look on almost all of them, frankly he's just much better than anyone else on the roster offensively, Dwight and Parsons could do damage in certain matchups last year but the one spot we almost always had a clear advantage was harden, some might call that ball hogging but there's maybe 5 guys in the entire league you'd want to set up to score in crunch time over Harden. It's the same mostly unwarranted bad rap Westbrook gets, sure you'll end up with some ugly plays but more often than not something great happens.

[Buckko]

Actually the only player better than harden in the clutch was lebron statistically by clutch points per game.

[slick shoes]

Even if they drew up more plays (which would make sense). harden would be the first look on almost all of them, frankly he's just much better than anyone else on the roster offensively, Dwight and Parsons could do damage in certain matchups last year but the one spot we almost always had a clear advantage was harden, some might call that ball hogging but there's maybe 5 guys in the entire league you'd want to set up to score in crunch time over Harden. It's the same mostly unwarranted bad rap Westbrook gets, sure you'll end up with some ugly plays but more often than not something great happens.

I'm just not a huge fan of him being the "first look" and dribbling/jab stepping the clock away only to take a bad shot or pass to someone else (more often than not it was Lin as I recall) with just enough time to throw up a prayer.

[thejohnnygold]

I'm just not a huge fan of him being the "first look" and dribbling/jab stepping the clock away only to take a bad shot or pass to someone else (more often than not it was Lin as I recall) with just enough time to throw up a prayer.
 

 

Nobody is a fan of that play.    This is where we should be looking to see some coaching and adjustments.  This season, I think they will have coached him to be more decisive and act more quickly so that we have time to get a decent shot off.  Further, I hope that we use more screens to help free him up in those situations.  I can't think of a reason not to.

 

Harden doesn't say much, but I recall an interview from a while back and he was speaking candidly and humbly about the adjustments he was having to make and the struggle he was having in making them.  I think he is going to get to that perfect balance of scoring machine/playmaker extraordinaire.

 

It's not all on him--they need synergy with the 5 guys on the floor--timely cuts are deadly with a good passer like James.  I am hoping to see a bit more of that this season.  Too often, people were standing around, setting lazy screens, or lazy cuts.  For defenders, this is easy to deal with.

 

I'm sure it will still happen, but I think the frequency will drop significantly.

 

Also, let's all hope that Dwight is truly ready to do "whatever it takes" and will start setting monster picks and rolling hard play after play after play after play....cram it down their throats, Dwight!

[Steven]

I'm just not a huge fan of him being the "first look" and dribbling/jab stepping the clock away only to take a bad shot or pass to someone else (more often than not it was Lin as I recall) with just enough time to throw up a prayer.

That is the greatest play ever. It always works.

[rockets best fan]

@JG

I agree...........we all know the play, but I don't blame Harden....I blame McHale. it's up to him to adjust. that's one of the reasons I'm very interested to see who we add to the coaching staff.

 

@slick shoes

I agree with Cooper. even if we draw up more plays it's still going to lead to Harden with the ball. I think it's more of what JG said "we have to get him to make quicker decisions"