And you really think Harden is the right choice that has all these qualities: work ethic, competitive nature and winning attitude? I don’t see it.
If you look at all the FA's of this summer, he's easily head and shoulders the choice and at the most critical position of need he clearly checks all of those points.
I think Path #2 is insane. We already tried that, and it didn't work out. Remember Harden forcing his way out of here? Yes, it was fun, yes we came real close but in the end, it just didn't work out and we're gonna try the same thing again? Only this time, Harden is older and the supporting cast we'd surround him with is likely not going to be better than the one we had before? Just keep it simple and go with Path #1. Be committed to what you're doing and see it play out. Don't overthink it.
The Rockets current starting lineup, their core 5, has a -13.2 net rating this season. Over 83 games that’s an expected record of 14-68. This team will not just flip a switch because the GM says “ok we can try now”, the coach changes, and they get 6 months older to start next season. If we do not acquire significant winning basketball players, we’ll be a 20 win team for the next few years. Simple as that. Most young players don’t maximize their improvement in that kind of environment — there has to be real, competitive NBA basketball happening around them to become great. If you think that’s happening around 7 other 21 year olds losing by 15 every night, you’re kidding yourself.
Sure he does but to a team than needs to win now. Rockets are nowhere close. Hell we do not even know if any current players in Roster will become superstars with such inconsistencies with their individual output. Harden is not filling the gaps and will only add more holes to a house that needs complete reconstruction. Committing such big contract to help bunch of maybes will be quite foolish imo.
Said this before, but if Harden will have to stink it up this post season (which granted, he has multiple times in past years) in order to make Philly willing to let him walk. I’m also not seeing the benefits of Harden as a mentor. In a Harden offense, our guys would be standing around while he dribbles the air out of the ball. Then all the perimeter players will be switching for him on defense while the bigs will be expected to clean up every time someone blows by Harden. What is that going teach our young guys? If anything, it will stunt their development because rather than developing as active cogs in an offense, they’ll be relegated to lob threats and corner 3 pt shooters. And defensively, we’d get even worse - Harden has always been a low effort defender on the perimeter and certainly has nothing to teach anyone on that topic. Harden will certainly make us win more - he is talented enough to do that by himself. But other than Clint Capella, he’s never shown an ability to establish team chemistry with anyone. We’re seeing the same problem with Luka and the Mavs right now - Luka does everything and nobody else has developed into a legit 2nd banana. Now, is there anyone better in free agency this summer? Probably not, but a lack of great options doesn’t mean we should settle. Instead, we should wait and look to add value to our team in the form of contracts that are less expensive than the player’s worth. Then, when the right player becomes available, we have all the assets necessary to make a trade.
not really. he can most certainly play the cp3 role that helped SGA and okc just a couple seasons ago. Look at SGA now and the confidence he plays with becoming a now star. It's also translating to actual wins in addition to his individual success again you're not paying attention.The logic of signing Harden to win now and win titles isn't the reason for harden in Houston. that logic makes 0 sense. The rockets are no where near that thought No, Harden fills plenty of the gaps. The rockets have a huge hole at pg. Check. The rockets have 0 vets that know how to win. Check. Guys like Jalen green have a known relationship with harden which has been publicly known for a long time. Check. Harden impacts winning at an extremely high level. Check His contract isn't stopping the rockets from doing anything else that would make the rockets worse. Simple/Short sighted folks are the ones that continue with the logic that signing harden is to win a title. Get that though out of your mind and trash it. There isn't a single acquisition in the world that makes that true. So stop applying it to harden
I would agree with you if organization is trying to win. Tank strategy is written all over this team to get Victor. So this whole bringing in “winning basketball player” idea simply does not apply to this team when team does not want to win.
Title? Nah. Competitive team, chance to actually win, yuh. Win enough for play-in then mebbe an upward move to home court? However, is Harden The Chosen One to lead Rox back? I am so very dubious. Why, Mr H, why? You can still be a pivotal point of a serious contender. You have not been on a June Parade. Yet, you wanna come home? And, Mr H, you’re starting to break down. Annually. Father Time is reminding you of the heavy loads you have carried for years. And we’re all witnesses. So, another $175-200 in your pocket without the pressure of expectations? I’m not signing up for the prodigal’s final act.
then don't watch. It's not like it would matter if you sign up or not as if they're asking for your approval
I am tired of losing. Any Rockets fan is tired of losing. Tillman is tired of losing, which makes me wonder, given he can spend $54M this summer, how he will spend it. It may not play out this way, but I have a feeling that Tillman wants to win next year. And that probably mean cashing in assets to get playoff experienced players on the roster. I think its too early to expect to win and my fear is we cash in and still are bad.
The only thing James Harden will teach the kids is how to go to the strip club without getting caught. He can teach future roleplayers how to be roleplayers to a great playmaker like him. He cannot teach someone how to win a title and would have no credibility as a winner if he came to Houston to end his chances at a title.
This will all depend on whether Rockets is able to land Victor in Houston or not. If he does, that money is going nowhere in the FA.
The only thing James Harden will teach the kids is how to go to the strip club without getting caught. He can teach future roleplayers how to be roleplayers to a great playmaker like him. He cannot teach someone how to win a title and would have no credibility as a winner if he came to Houston to end his chances at a title. If we don't make the accompanying signings we're just going to watch him disappear into the night before the kids are ready to win a title.
Harden is still elite. He is shooting 40% from 3 while averaging 20+ while leading the league in assists on a team that wins 2 out of every 3 games.
What do you think the tank strategy is? Do you think this starting 5 is trying to be bad? Have you been to games? Let me tell you, the players and coaching staff are trying hard. The players want to win. Currently, -13.2 net rating for our starters is the best they can do. The tank strategy is the roster construction. We simply don't have players in our starting lineup and our rotation that are presently above average at NBA basketball. We have literally zero players in our starting lineup or our rotation who are older than a college senior. We're the youngest team in NBA history every night. So stopping that tank strategy means acquiring older, actually good players. There are 5-6 top 100 NBA players available in free agency this summer. Harden is the best one by far, has reason to actually want to come here, fits our team needs, and plays the most unselfish complementary basketball of all of them. If you don't want Harden, you must want to go for VanVleet or Middleton with close to a max? Otherwise you want to continue the tank next season, which I don't understand.
The draft is the only reliable way to acquire a contract that is below the player's value. Free agents rarely give discounts. Teams don't give away bargain contracts without compensation. If you're waiting to look to add those types of contracts to our team you'll be waiting a long time.
The article seems like a fair picture of the cap situation, but in not mentioning the Thunder draft obligations I feel it leaves out major context that motivates a lot of what the summer needs to look like. This year was the year that, if the young core was ready to win soon, should have ramped up to 30 wins, cashed one more respectable pick, then hit the gas this summer. That didn't happen (which is not all bad in a draft this top-heavy), and all indications are that the team will be bad again without major moves. Other tanking teams can always afford to hit the "one more year" button. I'm not sure the Rockets can. Because even if they commit aggressively to remaining bad, the odds that it awards no draft pick are about 50-50, worse if they show a modicum of improvement. By the way, if we roll out three top-5 picks, post 20 wins again, and then gift-wrap a pick to the Thunder, we're entering 2014 Kings territory as far as "why would anyone want to stay here or sign here", so there's a bit of reputation management at play beyond just the young talent accumulation. I don't have the easy answer because the FA class sucks. I don't want to pay Harden $45 million either. But I think positive steps in playing good basketball have to happen through some combination of coach and player signings; it's not as easy as just saying "be patient" and "see what you have in Jalen".
