All of the issues our players have this year have carried over from the prior year. We could barely run a half court set when FVV sat and he's been out for the whole season. Very little has improved other than Reed, which is disappointing from such a young roster. Bringing in KD wasn't going to solve all of our problems alone, we needed other players to take a leap to be contenders. Durant wasn't a bus driver even in his prime. Being the lone star on a team at the age of 37 is a recipe for failure. I know Sengun is technically an all-star this year but let's be real.
I have wondered about Stone's team building method since the summer when he signed DFS/Capela after the KD trade. Because we knew KD was going to need to mostly defend PF cause he's too old and slow to be guarding down. And we knew Sengun will play alongside him. So on defense you would assume they go for smaller guys to replace Brooks and Jalen's minutes. And on offense because KD is more a play finisher than play starter, I was thinking the Rockets need some more ball handling and passing because our star isn't ball dominant like Harden. No matter how you look at it, you'd want to sign PGs or SF/SG wings. Unfortunately fans were all wild about going all in on this jumbo lineup essentially playing FVV with 4 PFs/Cs. And forgot that there's a reason why this type of roster has been phased out in recent years in the NBA. Most notably the most recent failure being the Sixers' Horford signing.
This probably isn't the best time in KD's career for him to be playing with a bunch of kids. He doesn't have that kind of patience nowadays (if he ever did to begin with) and when things go south, his attitude goes with it. He's had to deal with FVV's injury, Adams' injury, Jabari's extended shooting slump, Tari's extended shooting slump... KD's just not the kind of guy to navigate all those waters without frustration. Throw in Ime's inability to counter-strategize against even the simplest things and you get a not-pretty picture. It took Ime several games before finally deciding in Q3 last night to have someone else setting up the plays, which finally got the immediate double-teams off of KD. That third quarter was encouraging, then Reddick counters and Ime responds with... nothing at all. This team is so hard to watch, knowing that the players are all out there by themselves with no real in-game coaching other than benching guys if they screw up. I watch every game, every year, and it was honestly more fun to watch the Tanking Youngsters versions that it is struggling to watch this year's team.
Absolutely true. And it's dismaying that nobody — the coaches, the players, or the GM — has done much to fix this.
It is ironic that KD going back to OKC to be booed.......during the Ring ceremony that he would not be part of. KD has never been much on my mind other than making fun of him and his burners.
Stats are empty. He sucks the soul out of a team. Tell me these guys look like they did last year. What happened in Phoenix? What happened in Brooklyn? I just can't understand how people can't see he's the common denominator. I can't believe they don't see how the bad language, bad effort and burner accounts can kill a team's chemistry. His numbers mean nothing if he's ripped the heart of the team.
I co-sign this. It's not KD's responsibility to call this out to Ime, it's Ime's responsibility to the team to say, "KD, sit in the corner and shut the **** up on this play for the betterment of this team". KD wanting to take every shot because he is the best at it isn't the problem - building an offense to facilitate that with an aging player with pretty glaring passing problems is what is completely demotivating to the rest of the team and is why we are losing. The tighter the game gets, the more we turn to KD. That's why I think he needs to ride bench periodically to put the onus and responsibility back on the young guys - right now KD is raising his hand to answer the teacher's question every time so everyone else is giving up and not even bothering to answer. Ime needs to be the bigger person and say "I'm losing the room here - KD, shut the **** up - someone else needs to step up and answer these questions".
KD isn't trying to be a good mentor if he is creating burner accounts and trashing the team behind their back. The type of person trying to be a good mentor isn't the same person who has made headlines numerous times in his career for being a bad teammate. ...and Harden was an awful leader as well - same as Luka, same as Kobe, same as Jordan as well frankly. The difference is those guys had the talent to back it up in their prime. You lived with it because the results justified the means....but if KD isn't winning games with us - that **** gets old very quickly and THAT is the difference with KD. We don't need 26/5/4 - WE NEED WINS. If he isnt good enough to get us wins, then sit in the corner and shut the **** up with your 26/5/4, KD!
I think we can all agree that the team offense is too dependent on him. I want to know whether this is... (1) by coaching design (or non-design) -- bad offensive design, or (2) by Durant's preference -- Durant wanting to have the ball in his hands, or (3) by players' subconscious dependency to superstars -- players deferring to the best offensive player by default in their minds. Maybe it's a combination of all three.
You and I disagree on Ime , but I agree with you on KD. I was super excited we traded for him..and honestly I’m not concerned with what it cost us. It was a swing worth taking, I think. He’s a terrible teammate and he may create an account here to troll me and that kinda tells you all you need to know lol
Yeah, while I agree KD has been incredibly toxic, at the end of the day it’s on Udoka and Stone to not enable him. Toxic guys full of themselves are a dime a dozen in the NBA, in the workplace, everywhere. They clearly didn’t have the guts - or the character more likely - to stand up and say ‘we aren’t winning this way’ or ‘this kind of behavior has no place here’. We already know what Stone enabled in the past and what Udoka did - to put it mildly, they aren’t exactly culture setters. I’m not even sure this has been discussed internally and there’s been an apology or anything of the sort at this point. It’s very possible that what we got from KD publicly is what his teammates also got - maybe he just said I’m not gonna talk about this and expected everyone to move on.
Not only did they not fix this, IMO they made things worse by forcing all our young players to rely on FVV. It was already noticeable in his first year here. Which I didn't think much of at the time, because the Rockets had no PG prospects (everyone knew Amen would take a while) and they needed someone to direct the offense. But last year it really dawned on me that Ime was never taking the leash off the young guys, cause Amen was in his 2nd year and Reed was just drafted, yet FVV still dominated the ball despite a clear decline in ability. I really find this sad because the one argument I agreed with when the Rockets signed FVV over Harden was that I also felt Harden may dominate the ball too much, and that FVV can play more of a hybrid role on offense, giving our young players more freedom to grow. Except FVV hasn't really played that way. He has played like a mini-Harden and our young players didn't really grow alongside him.
For all I care he can be less efficient and less productive. What I expect from the best player is not to be a complete locker room cancer and deflate everyone with low hustle, twitter, and **** body language. if you turn it over, run the f*** back. KPJ used to do this all the time and I was begging for Silas to bench him. Ime should bench KD if he does that.
He runs down the court, demands to get a pass with 3 defenders on him while he barely moves his twig wire frame when someone gets creative he b****es a out not getting the ball constantly he plays zero defense they all hate each other and him since he got here. Reed , Amen, Jabari, Senguin thankfully have gotten tighter and look like they’re tired of his ****
Arguing with KD fans is like arguing with a certain group of Ostrich head in the sand politicians, no matter what evidence is out there they will make excuses because he does one thing they like. But, but ....KD scores the ball......what more can he do? A lot...LOT more - and stop ignoring the truth because you don't like it. True open minded people always come together on truth. DD
At first it all seemed good... As for Dickerson... asking in all seriousness bc i didnt really dig into it.... am i correct in believing that there were only a couple of negative remarks that were all made at roughly the same time - like in the heat of the moment and not an ongoing thing? Also was this a minor account that was only among KD and his friends...? I think KD came here looking to mentor and just be a 30 min 20/5/4 guy... but then he ends up with the 3rd most minutes in the league and the weight of the team on his shoulders... further adding to his frustration... Obviously, i was deeply disappointed by Dickerson... but i think its been blown outta proportion imo... I mean who hasnt made a few stupid posts that they later regret?
