I wasn't going to post anymore this year because I'm going to let you guys enjoy your victory...but I have to say something. Lin fans aren't Rocket fans. They are just Lin fans. They don't care about the team at all, they only care about Lin. They always throw players like Harden under the bus (because they believe Harden is in the way of Lin's progress) and they think Lin is the best PG in the league. I remember a Lin fan arguing that he was better than John Wall a year ago. You'll find a lot of that if you dig through posts. I just had to clear that up, because there are A LOT of Lin fans there and it remains to be seen if they will continue to be Rocket fans when Lin is gone from the team.
http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/2251/summer-scoop-now-what-for-rockets After its first-round exit at the hands of Portland, what does the future hold for Houston? Five burning questions and answers about the immediate future for the Houston Rockets after their first-round elimination Friday night with a 99-98 loss in Game 6 at Portland: 1. Where do the Rockets fall on the Most Disappointing Teams of Round 1 scale? Indiana is in a class by itself. Obviously. Otherwise? The 62-win San Antonio Spurs, if they wind up losing their steel-cager with the Dallas Mavericks from a 3-2 position of strength, can still bump Houston out of the No. 2 spot. Ditto for Oklahoma City now, since the Thunder would proceed to the longest of summers if they can’t win a Game 7 at home against Memphis when Zach Randolph is suspended and Mike Conley is playing on a bad hamstring. Houston, however, enters this weekend of Game 7s feeling just crushed, having come so close and then missing out on forcing their own decider. Disappointing doesn’t quite cover it after four losses to the Blazers by a combined 13 points, two of them in OT. In the Rockets' case, it's the way they lost, too. It's the disconnected vibe they too often gave off as a group, falling down 2-0 at home and losing Damian Lillard on the series-clinching shot on a multilayered defensive breakdown. It's the woefully low assist rate all season for a group whose coach constantly calls for his players to make the ball "pop.” It's the first sustained, loud burst of negativity that’s being unleashed on James Harden, when the combination of The Beard and Dwight Howard -- according to a prognosticator as respected as Jeff Van Gundy -- was supposed to give Houston an outside shot of upsetting its way all the way to the NBA Finals. Instead? The youngest team in the playoffs, as close as most of these games were, often looked like it. Houston couldn't stop Portland, despite the Blazers' own well-chronicled defensive limitations, from busting out a better-than-ever LaMarcus Aldridge early in the series to take command and ultimately winning a playoff series for the first time since 2000. So, yeah. Only Indiana's had it rougher in Round 1. 2. Is Kevin McHale's job really safe? About a week ago, before Houston had won a game in the Portland series, sources close to the situation were adamant that McHale "deserves more than one season with this group." As the story from Ramona Shelburne and I related then, McHale can't be completely sure of survival after the Rockets won the Dwight sweepstakes but still failed to win a playoff series. The reality, though, is that McHale's biggest fan in town just might be Rockets owner Les Alexander, who's a handy person to have in your corner. Locker-room unease has been bubbling during this series. And McHale's perceived shortcomings as an in-game strategist have been a talking point going back to his days on Minnesota's bench. But sources insisted again this week that, to date, there has been no tangible evidence to suggest that the Rockets have a coaching change in mind. They still have to formally pick up McHale's 2014-15 option to remove any doubt. And links to Stan Van Gundy, Howard's old Orlando coach, are bound to persist until Stan is coaching somewhere else. For now, though, McHale’s return next season remains the most likely scenario. 3. Who really ranks as Houston's dream target in terms of another marquee acquisition? Carmelo Anthony has been billed as the biggest name Houston will chase hardest come July. It's inevitable that Rockets general manager Daryl Morey will likewise check in his with his old boss Danny Ainge in Boston -- as he did before the trade deadline in February -– just to make sure Rajon Rondo isn’t suddenly available. Kevin Love isn't nearly as available as Melo will be this summer. He might not be available at all via trade. Yet you can rest assured that Houston will be lobbing frequent calls to Minnesota to test the Wolves' resolve, since Love would complement Howard better than pretty much anyone you could nominate. Yet it’s also rather reasonable to ask: How much sense does Melo make? Neither Anthony nor Rondo looks like the ideal addition, in terms of skill set, if you're planning to keep the incumbent stars together, whether the concern in question is Anthony's defensive deficiencies on a team already asking Howard and Patrick Beverley to do too much on D ... or Rondo's need to have the ball in his hands as much as Harden. 4. How will Chandler Parsons' unique contract situation play out? Parsons is the Rocket every rival team tries to steal. Boston would insist on Parsons if Rondo-to-Houston talks ever got serious. Teams are likewise said to be telling the Rockets all the time, when Morey is shopping either Asik or Lin, that it will also cost you Parsons if you're expecting us to take on one of those infamous balloon payments scheduled to lift both Asik and Lin to the brink of $15 million in annual salary next season ... albeit with a salary-cap number of just $8.4 million. The Rockets, though, surely can't be willing to trade a former No. 38 overall pick who has blossomed so far beyond draft-night expectations and also happens to have played such a big role in the recruitment of Howard to Houston. For much of the season you heard just the opposite. You mostly heard that Houston is planning to decline Parsons' modest sub-million option for next season, make him a free agent July 1 and then re-sign him as a restricted free agent to a much more representative salary than his rookie-scale numbers. The Rockets have until June 29 to either pick up or decline Parsons' option. If they don't, Parsons becomes a restricted free agent. Some insiders have wondered aloud whether Houston actually prefers to pick up the option and then re-sign Parsons in 2015, but he'd be an unrestricted free agent that summer. So I tend to believe it has to happen this summer. 5. Where do we go from here with James Harden? Excellent question. Wish I were prescient enough to forecast it precisely, but I do know it’s going to be a riveting case study. Dwight undeniably delivered against the Blazers. He averaged 26.0 points, 13.7 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and realistically couldn't have delivered much more, coming up especially big in the fourth quarter of Game 6. He certainly never imagined having to deal with a Round 1 exit in Year 1 of his ride with the Rockets, but it seems safe to suggest that the primary scapegoat from this series is bound to Harden. The Rockets’ top gun didn't shoot the ball up to his usual standards until Friday’s series finale. And his indifferent defense, to put it politely, has never been subjected to more scrutiny, all the way down to his passive participation in the final, fatal play that will forever belong to Lillard. And he's bound to spend as much time under the microscope, for the foreseeable future, as any star you wish to name. Speaking of the collective burden that the Rockets feel, Morey told ESPN's Shelburne halfway through the series: "Obviously we all want to win now. Our owner only cares about two things: His granddaughter and winning a title. Dwight is at that stage where there's nothing to accomplish but winning a title. I'm hungry: I'm in my eighth year and we've only advanced once. So while, logically, you know that younger teams that come together -- and we're the youngest team in the playoffs -- take longer to win. We logically get that, but we're all impatient emotionally."
That's a good post above me there. I want to comment on Parsons now...I'll throw up if the Rockets decline a Rondo acquisition because of Parsons again. He's a very overrated player IMO by other fans of other teams. He has a lot of bumps in his game and he runs his mouth and doesn't back it up more times than not. He thinks of himself as the 3rd star of this team but in every game was abused by Batum when it mattered. He's supposed to be a three and 'D' guy but his defense is average at best a lot of times and so is his three point shooting. His real strength though is being a SF that can handle the ball and push it up and being a glue guy. He's a really good player don't get me wrong...but I'm just shaking my head at Morey for two thins. Reportedly not giving up Parsons for Rondo and Trading Aaron Brooks for Jordan Hamilton. Both Rondo and Brooks are proven playoff performers and instead Morey did what he tends to do. Get more excited about 'Potential' than getting players with proven track records. Sorry, I just saw that post and had to rant. That is the downside to Morey, a GREAT GM but he gets way too excited about 'Potential' and if he wants to build a true contending team he's going to need guys that have been there and done that sprinkled throughout the roster.
Poor guys, we all know these feelings [video=youtube;bkvp1Wsi2io]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkvp1Wsi2io&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Ours was more painful. That "winning the lotto", then bearing with 5 years of oden's problems and Roy's degrade was a slow and agonizing pain. Much harder pill to swallow if you ask me.
Well that was a slow and steady bleed. And the Rockets may be one of the few teams that have had similar luck with players like Yao, Francis and McGrady.
But they are a large market, able to get superstars to come to their team. Our franchise is in bfe and had to make smart decisions.
I wonder if Lillard's shoe contract will change player's perceptions about what they can get in Portland. Shoe contracts are basically the reason why players go to big markets right?
Thanks for posting that. I hadn't realized he had such a weird cult following. I would find that kind of a fanbase annoying if it were on my team. I remember some years ago we had this guy who was fanatical about Shareef Abdur Rahim. Playmaker was a nice guy and pretty interesting, but the arguments just got weird whenever people pointed out how worthless he was on our roster. I can't imagine having 10 or 20 such posters on our forum. Ugh.
"Rockets were jobbed by the NBA" <--------- My favorite. LOL Give me a fucking break!! The calls were outlandish all series long on BOTH sides.
If the Rockets get rid of Lin, the best thing that could go with him will be his fans. I know a lot was made up about some Rocket fans that wished Portland fans injury...But on the Lin fansite they did this after every game. Wish Harden injury (They really hate Harden) and then they post on other forums and trash the team (Like RealGM general forums) and I don't have a problem with player fans but they should respect the team and original fanbase of the team. Yao fans were NEVER this bad and a lot of those Yao fans are still Rocket fans.
well, lin kinda is the best ever, did you see what he did in NY a few years ago for 7 or 8 games? i didnt think so
Firstly, you're always welcome here. In your five posts, you've shown yourself to be a class individual and a real fan. Secondly, the "LOF" thing the Rockets' fan base has going is nuts. Where did it come from? You have the best center and SG in the League and they're fixated on a guy who doesn't even start. Bizarre.
