Wow, Kingspeed cant figure out one of the NBA's most obvious problems! Their chemistry is atrocious because their incompetent management thought they could take any players in the NBA and stick them together regardless of play style and personality. They've never fit together well, and have always coasted by because their roster has been packed with some of the better individual talent in the league.
He does have a valid point though here. Yes, it should be safe to assume that throwing random players together regardless of fit and chemistry is stupid and should fail. However, it worked for then last year. Western conference finals is no joke. That is the quandary. What changed between this year and last?
The thing is, it's not a system where talent is more important than chemistry, or even vice versa. So you can have a decent amount of success with either a lot of chemistry and not as much talent, or a lot of talent and not as much chemistry. But ultimately it is not likely sustainable success. I look at it like an analogy... like a baseball - where talent and chemistry protect the delicate inside of the ball. Talent can be the white part and chemistry can be the stitching that holds it together. You can lose some of the stitching and the ball may stay together, but after a big impact from the bat (last years playoffs for the Rockets) the ball is going to fall apart. It's that delicate dance that makes it so impressive that the Spurs 'ball' is still in game shape. I think ultimately it speaks to the fact that if you are going to run a succesful franchise the most important piece is the General Manager, not the Coach, or even the players... That's just my opinion though. * Not to say the coach and players aren't important, its a team and they all have to have talent, and chemistry together as well. But ultimately the GM is the one responsible for gathering all the materials.
Good question. If their "chemistry" is worse this season, that has been caused by their on court struggles - not the other way around. The same core group had no chemistry problems when they went to the WCF.
1. They are a team that is built around 3s and FTA while giving a fuck about defense. 2. All their good players are me first guys. 3. Their coach wants them to play some uptempo brand of basketball when they're clearly a half court slow down type of team.
The league is much more prepared to defend against analytic high volume 3 point shooting offenses. Two years ago the Rockets were atypical and innovative. Now the whole league is equally skilled at using and defending heavy 3 point light midrange attacks. Other reasons; DMo was their best big last year but has been hurt. McHale got great production out of Corey Brewer and Josh Smith. Harden was in good defensive shape before last season from team USA. Dwight has severely declined athletically. Their chemistry issues manifest during the losing this year, teams can play through bad chemistry when winning as they did last year.
This season, the Rockets offensive team stats are actually slightly better than last season. If everything else was equal, they should be winning more games. However, not everything is the same or better than last season. This season the Rockets are allowing their opponents to score 6 more points per game than last season (106.4 this season vs 100.5 last season). That would indicate there is chemistry issues with their team defense.
Harden's defense has somehow managed to regress even more. Although the team is loaded with good individual defenders, after a couple years of his horse shit they seem to have stopped trying. And maybe some of the players and even the fans are starting to question if it's a team they want to be on....
We saw this with the 2001 Blazers. They got the WCF and had the best record in the league the next season. Chemistry was a concern; but the winning kept everyone in line. Then Rod Strickland was brought in, and that was the final straw that broke the camels back. The Blazers blew up and barely made the playoffs getting swept. Dysfunctional teams can play great when winning; chemistry matter when teams need to fight through a losing stretch. The Rockets fell apart at the start of the season and once they became a broken locker room the season was doomed.
It will be really interesting to see how the Rockets handle James Harden this summer. I really don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities to see him moved and Morey fired when they lose Howard and strikeout on Durant.
That said, I'm starting to wonder if we target Dwight during the offseason. Interesting article about free agent destinations for him. I think our team is one of the more attractive options, especially given the contrast in chemistry and ball movement compared to the Rockets. There are some massive, bright red flags with Howard--especially age. But they are the reason why we might be able to get him.
I shudder thinking about being the team who pays Dwight a multi year max only to find out he really doesn't give a shit about winning at all anymore. Has Houston's "hell" soured him, or rekindled him? I don't think I could be a GM just because I know I don't have the balls to make a move like Dwight Howard this summer. He's either going to make someone look like phenomenal, or cost them their job.
I agree so much with this. However if NO got him for something REASONABLE (say 3 years/55million) I'd be on board.
Draco nailed it with this and his next post. Combine all of this with two historically great 1 and 2 seeds and you get the 2016 Houston Rockets.
I'm not even sure I care about the monetary figure as much as I care about the contract length. If Dwight want's to win and see's he can win here then I think he would re-sign. If we sign him to a multi-year and he can't win here then we are stuck with a potentially unmovable contract that eats into our cap space.
Ummm. No chemistry. A bunch of pampered superstars got the only person with a semblance of control fired. Just a thought.....
