OT LMAO Rockets, Bosh going back to Miami

You could be right as Rondo tends to dominate the ball, but they play pretty well with Beverly, who is basically a poor mans Rondo. They do need his D and that is why I would prefer it not happen. Hopefully his personality would not mesh with Harden.....

 

Getting the ball out of Harden's hands and into Rondo's would be the best thing for HOU. Get Harden playing off-ball and Rondo will find him for open jumpers or cutting to the hoop for lay-ups. Rondo and Howard will make up for Harden's inability to defend.

 

Morey is delusional, just listened to an interview where he says history has shown that you need 3 elite players to win with very little exception. Bullshit. The elusive 3rd star is Houston's RLEC, it's mystical, magical, and it doesn't exist.

Of the last decade, only Miami, Boston and maybe the early Spurs titles had 3 elite stars. Obviously the Spurs are just good, no one is going to call Manu elite in their last title and if we're being perfectly honest, Duncan wasn't elite either.

The Lakers had Kobe/Gasol and Kobe/Shaq. The Mavericks only had Dirk. The Heat had Shaq/Wade. The Pistons had no elite players. The freaking 6 time champion Bulls only had two elite players (granted they had Jordan, maybe that counts for two?) Either way, I'm sure Morey is going to be chasing that third guy until Howard and Harden are old and decrepit.

 

Doing that will completely take Harden out of his game. Harden is much like Roy, where he needs the ball in his hands to be effective. The moment you start taking that away, he will be an average star.

 

While I completely agree with you, didn't the Bulls have Rodman who is arguably the best rebounder ever?

 

they did for 3? of them

 

And one of the best defenders ever. He's arguably a "third elite" player.

I think Morey is overstating it. The '80s were largely dominated by "three star" teams (in terms of championships). The '90s were largely dominated by the Bulls (who arguably had three stars for their second threepeat, but didn't for their first threepeat) and a little bit by the Rockets (who never approached three true stars). The 2000s were dominated by two-star teams in the Lakers and early Spurs and arguably a three star team in the late Spurs.

Overall, I'd say that if you have a top-ten player of all-time, you need only two stars. If you don't, you probably need three. The Rockets don't have anything close to a top-ten player of all-time, so I don't think Morey is delusional, but his argument (if all he said was "history shows you need three elite players") is incomplete.

 

What you meant to say was "He needs the ball to be in his hands to be effective at standing sideways and trying to create a phantom foul". That's his game.

 

Whatever the case, if he's not getting to the foul line, he will be effective. He can't draw fouls playing like Reggie Miller. That's not his style.

 

I think that's the key. You have to have at least one top tier talent to win a championship. Someone who is bound for the Hall of Fame. You can surround him with lower-tier All-Star type players, but you have to have that one really great player. There has been one exception, the Detroit Pistons, but that's really it.

 

He played great for OKC and they had Westbrook and Durant dominating the ball. He would still get plenty of touches with Rondo. Plus if you leave Rondo open he will attack the basket which will benefit Howard.

 

Yup. It's not about what's best for Harden, it's about what's best for the TEAM. Harden dominating the ball is not what's best for HOU, much like Roy dominating the ball was not always the best for our team. If a SG can't play off-ball, fuck 'em.

 

pushing beverly aside for rondo makes some sense, but not a lot.

they need a pf

 

Bro, Harden would be the ISO guy almost all the time. You don't remember?

 

Yes, and they have cap space!!11!11111!!!!

 

I don't think you need 3 stars. Basically, if you have 2 pretty boys then you need an elite rebounder/defender. No matter how good your guys are, you need to rebound the ball. That's why LBJ just mentioned Anderson Verejao by name when talking about his new team. The bulls had Horace Grant, then Dennis Rodman - not a coincidence.

 

i could see if they had like 30 million so they could eat gwall or kevin martin in addition to love or rondo...but no.

 

God I hate the Rockets... they've seriously passed the Lakers and Knicks as that annoying team that thinks they can get anyone for next to nothing.

http://dimemag.com/2014/07/report-rockets-will-go-rondo-love/

 

Rockets are/were close with what they had. You have to look at what is available in the current pool of players. Right now, there's only two generational talents (in their primes) in the entire league: LeBron and Durant. Houston might have had a shot at LeBron, but lets be serious, they weren't really in contention for his services. Still, Houston has the next best thing: two top 10 players. They have both the best shooting guard and the best center in the league, who are both close to generational players. Serious contention should have been possible if they surrounded their stars with the right players and the right coaching.