That's a pretty dumb statement. This era got us to the WCFs. Funny how posters seems to forget the mediocrity of the past.
I have never watched a team like this one before. It's like everyone but Ariza really doesn't care. Over and over and over the players on this team have defensive relapses and continuous TOs. Well at least they are great at working together as sucking.
That all filters down from Harden. He doesn't give a sh-t, so the rest of the team follows his lead(even if it's subconsciously for some of the players). Part of being a true superstar in this league is playing your ass off every night and demanding the same effort out of your teammates. Harden doesn't have that mentality. Now that's not to say he can't figure things out. Even Dream, as great as he was early in his career, matured a lot in his late 20's before taking his game to another level. Hopefully Harden can do the same. Otherwise we're looking at a superstar who puts up good numbers but never leads his team anywhere(i.e. Derrick Coleman, Glenn Robinson).
Harden is the new Carmelo Anthony. He will score but plays no defense, shows no heart and has almost by himself ruined the chemistry of this team. MVP, what a joke.
God I hope not. Melo also made it to the WCF one time but otherwise never really accomplished anything in the NBA. Let's hope that's not Harden's legacy(post-OKC anyway).
I think we might be at the point. We don't have the defensive players to sustain inefficient offense, and we don't have the outside shooting or multi-skilled offensive players to have an efficient offense. We need at least one or the other (or both like Golden State) to compete. The East seems to be getting better, so can't even get freebie wins there.
Same coaches that got us to the WCFs? That really happened. Sometimes teams get stale. Did you think after last year this would happen? No one did. It's not Morey's fault the players tuned out the coaching staff because they had playoff success. It's not Morey's fault Harden is a little heartless b****.
I see no chance that Morey blows it up. He has to worry that Les will not have the patience for a rebuild, and that he would not survive as GM. They didn't "blow it up" when they were getting the ninth seed in consecutive years. Morey is much more likely to double down and try to trade for a third star. With the cap about ready to explode, he would probably consider trading for a "star" with a bad contract that could be eventually stretched, such as Carmelo. Morey has repeatedly said he will never trade Hardin or Howard. I think he would rather let Howard opt out and walk than trade him for the bag of beans offers he would receive from the few teams that would consider trading for him.
New York has no intentive to trade Carmelo right now, to have them consider it for no reason (since they can't lure any FA there and it will be even worse without Carmelo) they will have to be get incetives => positive value. The only "star" except Carmelo that has almost negative value right now is Rose but he's still very profitable for Reinsdorf so chances are he wont' be traded either.
Agreed, it's not like this team can compete with GSW, OKC, SAS, or CLE anyway. Trying to is just going to cost them an opportunity to win a title after those teams' championship windows close.
But I thought Mauri only trade's for people with heart and high integrity. He has said that several times. Problem is Harden has Maury by the balls. Harden is Morey's biggest acquisition and Murray is pretty much married to him. Trading Harden would be Morey admitting to a mistake and Mori has too much ego to even think about that.
Melo gets more flak than he deserves. Outside of those couple of years in Denver he's never had a good team. No one can do it alone.
there's a whole list of problems but he is definitely part of the problem. people are kidding themselves if they don't think he is
No he is part of the problem He has a selfish style of play and he does care about what numbers he puts up despite what it means to team success If Dwight has sealed his man, there is no reason why Harden can't pass to him If Josh freakin Smith can run P n R for alley oops for Dwight, no reason harden can't do that. Let's face it. Harden likes to have the ball all the time when he is on the court and dribble the air out the ball and look for his shot. If it's not there he will give a bail out pass with 3 sec left And what about defense? Dude plays ZERO defense You think that doesn't rub off on the other players who see him just take the credit on the other end despite giving nothing on D
Pray Dwight is gone after this season, build around Harden and D-Mo. Everyone else is a goner. Harden (max) D-Mo (15 mil) Capela (rookie salary) Those 3 players should be penciled in starters. Morey has find a way to let go of everyone else, Brewer is going to be the toughest, 8 million for 3 years, yikes! If Morey gets rid of them, we will have enough cap space to sign another top tier player at SF and a legit starter at PG. Then fill out the rest of the roster with rookies and minimum guys.
