[ESPN / Watkins] Harden, Howard and Rockets face uncertainty

If everyone is constantly on the team bus and your franchise player isn't .............. that does not look good. Gives the wrong impression to the guys. I'm just saying.

 

Hmmm..... I wonder if the organization would allow other players such as Bev, Jones or Brewer to do that...

T_Man

 

oh man its gotten to the point where people are bringing up team bus rides as the problems for houston. my how this season was a wreck.

 

All I'm hearing is a bunch of speculation about how people might feel and how those feelings they might have might affect their play. Waiting to see some indication that it actually makes any difference to anybody because it sounds like a bunch of bs to me. It's teenage girl stuff.

 

This remind me a story with Curry after they won the title last year.

One day, Curry walked in the GM's office with a sunglasses, that got this reaction from GM Bob Myers, "Really, this is what we become after title? Wearing this inside?".

Curry has never done that again.

 

The other bus is much shorter (no leg room)

 

Except that there's TWO buses that shuttle players and staff...one bus leaves early...players can choose either....so it's kind of hard to get the wrong impression, when you don't see half the players anyway.

 

All I care about is has JB been fired yet

 

It's definitely not you. I've been reading Watkins since he was a Cowboys beat writer, and he sucked there, too.

He might be a nice guy, but his writing is pretty terrible.

He meanders.

 

Good selling points for Morey to any FA this summer.

"Come to Houston and play with Harden, you can have the whole forking bus by your own to ride to the arena."

 

But millennial men = teenage girls. Times' a changing Juan, these guys are sensitive, entitled divas that will let a whole season go to waste because they are full of ****.

 

True.


But hey, maybe the chemistry was better last year cause Harden was always on the right bus

 

[rQUOTEr]Calvin:

...

Morey said no interviews have occurred yet, but that if things are to improve, the chemistry must. James Harden is at the forefront of this. He can no longer ride to road games by himself; he needs to be on the team bus like everybody else, unless, of course, he’s back in his native Los Angeles, visiting family.

NBA players have homes in cities where they grew up or played in previously and sometimes won’t stay at the team hotel on the road, and that’s fine for Harden and others. Outside of that, everybody needs to ride together on the team bus and team plane, stand together for the national anthem and huddle up together after player introductions.

Harden typically bolts to stretch his legs at the scorer’s table following player intros instead of huddling one last time with his teammates. It’s a small thing, a nitpicky deal, but when people on your team talk about dysfunction and chemistry, the little things -- like not huddling with your team after being introduced -- say something. It’s something Harden did at times last season, too.

A togetherness was missing.

Many point to the relationship between Harden and Dwight Howard as the cause of the problems. It wasn’t good, but they didn’t hate each other -- it just didn’t work on the court. Harden seemingly lost trust in Howard’s game, and took more of the offensive load while others struggled.

It has led to reports from commentators saying nobody wants to play with Harden.

...[/rQUOTEr]

 

Calvin is basically saying everything that has been pretty much talked about on this site and reported by others.

T_Man

 

^^^ that paragraph saying Harden has to stop taking a car to games, etc...that's not what Morey told him, is it? It sounds like commentary from Watkins.

And Morey is talking about other teams saying negative stuff..but it's also been..Calvin Watkins.

 

Calvin: James Harden's injury & getting fat a precursor to disappointing Rockets season

 

The team has problems. It doesn't take a Rocket scientist to figure that out. This stuff from Watkins, however, sounds more like typical ESPN manufactured drama to produce more hits for their website and more viewers for their multiple cable channels. Harden is an easy target. He's not the world's most verbose, outgoing guy, a guy who can easily deflect criticism, easily defend himself and his team. That's on his personality, not his basketball ability, which is All World, in my humble opinion. The Rockets franchise has always, for whatever reason, been a target for hit pieces in sports media, post Twin Towers, and that's a long ass time to be dumped on.

We need a strong, brilliant, and deeply experienced coach. A coach who can implement a solid defensive system, an offense that has actual plays, instead of what seems like street ball half the time. A coach who can instill a culture of winning and accountability, for the players and the coaching staff. A coach all the players have great respect for. Harden wants to win and he needs both the right players around him and the guidance to make him as effective as he can be within the system the new coach brings with him or her.

If we could steal a top assistant from the Spurs who could bring some of that culture with him/her, along with a basketball mind able to adapt to the changes in the league, something the Spurs seem to do effortlessly, that might do the trick. Who stands out on the staff of the Spurs that would make a great head coach? Messina and Hammon intrigue me. The Spurs come to mind because I really admire what they do. Others are out there. Guys like Van Gundy would be a risk, as would Hammon of the afore mentioned Spurs, like McHale was, in a way. Sometimes risks work out. RudyT was a gamble himself, not one Les took, who leans more towards "famous names." What the organization is doing needs to change. Let's hope it isn't change simply for the sake of change. That didn't work well 11 games into the season, did it.

 

Hmm... Some questions...

If Harden was riding to the games with his teammates before, when did he stop?

Did he get an OK from the Coach or GM to do this?

Also with all the other nitpicky things, when did they start?

Why didn't the Coach and the GM have a mtg with Harden before things got to where they are to put an end to it?

As a parent I know it's my kid's job to try and get away with as much as they can... And it's my job to not let them..

But it seems that the coach and the Front office were ok with the things that Harden was doing and only decided to change things once this article came out.

T_Man

 

He did it because he could get away with it. Rockets allowed it. And nothing has changed. We won't know until next year if things have changed or not.

It's likewise on Houston for allowing it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The optics are bad for a team leader not to ride with his teammates whatever Harden's reasons are. It's likewise on Houston for allowing it.</p>&mdash; Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/725759960416555008">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>