[Brian Scalabrine on Rockets] "They're not better than Oklahoma City"

All of the "reasons" are just veneers. The real substance that makes up all the arguments against Houston is about Harden. Some combination of not liking his style, believing he relies too much on fouls, believing he's a choker, etc. that's what it's all really boiled down to.

Westbrook makes people believe in him because he plays so angry and you feel like at any minute he can dunk on any one. That makes it easier to overlook his shortcomings.

 

Dis Scalabrine major in Marketing?

 

Gotta prove the haters wrong

 

Remarkable that dude last in the league for 11 seasons or whatever. Boggles my mind.

 

We are deeper than OKC. They can upset us, if we are not at our best. If we play solid defense in every game, in a potential playoff series against them, then OKC will lose in my opinion.

Go Houston Rockets!

 

The thing that kills me about "need to see it in the playoffs" and "those guys couldn't win it before" is that...

1) Yeah other than past champions....everyone loses. We can say that about everyone. Not to mention, with a number of players, it wasn't until they were on a team with MULTIPLE ALL STARS that gave them the chance to win. LeBron on his own? Nothing. KD on his own/with RW? Nothing. Curry needed Klay and Green. It takes multiple guys. What guys did Harden have? He has CP now so lets see how it goes.
2) CP on another team, JH on a different team. We know what they did, but we are talking about THIS TEAM. With CP & JH together. Talking about past teams with other teammates is irrelevant with regards to this current team and its current success.

Basically, when you see commentary that brings up those lazy narratives they are 1) being contrarian for sake of argument or 2) hater.

Really the only analysis from commentators that I will concede on the Rockets is if they don't think they can beat the Warriors in the playoffs because the Warriors have 4 all star players and they Rockets might not be able to overcome that. That's fair. Rockets have "2" and they have "4." That's the reality. For the Rockets to overcome that, some of the Rockets roll players (Capela/Gordon) will have to elevate their game and some of the Warriors stars will have to have some uneven, mediocre games.

 

Wow. He coattailed his rings, and he thinks he's an NBA expert now? Dude, Bonner was way better than you.

 

Here's what this is about.

People can't explain how a team headed by Harden and Paul - two guys who haven't had success, two guys people love to hate, and only two guys compared to other teams big three or four - how is it that this team has the best record in the NBA?

Something doesn't add up. The Warriors SHOULD be better. The Thunder SHOULD be better. San Antonio SHOULD be better. Because that's what they thought at the beginning of the season.

The easy explanation is that - oh they have exploited some weakness and quirks in the regular season but come playoff time, when the defense cranks up and the refs swallow whistles, the Rockets will struggle. And to be fair, Harden has a history of flailing out of games against tough defenses.

But as Batman said, this is a good thing. The more Harden & Co get disrespected or seen as not legit, the more they have to motivate them. So I hope it keeps coming.

 

Clutchfans must have a thread for every insignificant person that hates on the Rockets.

I can't for the life of me figure out why so many people care about these opinions.

 

Hedging. Betting against the hottest thing and make it known to everyone. If wrong, people will quickly forget, stay low for a bit and come back. If right, he is going to be like "see ..." . Let's not pay attention to him at all.

 

Ah, the narratives. I don't watch or listen to sports talk much these days, but it seems to me these so called pundits are controlling the narratives. That seems to be the game in that business. Actually, I think Barkley is right on this - it's a toss up - meaning with the chips we have, no one in their right mind can say the Warriors will beat us in 7 games FOR SURE.

 

I'm not trying to appear bitter but:

I speak to Keith Bogans nearly weekly. From coach to coach, I seek him out because he's a brilliant thinker. (He's coaching with the Westy Knicks).

He was Brian's teammate in Chicago.

Keith and I used to joke about players who (in different, vulgar terms) were friendly with star players in order to not be traded/waived. Keith used to tell me that Brian would personally do all the "rookie work" (carrying bags/room service/random I can't write without being banned stuff) for DRose and Deng. He would tell the resident new guy/rook not to worry about it. Basically, Keith would joke that Brian made sure his seat was always near DRose and Luol and that everyone in the locker room knew he was the team (garden tool).

Previously, remember "Big Baby" Davis? Well, same thing, Brian made sure that he was Pierce/KG/Ray/Rondo's go-to guy instead of the hazing that Big Baby should have taken.

Why do you ask? For those precious minutes in garbage time, where he shuffled to the corner to hit some meaningless 3.

Brian's perspective on anything should be taken with an opportunistic grain of salt. His entire career is based on making sure he was on the "good side" of star players. He was known for sucking up for those minimum contracts.

If we're not better than OKC in his opinion, that's cool. Eddie House once joked to me why they used to call Brian "Hot Cakes"....he definitely kept the left side of the bench warm for the Celts./rant


I'm tired of guys hating on the Rockets' success. Is it so disgusting that we're ahead of the Golden Girls? Dray (Rose), Steph (Dorothy) and KD (Blanche for ho-ing himself out of OKC don't *have* to be everyone's favorite team. And, like any team, they're beatable.

OKC looks better, but they're a PG injury from hell. They're a Melo Meltdown over shots from hell. They're a Westbrook shooting slump from hell.

Happy (former) President's Day!

-Cod

 

So are the Rockets then overachieving with our ever-changing lineups and our league-best record 2/3 of the way through the season? Or are the Thunder simply sand-bagging by getting routinely beat by crappy teams and will "turn it on" once the playoffs start? Which one is it?

The Celtics won't even make it to the ECF in my opinion. ECF is Cavs and Raptors, WCF is Rockets and Warriors.

 

The only reason Scal has a platform to speak this nonsense is because he sucked and kids made fun of him

 

let this attention whoore gets his...let's keep stacking up those Ws. loving seeing haters suffer fr seeing us winning.

 

The Rockets are deeper and analytically have the two best players in the series.

Mind boggling analysis.

Anyone that says CP3 chokes in the playoffs is an absolute blow hard. It isnt true.

 

Hard to argue with the scoreboard.

 

it's an extended all star break...we ain't got much to talk about when there's no rockets games...