Woj: Current Era Of Rockets 'At Stake With This Season'

And they were 8th the year before. 6th the year before that. 12th the year before that. 19th the year before that. Right now they're second. I think they'll likely finish lower as they don't have assets. I'm not sure why folks on here still have an expectation that the Houston Rockets are going to be a top 5 salary team year-in and year-out.

If DM has been handicapped by Tilman, I'd put the first handicap at his insistence on trading for Russ. I'd put the second handicap at his eagerness to extend EG (I think this was a Tilman move, not a DM move).

If that was a condition to the trade to the Rockets, I have no problem with it. They moved from Russ getting half of his salary before the year starts, to only getting a quarter of it before the year starts. It's kind of "whatever" to me - and I absolutely understand time value of money. Russ agreed to it, he wanted to leave OKC and join the Rockets.Frankly, I'd be more curious if this amendment continues on if he is traded again...

Cause in the above cases, the changes are positive for the Rockets organizationally, and shouldn't be looked at as a negative...

... EXCEPT I absolutely understand that Tilman's wealth is a function of him being a value investor buying distressed "crap" and then squeezing every last dollar out of it, whom in this case [over]paid for a prime, well-run asset, etc.

Tilman+this move is concerning... but not a franchise killer or anything.

The roster problem is less about $$ spent, and more about where those $$s are spent.

Because the Rockets have James Harden. And as much as I harp on him for defensive deficiencies, too many turnovers, and playoff failures, he's as perfect a regular season system player as you'll find over the last decade.

That doesn't specifically answer your question. Do I think the next coach will be better than MDA?? I don't know. I guess probabilistically no, since MDA is a decent enough coach. But he's not Red Auerbach out there. The Raptors moved on from a COTY only to discover they had a better coach sitting right next to him (better, equal). Is Frank Vogel a good coach?? I guess... who knows. I think in the NBA in particular there's a bit too much emphasis on coaching quality. Talent almost always prevails. Was Ty Lue a better coach than David Blatt? Blatt, who effectively without Kyrie and Love and with guys like Mozgov getting significant minutes took the Warriors to 6 games?

The Rockets can't rely on talent to overcome poor coaching. But I think you can give any number of coaches Harden, Russ, House, Tucker, Capela and expect a decent regular season and AT LEAST a second round birth if not WCF.

I think GM is more important, and I'd personally rather keep DM over probably anyone in the organization, players included, but I also can't fault ownership if they decided to move on, especially after the Hong Kong debacle. That said, Hong Kong debacle aside, I think it more likely DM walks then Tilman let's go of him. Unless Tilman can use the HK thing to invalidate the 5 year contract extension Daryl recently got.

 

goddamit this is literally the GM mode in 2k17

 

Bad ownership doing bad things. If you have a guy like harden and you’re trading 1sts to get under the cap the red flags shoulda been clear . If they just kept CP they woulda had a shot

 

lol now CP3 was the piece to a championship, but when we got him , they were all over him just like Westbrook.. lol

 

It falls so far true...My hopes of this year with parity are fast declining. We are in ways similar to the Jazz/Nuggets not clippers/lakers

 

not sure yet.. lets wait until we have a full squad.. We are missing EG., and still in 4th place.

 

Yeah, i'm willing to let EG come back and get going before I pass judgement. He is a big piece of what we do. More EG means less Russ jacking up jumpers.

I still fell we need that SF/PF player to help around the paint. Athletic player that can create his own shots near the basket and plays decent D. If we can't bring that type player in at trade deadline or buyout market, I don't think we get to WCF. We would have to rely too much on outside shooting vs other good teams that can slow James and Russ and that means trouble.

 

I think you misunderstand me. You can check my post history as I have been as much as anyone pointed out that the Rockets never spent even in Les era. And that Tillman isnt doing anything different. The post you originally responded, I only talked about how Tilman shouldn't be talking about going all-in when he clearly doesn't. Last year Raptors was the perfect idea of going all in. The Thunder also went all in when they traded for Melo. These are big moves with big salary ramifications that teams do when they believe they need to win asap. The Rockets have always been on the edge but never really gone over the edge.

I would say my issue with Tilman is less that hes not going over the luxury tax and more that he talks a lot about going over and competing fully when he clearly has no wish to do so. Whereas Les doesnt spend but he doesnt go around talking like he spends big in order to promote his book and stuff

 

Here's the thing: Good coaches, the few who could make a difference, are either 1) expensive, or 2) untested as head coaches at this level. I really doubt Tilman would want to pay what the A-list established coaches want. Hell, the guy fired half of the assistant coaches over the summer to keep his coaching budget down.

As for the untested coaches, I would normally say I trust Morey to find one. The problem is that Morey is on record as saying coaching is one of the LEAST important factors when it comes to championship teams. He said coaches can add a few wins a year, that's it. On top of that, he's the one who actually thought McHale was a solid choice, and that cost us a couple of good Harden years.

I'm about as pessimistic for the Rockets as I've been since our big Asik/Lin free agent summer a few years ago.

 

Is a Sam Cassell type is our next coach? My fear is a lot of Harden success is from MDA’s laidback approach to coaching. A firm disciplinarian is not gonna work with the age and successfulness of our team. A Milk Hair clap, clap, clap type with a wisecracking post game interview my work again. Harden is not an X and O’s player not ALL coaches will fit our team. Interesting where this all takes us.

 

About to go from the Golden Dork Era to the Dark Ages. The Houston Hillbillies are taking over.

 

Was there any Harden year during McHale era where the Rockets should've won it all and didn't? For all the crap we put on McHale he also got us to the WCFs, just like D'Antoni. Harden had playoff letdowns back then and he continued to do so under D'Antoni. Dwight was cancer, but Dwight fizzled out in his later stops too and the issue lies more with him than the rest of the team. In McHale's final year you can definitely say he lost the team, and he deserved to be fired. But McHale vs D'Antoni perfectly aligns with Morey's idea that coaches don't move the needle much. People forget Harden came in 2nd in MVP behind prime Curry with McHale despite having atrocious teammates like DMo, Terence Jones, constantly injured Dwight, Josh Smith, Corey Brewer, etc. so it's not like McHale even messed up Harden so much as the team back then was kinda bad overall.

 

You're not wrong. If anything, it does prove Morey's point, because I can't imagine you'd find many who think McHale is as good a coach as MDA. And yet, MDA had better success in large part because he had a better guy in that #2 star role than McHale did.

 

Media has nothing but negative things to say and report regarding Houston sports teams. Not putting much of anything into this report.

 

Kept CP3 and aquired Love, I would be confident this team could challenge the Lakers and Bucks in a 7 game series.

 

We can’t beat keep it within 20 of this god awful Spurs team, so I’m not sure what’s really “at stake” here.

 

Harden gonna have the worst game of his career?