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Early season takeaways

Posted: Tue Nov 5, 2019 6:16 pm
by K_chile22
Just wanted to start a thread to see what everyone has taken away from the first ~10% of the season. Here are some of mine

Positive takeaways:
I actually think the Russ Harden combo is working a lot smoother offensively than I thought, if Harden can get his **** together they'll be incredible.
House looks like a legit starting wing.
McLemore is a pleasant surprise. Looks like a competent rotation wing.
Still have a good offense despite not hitting any threes.

Negatives:
I don't even know what they're trying to do defensively. So many miscues and low effort plays im not sure what the scheme was supposed to be half the time.

Capela seems to have regressed or is just in a rough patch offensively.

Harden can't hit shots and isn't giving an ounce of effort on D.

Eric Gordon. Ugh.

I thought sefalosha would be a good under the radar pickup but he's been bad.

Tyson Chandler is washed and they won't give Clark or Hartenstien a chance

Re: Early season takeaways

Posted: Wed Nov 6, 2019 8:28 am
by styLesdavis
Random guy from Germany here.

What is going on with Hartenstein? He played more than a decent g-league season but can`t seem to get any
minutes with the Rockets. I know - when you are a contender there is not much room left for rookie (or "Young guy")
mistakes. But what is Houstons plan with him when they won`t give him a legit Chance? Trade? Are there any rumors?

Mo Wagner is quite productive (on a bad team...) with the Wizards but isn`t as talented and athletic as
Isaiah....

Re: Early season takeaways

Posted: Thu Nov 7, 2019 3:33 pm
by K_chile22
styLesdavis wrote:Random guy from Germany here.

What is going on with Hartenstein? He played more than a decent g-league season but can`t seem to get any
minutes with the Rockets. I know - when you are a contender there is not much room left for rookie (or "Young guy")
mistakes. But what is Houstons plan with him when they won`t give him a legit Chance? Trade? Are there any rumors?

Mo Wagner is quite productive (on a bad team...) with the Wizards but isn`t as talented and athletic as
Isaiah....
IDK man last season he looked a little overwhelmed but the rockets were always good with him on the floor. Think he had a +4 on/off. Tyson Chandler is awful and I wish Mike would give Hartenstein a chance but he just won't. I'm pretty frustrated with MDA in general atm but the way he quits on young guys is particularly grinding my gears. McLemore is going to mess up on defense like twice and miss a three one game and MDA will never play him again.

Re: Early season takeaways

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:14 am
by ken6199
Ben is an equally streaky shooter as Green but with much less bone headed fouls. Watching Green fouling people left and right for no reason is just painful. Green was on 35% last year, Ben is now up to 34% With opponents doing more desperate doubling on Harden, I expect him to finish the season around 36%, and that would be very solid considering how well Tucker and House are shooting (likely 40% and above to finish the season).

These 3, should be enough to offset Russell "I shoot worse than Corey Brewer" Westbrook.

Re: Early season takeaways

Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 2:30 pm
by inquisitive
Russ sure has the ball slipping out of his hands slot. Just careless turnovers. It's one thing to make a bad pass, but just having the ball slip out of your hands several times a game is bad.

This team has at many times some low iq ball...smh

Re: Early season takeaways

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2019 5:10 pm
by TMU
Watching Westbrook does require some patience and the season will continue with growing pains. It feels terrible losing to bad teams like the Warriors, but still early in the season and I'm willing see how the rest unfolds.

Re: Early season takeaways

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:23 am
by BallerTalk
TMU wrote:Watching Westbrook does require some patience and the season will continue with growing pains. It feels terrible losing to bad teams like the Warriors, but still early in the season and I'm willing see how the rest unfolds.


Wrote this a couple of weeks ago about Westbrook's self-awareness:

BallerTalk wrote:
He clearly knows.
He's done it before, recognizing (and acknowledging) his limitations and playing strictly to his strengths.
It's just that every 4 or 5 games or so he has a crackhead level relapse.

That's why I say "evolution is a process". Old habits die hard.


Nothing has changed.

As far as the team overall, only 4 of the 10 losses have been particularly disappointing to me. All have been this month.
San Antonio,
Sacramento,
Detroit,
and Golden State.

The Detroit game was a textbook schedule loss; second night of a back to back against a team that had been resting for 4 days. Disappointing but understandable.
The Sacramento loss seemed to be a case of playing around with a team they didn't properly respect. The Rockets thought they did just enough to pull it out at the end then Bjelica happened.
Again disappointing.

But the two losses that really stick in my craw are the Spurs and Warriors. Both games showed a disturbing lack of focus from the Rockets that shouldn't be with a veteran laden team, especially one with championship aspirations.
They got befuddled by a godawful call against the Spurs, lost their composure and never fully recovered. Then they failed to show up and compete in a nationally televised game against the Warriors, who they had to know would be highly motivated.

Focus is the most glaring thing I see missing in this Harden/Westbrook iteration of the Rockets as opposed to the Harden/Paul version. Too often they wait until things go sideways to bring the appropriate energy and effort. That has to change.
Opponents won't lack for motivation when facing the Rockets so this team has to learn to match, and maintain, that same energy.
Hopefully a healthy Eric Gordon will be able to help remedy some of the lulls on offense but ultimately defense is going to be the key to developing consistency. They have shown flashes of elite defensive ability but also a routine inability to sustain it.

As for Westbrook, he is what he is. You take the good with the bad.
It's incumbent upon D'Antoni to find a way to minimize the draining impact on the rest of the team during nights when Westbrook reverts. Obviously that's not easy to do when you also have to find a way to maximize the unique advantages he brings to the team. I guess we'll get to see what Mike "The Point Guard Whisperer" D'Antoni is really made of.

Still, even with all that they are just 3 games out of first place.
The opportunity is there.

Stay tuned...