Is Dwight Howard a cancer?

[K_chile22]

I didn't say the system isn't bad, because it is, it isn't an outright problem though. And your overrating how bad his defense is. He's been good since the all star break for the most part. Many other players and some superstars have a deeper negative impact on their teams defense. His defensive bpm is a -0.4 which isn't all that bad. For example I think Lillard, Derozen, Hood, IT all have one a bit over -2 for context . We defend about 1 point per 100 possessions worse with Harden on the court which also isn't bad compared to how much better offensively we are, all those guys have a more negative impact than he does. The beginning of the season he was dreadful on D because he was out of shape but he really isn't anymore. Not sure you've watched in awhile


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[K_chile22]

And oh I knew Thornton was bad. I'm not a 'casual fan' as you say. You can't just watch a pop video and pretend like you know more than everyone else because of it. Cause and effect. Harden ISOing so much is the effect of the lack of a system not the cause of it.

Also did you just wake up from a coma staring before last season? Because this same style of play worked VERY well last year. Best we've been since 95 but whatever. Role players just got considerably worse and harden started like trash


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[K_chile22]

Klay HS also been not good on D this year, but neither has Ariza, but it's not like Ariza is a top 5 shooter in the league. Ariza always has been an offensive liability unless he's standing in the corner shooting threes so now that he's missing almost every open look this month he has 0 offensive value. If you want Ariza getting the ball and moving it side to side I am 100% sure you do not watch Ariza enough


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[Mr. E]

Also did you just wake up from a coma staring before last season? Because this same style of play worked VERY well last year. Best we've been since 95 but whatever. Role players just got considerably worse and harden started like trash

The problem is that other teams with solid coaching and scouting staffs managed to figure out what made the Rockets successful and how best to counter them. When Harden & the role players are all on then the Rockets can beat anyone. When Harden is on fire and gets mild support from the cast they can still be successful, but it becomes more difficult.

Other teams are using the Rockets strengths against them and they are really exploiting their weaknesses.

[JHard13]

Also hilarious that you're talking about the rocked offense being broken when they are 8th best in the NBA despite everyone having a bad shooting season from three


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Did you even watch the Pop video? Houston has a broken system. It's fools gold, much like Marcus Thornton. It's flashy enough to convince the casual and the ignorant fans that we can play. What's that 8th best offense getting you this season? Fighting to even get into the playoffs.

I bet you're just going to whine about Ariza being the scapegoat for the defense too and if Klay Thompson was here he could pick up the slack. The team attitude is toxic. It's led by selfish players and selfish players don't play defense. What good is Harden having a 35% usage rate with a 28% ISO play call when he's too tired to play defense? Which guy are you going to get in the league that can make up for 4 on 5 defensive plays?

you're mad about the cavs loss arent you

[quatin]

I didn't say the system isn't bad, because it is, it isn't an outright problem though. And your overrating how bad his defense is. He's been good since the all star break for the most part. Many other players and some superstars have a deeper negative impact on their teams defense. His defensive bpm is a -0.4 which isn't all that bad. For example I think Lillard, Derozen, Hood, IT all have one a bit over -2 for context . We defend about 1 point per 100 possessions worse with Harden on the court which also isn't bad compared to how much better offensively we are, all those guys have a more negative impact than he does. The beginning of the season he was dreadful on D because he was out of shape but he really isn't anymore. Not sure you've watched in awhile

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What's an outright problem then? The entire rest of the team? Must be just bad luck that otherwise good defensive players come to the Rockets and end up slacking off. Harden's DRPM is 295th in the league and an overall negative. Let's not pretend he has played "good" defense despite attempting to play defense at all since the beginning of the year. He himself has said and I quote “Playing those amount of minutes your going to have some lapses, some mistakes. I try not to worry about them. I try to give my all on both ends of the floor and I live with the results.” Essentially admitting to not playing defense and still allowing uncontested layups like this: (after the all star break, played 43 minutes in that game versus Toronto)

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2622501-james-harden-plays-horrible-defense-watches-as-demar-derozan-drives-by

The culture and the locker room attitude defines how a team plays. So far you've just been ranking players on individual performance. Basketball isn't 1 on 1 with 8 other guys on the court. Both offense and defense requires a team effort. Harden goes 1 on 1 for offense and expects team defense to make up for him slacking off. If you've watched any of the games instead of just looking at statistics, you'll notice we're a total failure on help defense. Ariza who's actually a good individual defender looks lost out there like he's the only person playing zone and everyone else is on man. Howard often doesn't contest the drive man, because he's gotten burned every time when no one rotates on the low block. I pick on these two, because they are experienced veteran defenders. They're capable of playing defense and know the basic concepts of zone defense. The fact that they are failing at it shows the problem is on the team end and not on individual players.

[quatin]

you're mad about the cavs loss arent you

Get out of here troll. Jeremy Lin isn't even on the team anymore, shouldn't you be trolling the Hornets forum?

[quatin]

And oh I knew Thornton was bad. I'm not a 'casual fan' as you say. You can't just watch a pop video and pretend like you know more than everyone else because of it. Cause and effect. Harden ISOing so much is the effect of the lack of a system not the cause of it.

Also did you just wake up from a coma staring before last season? Because this same style of play worked VERY well last year. Best we've been since 95 but whatever. Role players just got considerably worse and harden started like trash


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Seems like you haven't even watched the Pop video and are already knee jerk arguing against it. His primary points was attitude and a solid foundation of culture leads to players who can be coached. Selfish players weed themselves out. Like he says "You play defense or you don't play. Everyone gets the same treatment from the rookie to Timmy." What are you arguing against? That the Rockets have all of these characteristics and it's just Trevor Ariza mucking it all up?

[zapatasblood]

This team is not better without Dwight, well at least this year. He is clearly a shell of his former self but not a cancer. Laker and magic situation is Completely different and nothing about being a bad teammate or bad in the locker. Yes the rockets should move away from Howard but only because his play and age.


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[zapatasblood]

This team is what it is for whatever reason. Maybe they bought into their own hype or just maybe not that good outside haren. I mainly think it is because they lack a true leader.


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[rockets22]

Dwights body language and play is just disturbing right now. I've seen him arguing on the court with Bev, Ariza, Dmo and even the mild manners Lawson this season in-front of the world to see. Scratch that, it was a loud shouting match. His teammates are fed up with him it seems.

[DusterBuster]

As a complete outside, I find the Rockets situation kinda fascinating. Promise not here to troll, just discuss. Outside of the coaching change, this team is largely unchanged from last year when they went to the WCF and they haven't had any real serious injuries of which to speak. So I find it strange to see how much the Rockets have sucked this year.

The things I see really troubling from this team start and probably with chemistry and that goes far beyond just Howard imo. Howard certainly is no help I'm sure given his track record. That said, it's a combo of a lot of things. There's no leader anywhere on that team. Harden is wildly selfish and playing a style of basketball in the NBA that frankly has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Granted, he's so talented that even playing an outdated style of 'hero' basketball, he can win a team a handful of games. That said, you can't really rely on just one guy to carry you anymore in the NBA if you want to be elite.

Not only that, it creates massive resentment and dissension within the ranks. NBA players aren't stupid. They see these teams that consistently share the ball, teams like the Warriors, Spurs, Celtics, Blazers (not trying to be a homer, just a fact of how Portland plays) and a host of others who play a free wheeling offensive style where all 5 guys are actively involved in offense, and they get frustrated that they're stuck on a team where their main job is to play defense and just stand around and watch on offense.

The Rockets are just in a rough spot. Harden isn't exactly an easy player to build around, yet he's too talented not to try or to trade. At this point it's a fact Howard is a terrible fit next to Harden. They'd be best off honestly just letting him walk for nothing and doing a mini-rebuild/retool this summer. If Morey wasn't as egotistical and unrealistic with his players trade value, he would have realized he should have gotten SOMETHING for Howard at the trade deadline, but alas, he did his typical Morey thing and asked for the moon plus a few starts in the process. What's done is done with that. At this point, letting Howard leave is addition by subtraction for the Rockets. Retool by surrounding Harden with athletic guys who hopefully have a bit of an outside shot. Harden can keep playing his game of wildly driving to the hole every time down the floor and if the other guys have a halfway decent 3pt shot, they can at least space the floor so you don't have the "traditional" bigman like Howard clogging the lane on offense.

I honestly could see the Rockets ending next season with a better record than this year if they let Howard walk, dump some vets and get some hidden gem kinda guys who'd normally go under the radar. That is if Morey can get out of his own way and stop star-chasing (which I'm not convinced he can).

Oh yeah, and get a real coach. Bickerstaff sucks. He's never been a good coach at any point of his career. He's one of those guys who constantly is able to keep a job, but the second he has a head coaching job, the team and fans are desperate for a real coach.

[cw3k]

how is Harden selfish, Harden is basically a european player with his style of play.. howard on the other hand is a chemistry killer every where he has gone

by the way stay on your own board, and stop trolling james harden... ( trust me he has enough haters)

Harden is a European player just because you saw an eurostep? James Harden ranks 6th among TEAMS in ISO plays. That's leading selfish play in the league. I don't even see how you can argue this if you watch Rocket games. Banned from Clutchfans and trolling here? What is this?

Michael Jordan the greatest to ever do it was an iso player.. Kobe was an iso player... Harden just happens to be an iso player... Harden averages over 7.4 assists a game,.... like i said stay on your own board, you know nothing about harden's game

Assist is over rated, especially for Harden. Most of the time he passed the ball with less than 3 seconds left because he cannot launch the ball. Whoever receive the ball has no choice but to launch it, if he made it, Harden get an assist. If he miss, ohh well, Harden has nothing to do with it.

If you approved Harden's play style and think it is best for the Rockets organization, then I wish the Rockets good luck. If you like team basketball (aka ball movement) that GSW and Spurs employed, then Harden probably should be traded instead of Howard.

[rockets22]

Harden is a European player just because you saw an eurostep? James Harden ranks 6th among TEAMS in ISO plays. That's leading selfish play in the league. I don't even see how you can argue this if you watch Rocket games. Banned from Clutchfans and trolling here? What is this?

Michael Jordan the greatest to ever do it was an iso player.. Kobe was an iso player... Harden just happens to be an iso player... Harden averages over 7.4 assists a game,.... like i said stay on your own board, you know nothing about harden's game

Assist is over rated, especially for Harden. Most of the time he passed the ball with less than 3 seconds left because he cannot launch the ball. Whoever receive the ball has no choice but to launch it, if he made it, Harden get an assist. If he miss, ohh well, Harden has nothing to do with it.

If you approved Harden's play style and think it is best for the Rockets organization, then I wish the Rockets good luck. If you like team basketball (aka ball movement) that GSW and Spurs employed, then Harden probably should be traded instead of Howard.

Oh pls. You sound like one of those petty bitter lin fans. Have you actually watched any games ROCKETS GAMES this season besides lin's games? you clearly have not. Every time the Rockets look good is when they run and attack. When Howard is in the game our offense slows down to a crawl. The post ups for Howard are killing this team. Every time we force feed him our offense goes to hell. Go watch the okc game again.It is no coincidence we were better without him last season and majority of the time this season when Harden and others carry the team instead of Dwight fruitless post ups.

Get over you're hate for Harden and start being objective. I know you lin fans hate harden but pls try to be objective!

[Nebula1]

It sure looks like Howard is done in Houston. I wouldn't be shocked to see him land in Dallas.