2016 Houston Rockets Pre-Season Thread - Preseason Finale vs Spurs

^That's pretty much my stance on trade talk.

Lil revisionist history but I was saying in the Clippers series last year this nucleus wasn't good enough even though we won that series. The Warriors proved that in the way they dismissed us in 5.

Last year was probably the high end of this particular team and this season is the low end of it.

Disagree about the nucleus not being good. This nucleus played too 5 defense last year. But somehow, these same guys are playing bottom 5 defense. They're mentally in shambles. Maybe a trade and a streak would change that. I don't know.
 
I'm not saying it's not good rather than its not good enough. If this team aspired to be a champion this year or last we shouldn't have been wiped off the court in various games against the Clippers & Warriors like we were.

Plus you can't say the surrounding parts are good when every time Harden goes to the bench the offense falls apart.
 
Def can't argue with that latter part about Harden going to the bench and the offense getting flushed down the toilet. Damn shame he has to stay on the court 38+ minutes every night
 
What are we gonna do with a 1st round DET pick? They have the same record as us and are .5 out of the EC playoff race
 
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Originally Posted by EarldaGoat View Post

Chad Evans @TheNBABreak

Source close to Dwight Howard said he was hurt Orlando has no interest in bringing him back. Thought time should have healed wounds.
12:58 PM - 18 Feb 2016

:smh: Come on Dwight...
 
Yea I already knew that. If it was true, it wouldn't have taken 2 years to come out. The lengths people go through for stories is :lol:
 
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Scratch Al off that list. I don't want that no defense-having, no rebounds, slow, fat *** dude here. But if that's true, I'm cool with that, as long as we can still put the proper collective team around which ever two players they decide to go after.

Still don't want this season to be a total waste though. With Thornton and DMo gone, this really should be the time Harrell and KJ start to see significant minutes.
 
This is probably the most intriguing and confused ive been as a Rockets fan in awhile. I really thought dudes were gonna take that step this year :lol:. meanwhile we looking into the future :smh: :x
 
That's exactly how I feel. And to make things more interesting, the Jazz lost and we're back in the 8th spot :rofl: :rofl:
 
I guess after all the smoke clears, we can finally put to rest that whole "no one wanted Dwight" narrative that most people without a brain ran with

Rockets sought frontline player, first-rounder for Dwight Howard

The Houston Rockets didn't end up dealing Dwight Howard before Thursday's NBA trade deadline, but they did have some opportunities.

League sources told ESPN.com that the Rockets engaged in trade talks with numerous teams once they began aggressively shopping Howard right before the start of the All-Star break.

Sources said that the Rockets talked about potential Howard deals in recent days with a list of teams including Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Miami and, most recently, Milwaukee. Sources say Houston, however, told several teams that it wasn't prepared to trade Howard without receiving at least one frontline player and a future first-round draft pick in return

The Rockets took a similar approach with young power forward Donatas Motiejunas and managed to extricate a first-round pick from the Detroit Pistons for Motiejunas in the one trade they did complete on deadline day.

But interested teams were unwilling to pay such a premium for Howard, at least in part because Howard, who turned 30 in December, can become a free agent July 1.

"Many teams called expressing great interest in trading for Dwight," Howard's agent, Dan Fegan, told ESPN.com on Thursday night. "The obvious stumbling block to a trade was how could a team justify giving up important assets for a player who was about to become a free agent in a few short months?

"Not surprisingly, as the deadline approached, several teams called stating they had worked out the trade parameters with Houston for a Dwight deal but were not prepared to give up their assets unless Dwight agreed to opt into the last year of his contract and forego free agency. Dwight declined."

Howard, who reiterated he had never made any trade demands, said Thursday he was moving forward and would focus on helping the Rockets get into the playoffs.

"It doesn't matter. I know who I am," Howard said. "I know what I have done in my career; no need to focus on anything negative. I have a great life, blessed beyond measure. Doesn't matter. People can talk as much as they want, but I know how hard I've worked to get to where I am today, and I'm grateful for that."

Fegan refused to discuss specific teams that made pitches for Howard, but sources told ESPN.com that the Bucks were one of those teams.

The Bucks and Rockets did exchange some trade proposals, sources said, but Milwaukee made it clear that it wouldn't go through with any deal for Howard unless he opted into the final season of his contract, which is scheduled to pay him $23.3 million in 2016-17.

Howard earns $22.3 million this season in the third year of his four-year, $88 million contract with the Rockets and has made it clear he intends to bypass Year 4 to return to the open market.

"It was going to have to take something significant to make us look at anything and even then we probably wouldn't have [traded Howard]," Morey told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday night.

"Part of my job is I have to explore everything."

In reference to recent reports of growing friction between Howard and James Harden, Morey told the Chronicle: "We believe in James and Dwight together."

Expounding more on the Harden/Howard tandem in an interview with The Vertical website, Morey said: "This is a group that we would be very reluctant to split up. Obviously there was a lot of interest in [Howard] -- I think there was a lot of noise about that -- but that [duo] was something we were going to be very reluctant to break up. As part of my job I do have to listen to everything, but nothing got close and we weren't going to split that up unless it was something significant."

Howard has averaged 14.6 points, 12.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 44 games this season after injuries limited him to 41 games in 2014-15.

Based on that, looks like if people wanted Dwight, they'd have to pay up for him. And losers in the NBA had the nerve to throw out a Spencer Hawes & Al Jefferson for Dwight scenario.
 
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That's exactly how I feel. And to make things more interesting, the Jazz lost and we're back in the 8th spot :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: man this is all around weird. Then Dmo which is the one dude on the squad whos game everyone really loves is gone smh.

Team went from the highest point end of last season to start of this to the lowest it could possibly hit currently.Nobody saw this coming :lol:
 
I think yesterday's moves prove the Rockets have realized they won't win a title this year. I'm actually fine with that because you gotta start planning now to take down a GSW team that looks to be championship contenders for the next 3-5 years.

Harrison Barnes would fit very well with this Rockets team but GSW won't be foolish enough to let him walk. Dwight wants a max deal, IMO no way HOU should pay him. You gotta rebuild this minus Dwight in this new small ball league.
 
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