Is Daryl Morey About to Break Up the Rockets?

[air gordon]

CP3 experiment definitely failed especially when you look at core of the traded players who made a lot of noise this year and took the Warriors to 6 games.

CP3's age has definitely played part. On both ends, he is just not the same player anymore.

It was a good risk to take at the time. Harden was gassed the previous playoffs. Ironically it's the beard still carrying the team while cp3 can't stay healthy

And that contact, Shirley, yeesh

[Jeffx]

With the injuries to the Warriors, the western conference is more wide-open now. Rockets picked the wrong time to have all this turmoil;

https://deadspin.com/report-the-rockets ... 1835583363

[Andrew]

Further to that:

Paul went to Rockets management and demanded a trade, and Harden issued a “him or me” edict following the Rockets’ second-round loss to the Golden State Warriors, sources said.

Obviously you go with Harden over CP3 at this point, though it's still not a good look for Harden either. As you said Jeffx, a golden opportunity is passing them by with them falling apart as the West opens up.

[[Q]]

So the Rockets need a new starting PG. I'd love to see Jeremy Lin reunite with D'Antoni!

[Jeffx]

Jimmy Butler with Chris Paul and Harden???? WTF is Morey thinking?????

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/270 ... ade-butler

[Andrew]

Butler would be eligible to sign a four-year, $140 million contract on the way to the Rockets, but Houston likely would need to include two of these players -- center Clint Capela, guard Eric Gordon and power forward P.J. Tucker -- to make the financial deal work, sources said.

Worth the risk from a talent standpoint, but as I said in the free agency topic, it'd be a pretty combustible situation.

[shadowgrin]

Guess the rumors of Chris Paul being a horrible teamamate and a constant locker room politician as mentioned by Rondo and Kenyon Martin respectively do have some truth to it

[air gordon]

seems like the cp3 diva stuff swept under the rug is now resurfacing. no coincidence Rivers was in consideration for COY(!) and Griffin was all NBA after they Paul left?

[NovU]

The problem with the Rockets is that, in a season they finally have a legit shot at getting to the Finals due to Warriors being fucked up, CP3 has shown serious regression in his game and they have little asset to upgrade what they currently have. This means, the Lakers and possibly imperfect Warriors are still the favorite over the Rockets.

As well, they cannot really move away from the Harden's ISO ball game. Mostly because it's stupid, absurd, and idiotic. Spot up 3s are one of the best way to score in this league and guess what. Harden's ISO is more efficient than the spot up 3s which the all good modern era teams promote and employ to their max ability. This mean actual Rockets challenge still remains to be the same, is to find another player that can complement Harden's ISO ball game better than CP3. This is only because you can't go to Harden ISO every possession as it tires Harden out as seen in playoffs despite the Rockets team run the least miles per game due to design of their offense.

99-00 era was 'pound the ball to earth' like ISO heavy era. Harden kinda re-invented it even though all modern era teams went the other way to employ motion ball basketball. As much as some find his game infuriating to watch, remember what he has been doing is something unseen before, skills that nobody else has had to pull off, he's possibly the best iso ball player we've seen. Hence the reason why I always find him interesting despite negative shits people say. Am I the alone here?

[air gordon]

nah. it get overstated how harden missed a lot of shots on some games where he its just another day in the office when he does make shots in wins. but that discussion is stale anyway. no one beat the warriors when they were on top their game. it's a nice tidbit the rockets came the closest but oh well.

CP3 regression is a big hurdle to overcome. just having another rotation player to throw out there would have been big.

too bad the owner/GM morey didn't want to go into the luxury tax territory this past year. surely they would've been able to retain a player like ariza if that was the case