Dash

Martin hasn't really been a surprise for me. I've been saying for years that he could be a monster 3rd option (percentage wise) in the right situation. Eh. His shooting woes are completely due to a lack of confidence and he's done practically everything else on the court just fine. I'd give it more time, hopefully his shot comes around.

Missing every single appointment with the Rockets' therapist because he only wants his therapist IN MINNESOTA, completely throwing the entire organization under the bus REPEATEDLY over Twitter for the past few days, refusing to show up for training camp, skipping out multiple practices, and best of all trying to use his anxiety disorder as an leverage to beg for playing time as if he was entitled to it and then throwing this huge fit when he wasn't going to get it and reassigned to the D-League. Do I have any idea what he's going through with his anxiety disorder? No, but is he making a fool out of himself and throwing his career down the toilet? Absolutely. Its just crazy to me that people are going to be using his disorder as an excuse for his ridiculous behavior, His anxiety disorder has had nothing to do with him throwing his own team under the bus when they have gone through lengths no other team (or very few) would go through to try and appease him, quitting on his Minnesota team via youtube without even a single phone call to the coaches, and literally disappearing from the Rockets and acting like a baby when he couldn't get the playing time he somehow felt entitled to. Even if White was in the right, he's in the wrong field of work and hopefully has the money to go back to college and try something else. I want White to succeed but at what point do we draw the line between his anxiety disorder and this rash and childish behavior? Edit: Good article on White's antics by Woj this morning http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--royce-white-s-battle-with-rockets-over-aniexty-disorder-could-cost-him-nba-career-16011709.html

http://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=8640395&wjb Lol just cut this idiot.

Regardless of whats going on there was no need whatsoever to throw the entire organization under the bus. This could have been handled more privately and professionally, no reason to be going on a Twitter rant.

Great game. I know we blew it in the final minutes but bumps along the road were expected with Harden just in his 7th game as the primary option and this being the youngest team in the league. Harden hero ball came up way short but he also had two excellent setups for 6 points in the final 2 minutes, Asik was aggressive as always on both sides of the floor and had a 19/14 game, tons of ball movement and role players were stepping up and draining a bunch of threes. Lots of reasons to be excited about this team's future. I just hope Lin doesn't take the airball 3 too bad, his confidence needs a serious boost.

Pull an all-nighter for a paper, finish it just in time and try to print it and it jams on me. I get to school 5 minutes late because of it and I get a 0. I have like the worst luck. -_-

Got mine for free but won't be playing it until tomorrow probably.

Lol I liked Martin in his his 3 years in Houston but he doesn't even come close to the offensive player that Westbrook is.

I haven't tuned in regularly since around Raw 100, but caught enough to know whats been going on and I think its safe to say that this Ryback guy is pretty damn over and seems to have Vince's confidence after main eventing HiTC and then most likely Survivor Series (unless Cena vs Ziggler somehow main events for some ridiculous reason). His momentum/character took a pretty big last week with his undefeated streak being thrown out of the window (regardless of the means), but then again he did destroy Punk right after the match. So thoughts on Ryback and his feud with Punk? Do you like that the WWE is finally looking to the future and trying to build another superstar? How big can Ryback be in the company?

Two things that stood out to me the most tonight: 1) His composure, looked extremely comfortable playing heavy minutes and the ball needing to be in his hands almost literally every play in order for much of anything to happen for the Rockets as if he's been doing it his whole career. To me this was more important than any statistic. 2) The 12 assists. This team literally has no other offensive threat/creator besides Jeremy Lin and I can only recall 2 assists from Harden to Lin. The Rockets are loaded average/mediocre offensive players (Omer Asik, Chandler Parsons, Carlos Delfino, etc) and he was getting EVERYONE involved.

Harden!!!

Expected. I'm wary over rewarding Harden the 5 year deal but we can afford it.

Lol. Cramming for anatomy exam = best idea ever -_-

I have had merely 2 hours of sleep since Sunday. On my 3rd straight all-nighter. :/

FYI Houston plans to award Harden with the 5 years $80 million deal reserved for one player per team (OKC used it on Westbrook). Not saying he's going to be on point but it just says a lot about how high the Rockets are on Harden on top of the fact Daryl called him a 'foundation franchise player" last night. His trade value dipped quite a bit too in just one day. The original deal included Chandler Parsons and Houston's 2013 first before Harden rejected OKC's final offer. Not to mention Houston opens up some cap room for next offseason by "dumping" Jeremy Lamb's contract and assuming the Thunder haven't already done so, Houston will likely decline the options for Cole Aldrich and Lazar Hayward so they could be in position to offer a max deal. Too bad the only realistic option right now is Josh Smith but then again Houston is still loaded with assets and can make another move for an all-star type if free agency is a flop.

Power forward is up for grabs, could easily see Terrence Jones ending up a starter by mid-season and Donatas Motiejunas has a ton of potential so you can't really rule him out either. I do love the sound of a lineup consisting of Parsons/Patterson/Asik defensively though.

Get Harden signed to max + maintain flexibility. Daryl has had himself quite the offseason.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2wqzd35.png

Pretty much this. True, he did struggle in the Finals last year but Harden did just turn 23 years old and I know it sounds weak but Daryl has been money this entire offseason.

Eh I think our perimeter defense as a whole is fine but none of our point guards can defend crap. Asik and Parons are both terrific help defenders though and can help mask it.

Anyone think Houston has an outside shot of grabbing the 8th seed this year (although likely falling short once again)? Before this deal I was thinking maybe 25-30 wins with our defense (primarily Asik and Parsons) keeping us in games, but ultimately dropping them due the lack of a consistent scorer/closer. Not saying Harden is going to be this team's savior or anything, he isn't battle tested as "the man" in the NBA but I'm thinking 35-40 wins is very realistic.

^_^

FYI the Toronto pick is nonlottery protected (as in OKC doesn't get the pick if the Raptors make the playoffs) + top 5 protected this season (the latter protected dips by 1 next season IIRC and then its top 3 protected in 2015).