The rocket team's path, there are still people walking
The Houston Rockets are on the road to rebuilding, and the story of Harden and D'Antoni on this team is enough to talk about, but in the end they failed. Harden is gone, D'Antoni is no longer the head coach, and the Rockets have become the league's penultimate team. Everything seems to tell everyone that this is a path that cannot see the light. However, there is one team that resolutely embarked on this path, that is, the Dallas Lone Rangers.
Not only did they go down the path of the Houston Rockets, but they also had a player similar to James Harden, and that was Luka Doncic. From the moment they entered the league, people constantly compared Harden with Doncic, and both had the same magic ball play, both of them were big ball holders, and both had the ability to guarantee the playoffs, but in the playoffs, they were not far away.
Doncic and Harden, the same talent
Doncic is great because the moment he entered the league, he had all the skills of James Harden, yes, all of them. Whether it's making free throws, or retreating three-pointers, or throwing shots between the marches, large-scale transfer balls, Harden has it, Doncic has it. It took seven or eight years for a genius like James Harden to hone so many techniques that adapt to the rules of the NBA, and Doncic just came out and learned them all, which is where his talent is terrible.
In the second season of his career, Doncic averaged 28.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game, and played only 33.6 minutes, which also made him the strongest second-year student in history. Yes, not active duty, but history, including james Jordan, Duncan magicians and other superstars.
With a languid temperament and a good use of rules, people are always able to associate Doncic with Harden. But everyone knows that Doncic has a higher ceiling than Harden, and although Harden was already the league's top superstar at his peak, Doncic, more than that.
Why? Because in the playoffs, Doncic can be said to be more and more courageous, and his personal performance has improved by another level compared to the regular season, and as for James Harden, it is completely down a step. Harden had the highest efficiency in the playoffs, but at 27.5, the same efficiency as Doncic in last season's playoffs. Doncic is still in an upward spiral, so it's clear that Doncic has a higher probability than Harden.
Lone Ranger and Rocket, the same choice
Over the past two years, Doncic has played an unparalleled performance in the playoffs, but in the end it was all first-round outs, and the opponents were all los Angeles Clippers. Most importantly, Doncic's performance in the playoffs in these two years has been impeccable. In the first year, he averaged 31.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game, and everyone felt that this must be the limit. But who would have thought that the second year of the playoffs trip, Doncic's statistics were 35.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 10.3 assists, which is already an incredible degree.
The Dallas Mavericks understood that Porzingis, as the second in command of the team, could not help Doncic to the next level, so all they could do was send Porzingis away. What he didn't expect was that the Lone Ranger only exchanged Porzingis for Dinwiddie and Bertans. You know, this season's Dinwiddie, averaging only 12.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, shooting 37.6% from the field and 31.0% from three-point range, Bertáns has become a cold ice shooter, shooting as low as 31.9% from three-point range.
As for Porzingis, no matter what, he is also a center who can level 20+10! However, after Porzingis left, Doncic continued to contribute high-scoring performances, which seemed to make us understand the role of the lone man's deal. No matter how inaccurate Bertans is, he is also a shooter and can open up space. Dinwiddie has the ability to organize and hold the ball and share the pressure for Doncic. One core, swap two role players, and then give the ball all to Doncic.
The Lone Ranger used the deal to tell Doncic that you are the core of the team, and the only core. Just like the Rockets did to Harden in those years, Howard can't do it, just change Paul, Paul can't do it, just change Wei Shao, no matter how the second boss changes, you are the only core of the team.
Doncic and the Lone Ranger, even luckier
One reason why the Houston Rockets failed was that the Rockets' defensive assistant coach, Coach Bu, left, and the team lost its defensiveness, so it lost its competitiveness in the playoffs. As for the second reason, the Golden State Warriors are the only team in the league, and any team born at that time is unfortunate. So relatively speaking, Doncic and the Lone Ranger are lucky, they have a defensive head coach like Kidd, and there is no team in the league that can match the Golden State Warriors of that year.
But even so, doncic and the Lone Ranger want to win the championship, it is more difficult. The reason is simple, although this lone ranger under Kidd's coaching, played the league's top defense, the average points per game in the league second, defensive effectiveness league fifth, but on the offensive end, their average points per game league sixth, offensive efficiency is only ranked 16th in the league. Although the defense wins the championship, it does not work without offense. However, the Lone Ranger's goal this season, just to break through the first round, is still promising.