For all the Chicken Little's out there ... our Rockets are not the only preseason West 'contender' struggling right now. With 71 games left in the season, it's WAY too early to write off the season or consider blowing up the roster. A coaching change is obviously needed, and soon, but right now only the incomparable Warriors and Spurs are rolling along in championship form out West: - OKC is 6-5, have lost to these Rockets, and are quickly becoming Bulls West with KD's Rose-like ongoing injury issues http://www.welcometoloudcity.com/2015/11/17/9748160/westbrook-scores-40-thunder-still-lose-to-grizzlies-114-122 - Clips are 6-4, have also lost to these Rockets, and Doc looks to already have issues getting all their bench knuckleheads to produce http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/11/14/9720540/there-are-some-fundamental-issues-with-the-los-angeles-clippers-right - Grizz are 6-6, with an ancient style of play that's not working, and their star PG playing so badly they brought in Mario Chalmers to 'fix' the offense http://www.grizzlybearblues.com/2015/11/17/9748328/mike-conley-is-starting-to-regain-his-all-star-snub-form - Pelicans are 1-9, despite bringing in new ex-Warriors coach Gentry to turn them into a contender, and even The Brow taking some heat for poor play http://www.thebirdwrites.com/2015/11/15/9739296/pelicans-knicks-davis-anthony-carmelo-game-summary Combined with these Rockets, that's 5 of the West's preseason playoff favorites off to a poor start, hovering around .500, with major injury/personnel/coaching issues still to be resolved. My point is that this season is NOT over because, after 11 games, the Rockets have failed to keep pace with GS or SA. Those 2 look every bit the the runaway conference favorites they were projected to be. Otherwise, it's a total crapshoot right now in the West for #3-8 seeds with lots of very talented, but flawed, teams underperforming and still trying to figure things out. The Rockets should make the first coaching change NOW, before others take the best available candidates. Give the new guy until New Year's to fix our problems with current cast, then look to improve the roster talent around the deadline if still not getting consistent effort by then. Any major franchise reconstruction, including changes involving Morey/Harden/Dwight, should be handled in the offseason IF the in-season adjustments to coaching staff and lineup prove ineffective.
Dude Draymond Green is NOT a superstar he can only be the Robin next to a superstar. Would you sign Green for max contract and build a team around him and expect championships? Green does all the dirty work on defensive end, but it is because Curry's presence which literally making the game 3 vs 4 that make everyone else including him look good. I say he is an allstar, but no way we can crown him as the guy
Harden appears to be playing like a guy who wants to go to LA to replace Kobe, bang the Kardashians, and revel in the LA glitterati. Just my theory.
Let me reply to that with an awesome quote from Easy in the "Harden's Game" thread. Translated specifically to your post, s3ts: If McHale has designed a plan to integrate Lawson, and Harden can't find his role in that (which wouldn't even be for each possession), then it's Harden's deficiency and McHale trying to cater to his superstar's strength, because it won a lot of games last year...and that's what Rudy would do. But if it's system ... then ... I think it's system. For whatever reason, we can't run heavy pnr like Lawson/Denver, so we're looking at smaller doses of pnr's with other ways to utilize Lawson ... of course, this is speculation of what's happening in practice, because we're definitely not seeing *any* system on the court.
Personally, I hope we keep getting blown out.. Makes firing the whole coaching staff, not just McFail. They pay no attention to the defensive scheme and ignore Bickerstaff jr at every opportunity.
Beverley should have been starting from day one, but I don't think that is what our issue is here. I have been a defender of McHale, but at this point, the next logical step is a coaching change.
The guys you just named were pg's... They had to have the ball in there hands.. When Harden is on and even last year he would drive and dish.. He would facilitate the offense.. The problem is Bev was the other guard and he couldn't shoot his way out of a paper bag. If Harden could play with out the ball, Lawson could play his game and be the pg he truly is. Call it what you want... Harden needs the ball in his hand and Marcus can play without the ball.. let them both do what they do. T_Man
Its comical to think about the fact that the rockets traded for one of the top PGs who had one of the best assist to turnover ratio's in the league behind the great Chris Paul and now the teams A-T is tied for 24th worst LOL.
Exactly.... Both Harden and Lawson need the ball in their hands to be successful. You cannot change Harden to be an off the ball player... It want work and as you can see Lawson is at his best we he can be Lawson and that's run run run. The best thing to do is put both of these guys in a position to be successful, so if that means putting a back court of Harden and Thornton or Harden and Bev.. Then do it... The great thing is that Thornton can play with Harden or Lawson. T_Man
Pop wasn't successful throughout his entire tenure, he had to build up that type of respect with players. It does help when you are building around someone who is as humble and driven as Timmy.
I'm not interested in blowing up the roster. I'm interested in acquiring a player that's at least better than anybody on the roster not named Harden and Howard and continuing the #Pursuit. 1. A coaching change, although possible helpful for our defense, will not make this mix of players championship contenders. 2. There's still 2 teams, even by your own admission, that we have to become better than. That won't happen with a coaching change. Because you aren't going to find a coach that's appreciably better than Pops or Kerr to get us past those 2 teams by simply outcoaching them. A crapshoot for #3 to #8...yes. But not for #1 and #2. You will have a difficult time finding any flaws in either team besides the age factor in #2. I can see the benefits to, at the very least, adding a defensive assistant coach and possibly replacing Bickerstaff or even McHale. The D can be better. But....even with the D improved, this mix of players won't be good enough to get past the Warriors and Spurs as currently constructed. Improving the D will get us back into the playoff mix, not into the championship contending mix. But...if there is a trade that is available that will give us a 3rd superstar midseason...we should do it.
In a perfect world the coach will start Bev over Lawson with Harden and the rocket will go on a 15-5 run as Lawson runs the second unit. Real world...Lawson pride is hurt and becomes a head case, destroying the team chemistry...Harden wins scoring title by going easy on D to save energy for his offense.
I don't think Lawson or Harden are the problem Lawson is underutilized. Harden, well we all know Harden..his problem is inconsistency and I'm sure he'll get hot. The issue here is how to deal in these situations. And MilkHair has failed. He doesn't know to adjust, he underutilized players, places them at the wrong positions, doesn't push or punish them. As long as MilkHair is coach, I don't see anything changing. We'll always have the same problems.
play thornton next to harden and bring lawson off the bench and see what happens. I still have a ton of faith in what lawson can bring though
See other thread: Kerr's hire showed that it is possible (though rare) to INSTANTLY transform a B-level West contender into a championship team simply by a coaching change Jackson's Warriors played their last game in the 1st round of 2014 as a #6 seed after winning 51 games They did this with a top-5 Def team, but a middle-of-the-pack offense built around ISOball of Curry Last offseason, the only changes they made were at Head Coach and PG (Livingston for Blake) From nowhere, they come out of the gate last year 21-2, instantly establishing a new level of play on OFF & DEF that took them to 67 wins and the title So CLEARLY it is possible, with the right coaching hire, to significantly improve a talented, under-achieving team in much less than a full year with minimal roster changes
