No good coach is gonna take over the reigns during the season. If the Rockets fire D'Antoni, they'll have to ride the season out with one of the assistants and then hire a new coaching staff next summer. Essentially they'll be punting on this year. I still think D'Antoni needs to go because there's no way the team should be playing THIS badly. But make no mistake, if he's fired, the Rockets are pretty much conceding this season ends either with us in the lottery(BTW, did we give up our 2020 draft pick in the CP3 deal?) or an easy first round knockout.
Not that this will happen but instead of then waiting to lose both after not working for a few years.... they could trade Harden. That’d be insane of course but you aren’t getting any value for Westbrook... yet a MDA led Westbrook PG offense where he doesn’t have to shoot threes kid work just as good as this offense at this point. Just saying
If they trade Harden, they're basically blowing up this roster and starting over. Westbrook would be next as would Clint. I think EG can't be dealt til next season, but he'd be out the door the moment they could unload that contract. I'm actually not opposed to that if Morey and Tilman conclude this roster and coaching staff ain't gonna compete for anything. Why waste the next 3-4 years when you could be stockpiling picks and clearing cap space? Pull a Crane/Luhnow and do a total rebuild.
- for one, it won't happen - for two, i've been near the top of the Harden won't win a ring here and let's think about trading him bandwagon since the Spurs meltdown, and they came close to proving me wrong once. with the EXACT right pieces around him, it's possible, but they are FAR FAR away from that but... I think it's possible to trade him, and keep the window open. How open? I don't know, but by the trade deadline you'll have a good idea of how open it is at the moment anyway. given the lack of rescue options (return Bzdelik, eliminate worst defensive culprits, add good defensive players, assets to trade like draft picks), i suspect it won't be looking that good. It kind of depends on how desperate some teams get. Very very hard to imagine Toronto moving Pascal for him, or Boston moving Tatum+. I was secretly hoping the Kings would continue to suck, and maybe you could snag Hield (not sure when he's tradeable though) and Bagley for him - you never know with Vlade. Once the Suns start sucking again, would they ever look to move Booker for example? Cause I'd do Booker, Kaminsky and Baynes for Harden and House just as an example. Or you go the rebuild path and try and trade it all... But I know most will say I'm crazy, you don't trade a 36+ ppg scorer, recent MVP winner, yada, yada. Same stuff I've heard for years while I continued to parrot that Harden can't get it done as THE LEADER on a championship squad (absent absolutely PERFECTION around him) because he only focuses on one side of the ball and leads by pointing fingers instead of by example.
I'm not sure I agree. Although I'm not a hockey fan, look what a good coach with a vision did for the STL Blues https://deadspin.com/the-st-louis-blues-have-received-a-miracle-in-the-form-1832763703 I think if we hired the right coach and then made a few roster moves, this season could be great. I just don't think current coaches can get the squeeze we need to make the winning juice this team is capable of.
Time to rebuild. Issue is we have a GM who doesn’t value future picks and a coach who doesn’t develop young talent.
incorrect. If we were to tank right now we have all of our picks for the next 3 years: Edit: not to mention all picks we traded are top 3 protected
Amare was a 4 playing 5 while Matrix was a 3 playing 4 spot. This allowed Suns to run other teams into the ground. When D'Antoni finally caved and added a traditional 5, Shaq no less, the Suns became mediocre and fell out of playoffs.
The problem with firing MDA now is, who would be ready to take on the job now? Do we have a guy ready?
I totally agree. Suns were winning the regular season and a bust in the Playoffs. What is your point? D’Antoni started out with the Rockets with conventional Wing (Ariza/Luc MaM) but has since reverted back to the comfort zone where he succeeded best. Small lineup: Nash/Westbrook....Marbury/Gordon.....Jim Jackson/Harden (both 6’5”)....Matrix/Tucker (6’7” & 6’6”) A’Mare/Capela You are making my point. Morey wasn’t with the Suns; but I say Morey is appeasing D’Antoni who is begging for the model he used in Phoenix to be successful. I see this as Morey’s “show it works or be out on your Derrière D’Antoni” year. Morey cuts bait while at the same time train D House in time for the P.O.’s and seek additional wing by trade deadline. Consider that a safety net of Morey protecting Morey......saying I gave D’Antoni what he asked for, but I don’t really trust that BS will work. Giving D’Antoni enough rope to hang himself while having a contingency plan of House and another Wing (trade) up his sleeve when “Small-lineup” goes bust. Saving D’Antoni from himself.....but D’Antoni has to play them. Yes, Shaq was then forced on D’Antoni which destroyed his pace and space 7 seconds or less. I’m saying back in the 90’s you had big lumbering dinosaurs at PF and Center that the PG’s and SG’s could out quick and run off the court. Nowadays teams load up on SF’s and counter the lineup of PG’s & SG’s. Quite often the SF’s run the court even faster than the PG’s & SG’s. They definitely block out better and rebound and block shots better than PG’s & SG’s. One can not expect PG’s/ SG’s to do the dirty work of the SF’s/ PF’s. It just a mistake. I still think the Rockets can win 57 games and finish the 2nd seed.....but I don’t see much success vs teams with Wings. Proper size Wings. Bzdelik had our defense looking top 5 from All-Star break to end of regular season with smoke and mirrors......but when the playoffs come, you are facing well rounded teams with fewer weakness’s that you can’t hide your flaws. Warriors exposed them this past P.O.’s. Bzdelik didn’t have enough duct tape, gum, spit, smoke and mirrors in the playoffs to cover the undersized lineups we were throwing out there. I was hoping to leave Dray and Iggy openVon the 3-point line and clog the paint. They saw our weakness of pathetic rim protection and exploited it by sending Dray to the rim with Iggy diving to the rim simultaneously. I tip my hat to them. Great call. You can’t counter that except get bigger and stronger. You can’t teach taller and Rivers/GG will always be weaker than SF’s and PF’s. So don’t ask them to switch or risk getting busted at the rim. When you only have One rim protector and Houston switches everything, then it’s easy to get Capela stuck out on the perimeter......rim open for lay up drill. We see it time and time again, with these small lineups.
Hello I got ripped when I was saying that after the win the other night.. WE HAVE NO DEFENSE NONE very sad
I find it funny that D’Antoni rips the team for being soft when it is D’Antoni who formed (same model in Phoenix) this soft team. Teams don’t respect our rim protecting defense. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...as-soft-after-loss-to-jimmy-butler-miami-heat Asking Chihuahua’s to be Pit Bulls......when in reality they are just Chihuahuas Get me some Dobermans
Matt Brase seems like a good candidate to fill in for MDA down the line. There are plenty of other great young guys who could come in and take over the helm. I'm just hoping whenever the time does come it's not a retread type coach. I'm ready for a young guy to build with.
