A Second Round Exit is not improvement. With half ass competent coaching they should have been that this year If McHale had stayed the whole year I think we would have been that . . . Rocket River
This hire will either be REALLY good or REALLY bad. It's gonna depend a lot on what their roster will be next season in terms of fit. If they can sign players like Kent Bazemore, Ryan Anderson, Luol Deng, etc, than this team will improve dramatically while not suffering that much on defense to a point where they become a lottery team. I think some people here might be pleasantly surprised by this hire if things go well in the offseason. What Dantoni can do is bring out the best in players if they buy and fit into his system. Harden especially could improve even more as a player if Dantoni gives him the Steve Nash treatment.
LMAO. Mchale used to overplay Brewer and stick with things that weren't working as well. He also used to sub out guys who were on fire all the time sticking to his game plan. They were pretty much the same. JB atleast didn't do that silly 3 2 zone against 3 point shooters. But Mchale was getting better at substitutions. I see them as a wash and I think our record would have been a couple of games better with Mchale. Not sure we would get out of the 1st round.
A Championship team has to be "multiple" as they say in football. The goal is not scoring, but creating a margin between you and the opponent, so a team who is above average at both offense and defense will be better than a team who is excellent on offense but sucks at defense. Every game presents a new challenge for a team and the more defensive/offensive weapons at your disposal, the more likely victory would be the final outcome.
People were excited about Ty Lawson signing last year and it backfired. Let's just judge when we have 10 games into the season please?
Three of the starters and several bench players are plus defenders (or were when McHale was coaching). Of course the team has the potential to be strong defensively. The issue is defensive emphasis from the coaching staff and buy in from the players, especially Harden. Of all the coaches and potential coaches, the one least associated with defensive emphasis is D'Antoni, who has never coached even a decent defensive team. Harden's defensive issues are fresh in the minds of most if not all Rockets fans. So, expecting a top 10 defensive team next year with this pairing seems overly optimistic.
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The truth is not 100% negative. It does not make any logical sense that there can't be any positive sides of this hire that can be discussed in a reasonable way. Even people like myself who don't like this move that much are stuck defending MDA for *****s sake. The drama is over the top, take a glance at the board.
As OKC is proving, not having a top ten defense in the regular means very little when you have the personnel to switch on everything in the playoffs to use your length. Defense is important, but the lack of scoring by 3 very defensive minded teams in SAS, ATL, and TOR led to their exits. The fact remains, we aren't inherently bad at defense as last year was an outlier. We don't know how much defense was talked and stipulated on with this hiring by the front office. We do know the front office wants to hire a defensive minded assistant(s). We currently have some combination of length, athleticism, and versatility in KJ, Ariza, Harrell, and Capela that is built for defensive switching. Lastly, it is just simpler to be top 5 offensively and be merely 12th or 14th defensively with Harden than vice versa.
This just proves that there are some here who have moved on to the "let's roll with this" stage of acceptance, while others are still at the "we're ****ed" stage.
This. Messina was the ultimate choice in my opinion. However, if you are going to try and be top 5 on one end, make it the end that suits your strengths. Ultimately, you have to play defense in the playoffs to win it while simultaneously the playoffs is increasingly matchup driven in the modern NBA.
This. It's like having to defend Harden all season. Yeah he had some missteps but he wasn't all bad like the drama would suggest. Which forced someone like me who usually didn't get involved in the "I hate Harden drama" to defend him.
Nice article. Like the point about Harden (or any best player) being more integral to a good defense than the coach. It's true. Pop has made his career out of Duncan's good habits/influence cascading down to his teams. I think this hire could make Morey more effective, by having him focus in on a specific type of player to either fit the style of the coach or compensate for his weaknesses. I'm against the hire, but looking for positives and don't think it'll be a disaster like everyone assumes.
