Agreed . I understand why MDA is playing JJ over green ... I just don't like it that much . I think green has earned it THIS YEAR and that's important . In terms of giving guys games off , I was talking about down the stretch of the reg season. Def not in the playoffs . I think he also plays 10 , but I could see 9 . I think he man out would be JJ If Our 3 guards , Ryan , trev , Luc , and PJ are all playing well ... And Clint and nene are killing it ... Then I can see him sticking with those 9 . Because James and Chris' mins will be in the mid to upper 30's in the playoffs unless we are blowing them out or they are blowing us out . And Eric will probably break 30 as well if he's playing up to his potential . That doesn't leave much room for JJ if our other 4 forwards are playing well . 3 of them bring a lot on D . And if Ryan's shot is falling he's also very valuable . I can see 9 men in the playoffs ... And I'm cool with that , especially if we are winning and we put in the rest when the game has been decided .
I think it's all going to be about match-ups once you get beyond Capela-Harden-Paul-Gordon... everyone else is going to be 1) who's hot and who's not and 2) defensive assignments... You may see Green play all 4 games in the first round then nada when we sweep the Warriors in the WCF.
My guess is D’Antoni wants to see exactly what JJ can offer consistently, and already knows what Green does. If JJ can hit the open shot regularly, I won’t be complaining
The problem with a longer rotation is that minutes for each 5-man unit gets really fragmented and players don't have time to establish rhythm and chemistry. Let's say D'Antoni should add Gerald Green to the rotation while still playing the 9 guys who played tonight. How many minutes should he play? Which player(s) should lose these minutes to Green while still retaining some minutes for themselves?
The more I think about it and the more I see the more I think we're going to play 11 players in the playoffs and possibly a 12th situationally (Green) insurance in case of injury or foul trouble. JJ looks like a lock. I think Wright makes the playoff rotation too. With Nene makes 11. My prediction is MDA plays 10 guys a night with Wright and Nene alternating according to matchups or splitting minutes so Nene is never playing tired. Tonight made me realize that if we're healthy going into the playoffs we really have the luxury of not wearing out our players except when totally necessary. We have 7 guys that can give you 20 on a good night. We have 7 defensive specialists. I can't remember any team ever being so deep that the 12th man is Gerald Green while he's averaging somewhere around 14 ppg in very sporadic minutes. I'm used to our 12th man being a Charles Jones, who is only really good at giving you 6 fouls. The depth that came out of summer and pre/post-deadline moves is astonishing.
Only Harden and Paul will be called upon to play a lot of minutes I think and the difference between this year and last year is they have each other to lean on. And Gordon too. I think we could have a real advantage by keeping our rotation players fresh from reduced minutes/game if MDA really is playing JJ and Wright. He seems serious about both of them and he doesn't seem to have totally abandoned Green yet. I expect he will play more players than he's saying lately. I think it's a process to get him to think that differently than in the past but players are proving it's a good idea and he has the roster to do it.
Ryno must absolutely get some minutes. Dude is totally capable of making 5 3-pointers in the 4th quarter and putting the game away. I think you can almost count the above to happen at least in one playoff game of each series.
Green is just a bench player on our team. We are trying to find out what we have with JJ before the playoffs arrive and build chemistry between him and Harden/CP3. Both of us like Green and what he has brought to the team, but at the end of the day winning in the playoffs matter a lot more than Green getting minutes that you feel he "deserves". Besides, he doesn't "deserve" minutes. He did deserve a contract that allows him to play minutes rather than sit at home and he got that from us this season. With his performance on our team, he is bound to get another vet min contract with us or another team next season as well.
He can still do some stuff. The difference now is that when Anderson just can't match up against a particular opponent lineup or struggles with his shooting or overall play, the team has the option to sit him down for a long stretch. Maybe even the whole game.
I'm counting Mbah a Moute, Tucker, Paul, Ariza, Capela, Nene, and Gordon. I'm not even counting Harden's incredibly much improved defense and I'm definitely not counting Anderson though he is playing better D than in the past. Which of the 7 players I listed do you disagree with?
With all the talks of rotation length, the Rockets are back to playing essentially 7 guys this series. It's good to have depth, but a tough playoff series will inevitably end up with a series of "Can't play Kanter" moments with coaches ended up only playing their optimal lineups. Seems that the Rockets came to this realization after Game 1: Bigs Anderson and Nene no longer playing. Maybe Luc will be out also if he continues to be limited by injury. Golden State still played some Looney and West. These guys may soon be Kantered also.
Postgame interviews from both coaches have centered on defense and "force". Obviously they're watching trailers of the Solo movie to comment on any specifics to their game plan or lengthening their bench.
We are playing Luc to make it 8. At least trying to. Something still wrong with him. We definitely want him on the court. And BTW, Kerr is clearly only playing 8 as well -- Worrier No one better say West's 4 mins in Game 1 and 6 mins in Game 2 constitutes a 9th man. I do consider Looney in the rotation, as he was last series, too. We have exposed West's old legs, in his very brief Ryan Anderson-esque minutes. Kerr has Kantar'd Pachulia, JaValle and Bell is redundant to Looney, and probably can't play their switching d as well, or perimeter d. Bottomline: 8-man versus 8-man...Game on!
The only reason for a 10 man rotation was because he didn't like Ryan Anderson and swapped him for Nene. And probably another issue like this.
Game 3 Rotation James Harden Chris Paul Trevor Ariza Eric Gordon Clint Capela Ryan Anderson PJ Tucker Gerald Green I'd like to see Luc removed completely from the rotation for games 3 and 4, but he might get 5 minutes just to give some players a breather
not enough discussion was given to the fact that kerr CHANGED HIS STARTING LINEUP for this series. taking a lineup that they only use in dire situations and making it their starting lineup tells you how seriously they take the rockets. kerr also took 2 guys out of the rotation immediately to begin the series. they are taking this matchup very seriously. MDA may only play 7-8 guys, but kerr is right behind him playing 8 with west earning only a few minutes. by game 5 both will be down to a 7 man rotation. i'd actually like to rest moute so he can give us good minutes later in the series. right now he's only hurting us on offense and lost his minutes to green.
