I mean , emotionally speaking? I get a bit too mad. How do you deal with the fact that in any given game , we are liable to decide ... "ehh **** it, 7 man rotation the rest of the way." ? I have been GRATEFUL for James; and PJ's durability over the last couple years. They are great players , and have really carried us. But am i the only one who feels like we need to get more on the program with "load management"? Look , the NBA started creating rules around stopping teams from doing it .... to me that means it works. I know wins matter, but there is a bigger picture and hope that most of us hold, or held, in mind. This year was supposed to be about the playoffs. But every game im thinking to myself " how many more superhuman efforts are we gonna ask of these guys?" No matter what the source of this depth problem is Morey/MDA/Tilman/Harden(im sure some1 has made this argument lol) its an issue. Its hard to say how to deal with it. You have some people saying , "hey MDA just play some of the guys on the roster more." then you have others saying " No , MDA is playing the best possible rotation to win the game , thats his job, we need better players." Those would be the extreme ends of the argument. But i feel like everyone agrees there is a depth problem. So how do you deal with it ?
Just hope that the wheels don’t fall off on our 5 best players before the playoffs and know that our top 5-6 rotation is still one of the best in the league.
Emotionally understand you're dealing with a stubborn coach who will absolutely not change who he is or what he's comfortable with. We're stuck with him and his 7 man rotations until he fails in the playoffs and the rockets move on from him.
this guy is supposed to be a every night rotational player with significant minutes. let that sink in if anyone thinks this team has depth. who else is behind him? oh thabo's corpse lol
Get a time machine. Right now the Rockets are stuck with the moves they made starting with the Ryno trade and by the non trade of EG who I thought should have been moved after CP3 was brought in to create roster balance & depth. The worst though was the trade deadline moves last year that moved good assets and playable players to save a buck, and followed by the Westbrook trade which sent FOUR first rounders that would be pretty damn important in making mid season trades for actual talent that isn’t bargain basement cast offs.
This team playing like Kyrie with the Celtics. No ball movement and need Kyrie/Harden to score to 40 points to win
I had a solution but then it was mention here before. Harden-Gordon-Thabo-Tucker-Capela 1st Unit Westbrook-Rivers-House-Hart-Chandler 2nd Unit. I mean westbrook let him come off the bench. Sit harden 2nd and some 3rd maybe, or let him come in 3rd late, but harden got to be rested for the 4th. and play all the 4th.If not then whatever.
The argument "Mike just plays 7 guys cause the others are trash" is doo doo, a lot of teams have guys that are not exactly great on the bench and they still play. Pop, Bud and Carlisle (just to name the coaches i think are the best) always used long rotations and gave minutes to their worst players even when they didn't have a need. Hell, Pop started Francisco Elson for at least a season in order to have more balance and a better bench to play while half the season in, Mike is still trying to understand what's the best starting 5 to put out there. Bud gave consistent minutes to guys like Sterling Brown, DJ Wilson, Connaughton, and now he's playing even a guy considered a bust like Bender, and you know, his team is like 35-5 so, unless you think these guys are soo much better then Hartenstein, Clark, you can see the difference. So yeah, i would gladly take better bench players, that's just logic, but the coach needs to play more players regardless, especially since he has an old roster. Hartenstein and Clark specifically needed more minutes from the start of the season instead of playing 34 years old PJ 40 minutes per game. Coach aside, all the moves the organization made lately didn't help in building a longer/better bench, that's also clear so, for me it's pretty obvious it's on the coach and the owner. But while if you think the coaching side is a problem you can solve that pretty easy, you can't say the same for the other side of the problem.
It's not that we have no depth, but it sure seems that way when we lose. House and tucker are capable of more than they have been showing recently. We know that. We have a duo that is averaging over 60 a game. EGO has played well since coming back, and Clint is having a career year. I think with adding a buyout player our depth is passable. House, tucker, Bmac, rivers, hartenstein, buyout player. This is solid as long as house and tucker get back to what they were at the start of the year. I'm not sure what has happened but I am still optimistic they will get it together. Or maybe the buyout player will be good enough to take one of their minutes completely if they don't.
