[Feigen] Answers elusive as search continues for Rockets

What opportunities do you speak of? I understand the Butler trade but what else was out there?

 

Plus they dont utilize the shot clock at all...
We can be up by 20 and still chucking 10 seconds into the clock... or down by 20with no sense of urgency...

As he's always done, he refuses to play nearly half of his roster (at detriment to the starters)... i dgaf who he 'trusts' and 'doesnt trust' - you play the hand yer dealt.
A) Develop these guys. If they just sit on the bench year after year (Qi) that aint doing nothing for us... Put em in, coach them, develop them - find a way to get some kind of return on these guys... even if its just to give your work horses a breather...
B) If they suck - then it is what it is - thats on Darryl... If we lose games bc we dont have enough quality guys then Darryl needs to do a better job building the roster... If we lose bc our stars and starters are disinterested and overworked - thats on MDA...

MDA is a great coach when things are going good - but he sucks when things arent...
He runs from confrontation (Melo in NY/Harden game 6 vs Spurs)
Stubborn as hell... ("The rotations are what they are...")
Cant turn problem situations around (Ryno, Melo)

and he's such a wuss that he's sold his soul to Moreyball....
This isnt an MDA offense... there's no ball movement... there's no speed... it looks like a JVG offense - without the benefit of the defensive focus... lol

Thats before even going into the whole Melo/Bzdelik/MDA/CP3Harden dysfunction... smh...

 

That is exactly the line I said two or three years ago when he was hired. Like a big caveat.

He is like a drug working its magic and gets you real high and then your body stops working.

He cannot even blame himself the right way. He is not great at turning around a mess.

 

and i think what really pisses me off is how damn smug he gets when challenged...

Like leading up to game 6 vs the Spurs when he said that people who were questioning his short rotations "didn't know what they were talking about"... then the game 6 meltdown happened... smh.... sometimes the dude looks like a genius - and sometimes he looks like a dumb ass... lol

 

It was too long ago but I think Popovich really outclassed him. There was nothing he could do against Pop and Duncan.
And that was at his best.

And of course the Harden vs Spurs series, agreed fully.

From a psychological angle, it could be a cope mechanism, he knows a shetstorm is brewing.

 

Ariza went from an aging wing who went 0-7 from 3 in game 7 to the most overrated Rocket of all time.

 

Over reliant on Harden, Paul and Gordon. Over reliant on defenders like Tucker, Ariza and Luc.

Fact is all those players worked as a team. Chemistry isn't overrated.

Ariza was part of it and a major cog in a well oiled machined back then.

I dun see Ariza being as important this year as he was last year because other teams got better and know how to play the Rox.

 

Ariza has nothing to do with it.

Everybody from Harden to Nene is not playing to their potential. They're all underwhelming. Combine that with the embarrassing effort, and they are one of the worst teams in the league.

There's no "answer" to make them a 65 win team again. They're simply just not a good team this year.

 

hes much better at being a great coach then you are at being a rockets fan

 

Tillman will satisfy the masses.

 

whatever man... must be a shortcoming on my part, esp since I've been a Rockets fan much longer than he's been a coach.... lol

 

I can somewhat agree with this... the only caveot i would have to throw out there is that when CP3 got his 4/160 it was all about that while his on court contributions over the next 4 years will prob not be worth 160M, it was about 'what a leader he is' and so forth... That's akin to what i think may be missing wo Ariza... not so much his oncourt statistical contribution as him as a cohesive element...

 

Yea, but this season is SO different from last and people are only pointing at Ariza/Luc as the reason why.

My question is the collective belief that Ariza/Luc vs Ennis/Tucker a 20 win difference? (Yes, this is an oversimplification for message board’s sake)

I just don’t think it is.

 

I think the biggest problem with people's perception is they are comparing with last years Ariza as opposed to this years Ariza... and pre-injury Luc - as opposed to street clothes wearing post injury Luc of this season...

Like DD keeps crying that 'DM gutted a championship caliber team' - without looking at the present incarnations of the two...

Imo the problem is there's dysfunction afoot...
I think Bzdelik quit bc of Melo - then Melo got kicked to the curb to accommodate Bzdelik's return... now there's division between the stars and coaches... idk if Ariza coulda helped soothe egos or whatever... i think he was the guy that used to always hold Harden accountable (MDA aint gonna do it - he's too worried about getting 'McHaled' is he steps at Harden...) and CP3 is too close to the situation to be the diplomat we were hoping him to be...

 

Rockets might as well stop searching for answers. This season is done. No coming back from that Mavs loss.

 

The answer is to trade PJ Tucker... he is really useless at this point. He can't defend a rookie. He can't make wide open layups/3s/FTs. I don't get what Morey sees in his 9.07 PER rating. Why the F didn't he trade him and Gordon for Butler is the reason why he will get fired at the end of the season.

 

I seem to remember McHale saying something similar in 2015.

 

What's the mystery? The bench is thin and that's what is killing us

 

You may be on to something here, there is certainly something wrong beyond the team just playing badly. The whole Melo thing is just weird to me and after he leaves then Jeff comes back. CP3 probably convinced his buddy to come here and now he's out of a job. I had to fire a guy at my current company that I served in Iraq with, he's actually the reason I've been in Colorado for 8 freezing years. It sucked and I felt like crap, but he found a new job and one that fit his personality and talents much better.

Maybe when Melo is traded or waived on 15 Dec, and gets a fresh start that will relieve some of the burden that Paul is feeling. I don't know, but I'm not watching anymore "give up" games like Utah. Tonight was a good game, we just got beat by a 19-year old phenom who should've been #1 pick.