d'antoni got outcoached in the first round, and severely outcoached in the second. ryan had one of the most miserable playoffs in recent memory. most of our other players were up and down. and harden froze up hard like a deer caught in headlights for the last 5.5 quarters of play. as usual during the offseasons now, this organization is in dire straits
It's possible that he decided to change things up and try playing a different way, because the regular way wasn't working. When you do that, odds are better than 50-50 that you'll make things worse, and there's a decent chance it'll be a disaster. For one thing, your teammate is expecting you to take that shot, not throw him the ball, so he may not be (or may not be moving quickly enough to) where you threw it. So one lesson might be to set up our system and our personnel so that there really is an alternative way to play on some nights or on some possessions -- a plan that everyone on the court understands, not one improvised by the PG. But for me, the no-brainer to learn from Popovich is to play a deeper rotation. You will have injuries, and if you don't prepare for that, you'll end up with 7 guys and a gassed Harden defending the post.
You still don't get it do you. I used a stupid scenario to show you how stupid your argument was....jeez. r****d!
Hahaha. First off, easy with the r****d word. You simply made a poor analogy. No matter how you wished it would be interpreted, it was poor and fell flat. You're ok though. Secondly, I started this thread. I wasn't making an argument. I was just stating that Harden had a bad game, energy and fatigue were an issue, we had poor strategy by the end, losing Nene hurt us, and the Spurs are a better team than us. All close to facts, which I felt was a healthy view amongst all the "he quit!" and Stephen A Smith threads....which is probably where you should go. And lastly, yes I understand people are upset with HOW we lost, lord has it been emphasized, I simply won't just look at that one thing on its own. We had an amazing year, achieving above expectations, we played like the 3rd best team throughout the regular season, and we lost to the 2nd best team in the playoffs. All I said was facts, hoping it might help for some people who are getting over emotional. All you've been doing is arguing and crying and twisting words because well....you're over emotional. Bye
You posted your interpretation of the game, not proven facts. Watching the game, it feels questionable to explain Harden's performance with “conserving energy“ or a special strategy, this doesn't by any means explain why he moved like a snail, looked lethargic and didn't even attempt a shot for 1.5 quarters. I agree that the discussion should be more healthy, but you telling people they are definitely wrong, crying or that they should go to Stephen A. isn't any better. Atm no one knows what really happened.
at the end of the day the Rockets we're going to lose in the playoffs. We lost to the team who won more games in the season. I don't get caught up in how we lost, especially when there is a key injury. to me a loss is a loss and that doesn't mean anything to me. I will chalk it up to everyone playing out of position and a seven man rotation, sure it was ugly but we lost and it's over. we're not going to be the Warriors, we were most likely going to get swept so who cares. people fail to realize that the league caught up to what the Rockets were doing and the rockets started winning less games. The same happen in both playoff series and by the end the injury and Pops were too much.
I like it. We were high variance team. We could win it all and be out in the first round. Quitting is too big of an interpretation, adding a meaning to the things that simply isn't there. Going into next season i would just improve 3 pt shooting, and work on playing team ball down the stretch, that is play 48 minutes the same. Another thing to improve would be Harden's stamina so that we could run a true 7 seconds offense.
they were a lot of games during RS where harden looked lethargic and moved like a snail...and i dont know for sure but if i recall well you can find huge stretches of games in RS where he didnt attempted a shot or shoot very little
Record-wise we are. If Cleveland wins it all, or challenges the Warriors more than the Spurs do, then at worst... we're 4th best.
Thank you. The people that say things like "I've never seen him like that before" I'm just like "Really??" Harden has always played slow at first and passing up shots to get his teammates involved. He's always had the attitude of letting the game come to him. On top of that the coaches pointed out to him that when you exert too much energy in the first you never get it back. So maybe he overdid it a little after game 5. And before someone attacks this post with "its the playoffs" or "he should of"....I'm not saying its the right strategy...I'm just saying it wasn't sooo out of the norm. It just was horrible cuz they fell into such a deep hole and he was playing bad he coulnd't get it going.
HE QUIT!!!!!!!!! He took his first shot in the second quater with 6 minutes left....That dude quit!!! F him