Is it Morey or Dantoni? Tucker is gonna get gassed before the playoffs start if he keeps playing this many minutes. Hartenstien needs to play 10-15 minutes per game to develop and become a better rotation piece.
It’s the coach , duh MDA might expand his rotation if he had 9 great players ... but teams with that kind of depth are the exception. Most other coaches play not-great players because they understand it’s a marathon ,not a sprint , AND because guys OBVIOUSLY need rest . Here on the rockets , we wait until guys are injured .
Morey picks the (usually scrubby) players D'Antoni keeps his rotation to 7 players or less If Tilman & Mike were in charge, the NBA would only have 7-man rosters. I don't gotta pay for players 8-15. I don't gotta play players 8-15. Rockets are supposed to be a "championship caliber" team. Would any of these players crack the Bucks, Lakers, Clippers, Heat, or even Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz rotation? No? But we want Mike to throw these guys out there. (Yeah, Tyson was on the Lakers last year.) Spoiler Conley - Mudiay Mitchell - Clarkson Bogdanovic - Ingles O'Neale - Niang Gobert - Davis VanVleet Lowry - Powell - Davis - Thomas Anunoby - McCaw Siakam - Hollis Jefferson Gasol - Ibaka - Boucher Bledsoe - Hill Matthews - DiVincenzo - Korver Middleton - Connaughton - Brown Antetokounmpo - Ilyasova RoLo - BroLo Nunn - Dragic Butler - Herro Winslow - Robinson Adebayo - Jones - Johnson Leonard - Olynyk James - Rondo - Caruso - Cook KCP - Bradley - Daniels Green Davis - Kuzma McGee - Howard Beverley - LouWill - Walton Jr. George - Shamet Leonard - McGruder Harkless - Green - Patterson Zubac - Harrell Murray - Morris Harris - Beasley Barton - Craig - Hernangomez - Porter Millsap - Grant Jokic - Plumlee Walker Brown - Smart - Wanamaker Hayward - Langford Tatum - Williams - Ojeleye Theis - Kanter - Williams Chris Clemons, Michael Frazier, William Howard, Thabo Sefolosha, Tyson Chandler, Isaiah Hartenstein, Nene (and previously Gary Clark) They got their 7/8 and that's who's gonna play. Russell Westbrook - Austin Rivers James Harden - Eric Gordon - Ben McLemore Danuel House Jr. P.J. Tucker Clint Capela
I haven’t looked at all those other teams rosters , but I just looked at the heat’s They are playing 3 rookies 30+ games so far . 2 of them are starters . AND they have another starter who is a second year player. I wonder what MDA would do with those players ? My guess is bench them as soon as they make a mistake . I agree that Morey / Tilman trading all of our picks generally limits the quality of young prospects we can bring in ... but the truth is far worse , our player development just sucks .... and it’s because they can’t get on the court . We think RGV is some good proxy for nba play ? And it’s just not true . Our young players learn to stand in the corner and wait for a harden pass . It’s no surprise our best value pickups have been guys that just shoot the 3 with no hesitation. Worse yet , even if our young guys do get PT in the regular season (see Montreal and dekker in 16-17) then it disappears once the playoffs roll around (even if there is an injury , see Nene) This is a combination of Tilman being cheap , Morey trying to get the best roster possible RIGHT NOW all the time, and most importantly MDA . Because , look at it from Morey’s perspective , you can invest in young players who might be good , but won’t play because your coach won’t play them ... or you can roll the dice on some shitty vets because there’s at least a chance MDA will use them and keep guys minutes down.