The problem is that Harden plays 36 minutes a game. You want Lawson in for only 12 minutes? I think McHale has been trying to force them to play together because that's his best card.. Lawson off the bench may be good but you wouldn't be maximising his potential. Before I get murdered on this board, I'm not supporting McHale.. Neither am I saying we need to fire him.. I honestly have no clue what to do.
The lack of execution against Boston's zone defense was so painful. If you've ever played competitive basketball, you know that there are some VERY simple offensive sets that are used against zone defenses, and the Rockets looked like they couldn't even run a simple high-low zone counter. Execution is bad, but effort is even worse. Too many times I saw Harden just zone out defensively, leading to miscommunication on off-ball screens, and the usual backdoor signature play that made his youtube video hard. His body language is... nonexistent. His teammates also look pissed at him; I'm frankly surprised that other posters haven't noticed this more, and are instead stating that "McHale has lost the team".
No, I'm saying four things in a specific order. To understand, first you have to accept that McHale has lost the team and is a lame duck coach. So, Use this lame duck period. Have McHale bench Harden and Lawson After playing off the bench for two games, then you fire McHale Replace McHale with TR Dunn as an interim coach, have him keep Harden and Lawson on the bench, but he doesn't get blamed for it, as it remains an act from the previous administration Then Dunn puts Harden back in the starting lineup once Harden wins a game for us Harden is rejuvenated Profit
so u saying lawson is holding some grudges on mchale because the way he's been used here doesnt allow him to revenge on his old team? hard for me to buy that. maybe i didnt read your post correctly? its kinda late...
Not having a system, a set of go-to plays to rely on when the offense slows down, is really hurting the team.
I giggled a lit bit... with some sort of happiness actually... and winking at you for an interesting post.
The same system took These team to the WCF with a injury team, The same system got hot last year from the beginning. I understand if we were good under a different system and got bad under McHale, but is not is the same team with Lawson and the same system. I mean even in the same game you get couple of quarter of great, not good but great basketball and then you it seems like this guys starting to play basketball yesterday, just awful. Today a 35 point swing, in Miami a 40 point swing. At the minimum sign of adversity they throw the game plan out of the window and start to panic and play one on one, don't get back in defense, start to miss your defensive coverage and start to shoot with no confidence. Usually this are the times leaders will step up and try to lift their teammates, but we don't have one. I thought that was Harden after he avg 40pts and winning player of the week, but then he when back to Hollywood Harden, to cool to play hard. Maybe a coincidence but it happen after been reunited with Khloe in LA.
Nothing to do with groove. It's effort, and that points towards off the court distractions. Rightly or wrongly, that's the perception.
Why not? The team has reached its nadir. We're so far down that radical surgery may be called for, and your suggestion is far from radical. Radical would be benching Harden until he wakes up and smells the coffee, or firing McHale, or making an unexpected trade that shakes up the roster. Putting aside "radical," start Harden and if he's playing like crap, sit him after 5 minutes. Lawson, Howard, Ariza, and Thornton (I'd sub Thornton at the same time if he didn't start) happen to click? Let Harden sit there and watch for a long, long time. Of course, Dwight won't play in the next game. I love Capela and he has a bright future, but he ain't Dwight or near ready to replace him. Part of the on going problem we seem to have at the 5. Maybe we could see long stretches of Dwight, Ariza, and Lawson, sans Harden, during the game after next. Heck, we seem to have a lot of on going problems. We still need a consistently solid 4 that can actually play. I feel like I have a hangover and I didn't touch alcohol last night. This team is driving me crazy.
The system is not changing even if McHale is fired. This organization is going to run a structured defense and an unstructured offense because that's the future of the NBA and that's what other successful organizations are doing. We don't run Harden iso's. Harden runs Harden iso's. The system gives you freedom on offense. The difference is, on the other teams running things this way, when you abuse your freedom you have betrayed your team and you are benched. When you don't participate in the defense with effort, then you are betraying your teammates. Harden doesn't seem to have that team spirit. At the moment, he is abusing his offensive freedom and betraying his teammates on defense. Getting a lot of assists doesn't mean you are running the team well, ask Stephon Marbury. Dropping a lot of points doesn't necessarily mean you are helping the team score more, ask Carmelo Anthony. If you are holding on to the ball for as long as Harden holds on to it, then it has to be after he has completed his duties on the defensive end. IMO a benching doesn't fix this. It's not a high school. What fixes this is his teammates telling him that he is disrespecting their skill and their craft by dominating the ball. They should appreciate that he carried them on offense last year because the team was depleted, but that's not longer the best offensive option on this team. We have talented people on board who can together achieve a better result. McHale should be able to diagnose this. He is not here for his defensive coaching, nor his offensive coaching, or his player development skills. He's here to motivate a team and make it a cohesive unit and that's the only role a head coach should play these days and it's the only role a head coach will play for the Rockets as long as we want to be cutting edge. We're not going back in time just because that's how they did it when we were younger and it made us happy. That's not how winning works. IMO we need to get rid of Mchale because we are not going to win a ring with him and there still might be a chance a new coach acclimates this team to his system during the regular season and the team catches fire going into the post season. We are talented enough that it's a real possibility if everyone is motivated and prepared.
when it comes to your starting back court, are you going to try to mix and match there? maybe get jet out there? uh we gotta, believe me, theres, we got, theres a lot of things we gotta do right now and uh, you know i mean, yea that that could be one of them but we we we’ve just gotta play with so- with way more… hit the open man, make the simple play, don’t go for the home run plays, and then on the defensive end we’ve gotta stay in front of somebody, because we’re just we’re just getting we’re just getting, they’re they’re they’re they’re going downhill on us just steady
I remember last offseason before our wcf run when mchale said in a interview on nbatv that we needed veterans and not d-league minimum guys on deals so we got terry and brewer and ariza.. Part of the problem is mchale is just dumb.. Thornton has been red hot so he brings terry off the bench tonight first? Yea makes sense.. We have given mcdaniels a good contract and we barely play him? He's not ready? Then why give him a big contract that he's not ready for? Mchale is the issue and doesn't know what the best 8 man rotation even is or when to take timeouts or how to motivate the guys.. But we will keep spinning the wheels and we will be a low 6-8 seed Morey hired mchale and created this roster and wants this system so he is partly to blame for where we are right now. Morey has always wanted a 3 and layup system and does it in the d-league as well.. So shoot your complaints upward as well.
