[Feigen] D'Antoni said Harden is "devastated." Open to considering strategic rest.

Oh, I thought he was already strategically resting the whole game last night.

 

we closed out the series on the 25th of April and didn't play until the 1st of may. Thats plenty of time to "rest" this narrative needs to stop, James wasn't tired he just flat out quit.

 

I always assumed he was conserving energy. Which is not a bad strategery when you compare Harden to someone like Westbrook. That dude goes balls to the wall on every possession and has nothing left in the tank by the 4th quarter. The problem of course is that there are times you have to throw caution to the wind and push the pace of the game. Especially in a series against an aging, short-handed, occasionally offensively challenged team like the Spurs who prefer to slow things down. Harden far too often played right into their hands by walking the ball up the court.

 

Which is a bit r****ded given , with playing time, most of those young guys have potential to be better than any "vets" we can bring in .

Bringing nene back would help .

 

Agreed. The Rockets had 5 days off between the first and second round. The Spurs had 3. Also, Games 1, 2, and 4 of the Semifinals were blowouts where James hardly played in the 4th quarter. The idea that he had nothing left in the tank in Game 6 is preposterous. He didn't show up from the opening tip. That's not being gassed. That's being disengaged.

 

And most of those ex-players casually watch the Rockets only when they are covering them on national TV games. Most of that commentary is hot air trying to fill air time.

James Harden doesn't exert any more energy than any of his teammates that play more than 25 minutes. He doesn't nearly run around the court as much. He is coddled by the franchise to exert as little energy as possible by hiding him behind big men and poor perimeter offensive players and allowing him to walk the ball up the court on a continuous basis which results in the Rockets starting their half court sets with 10 seconds left and by allowing him to stand practically in mid court pulling a Mcgrady when the ball isn't in his hands.

 

We do need facilitating help , quite badly actually . Maybe the players we have can step up and handle the ball more .

Whether it was hardens fault or not , the ball was super sticky . Some of that on James , some of that on scheme , some of that on other players . Weights of blame TBD

 

I get the idea about resting, it's just weird to me that Drexler and Jordan were also playing 82 games at 27. And similar minutes. And balling off in the finals.

 

As I said in my thread about Trust it is a growing experience, Harden's first year at PG, he did great, but he can get a lot better.

So, I am good with this, sometimes you need to get smacked down to rise up better - the Rockets are a flawed team.

D'Antoni's system being so one sided got smacked.

Morey's lack of getting defensive players and an extra big got smacked.

Harden not trusting his team late, and walking the ball up the court and too much reliance on the 3 ball got smacked.

Playing only 7 men got smacked.

So, we got smacked, time to step back and learn from the beat down - and come back with a better plan of action that eliminates the one sided nature of this current team.

DD

 

This is not reassuring. This was the semifinals at home vs an aging Spurs team sans Parker and Kawhi. If the Rockets are so mentally weak and fragile that they can't bounce back from a tough OT loss in an elimination game, how in God's name do they expect to take on the likes of Golden State or Cleveland who have been through wars in the playoffs?

This is basically the Rockets coaches and management admitting they're not up to the challenge. If that's their attitude, blow it up and rebuild with players and a front office who are.

 

To effectively utilize Harden off the ball, do people not realize that expends more energy than what he currently does on half court sets? Running through screens takes more effort than dribbling the air out of the ball for 15 seconds. Look at all the elite off the ball players and notice how they are practically marathon runners.

People on this board have horrible misconceptions on what takes more effort on the court.

 

Dwight is in Atlanta now dude, why you're not on their forums?

 

Wha........defense and playmaking???

I can't even imagine....

 

Stop this rest angle. This needs to stop. Harden doesn't need more rest in the regular season. He needs to follow Patrick Beverly around during the offseason and mimmick his off-season routine.

That's it. That's what will solve a large portion of Harden's massive holes in his game.