I disagree with pretty much your entire post, but it's a knee-jerk reaction thread after a tough loss, so I kinda understand it. But the quote above is just wrong. I've been watching basketball for about 15 years now, and I have never seen a coach pull a star player in clutch minutes because said player was having an "off" game. Maybe because they weren't following the gameplan, disciplinary issues, etc., but not because they are having an off game. If McHale pulls Harden in last night's game, he is criticized by everyone except you. Now that being said, we don't have to go to him every play down the stretch, but really what other offensive options do we have? Bev and Josh both took a 3, but do you really want anyone other than Harden to have the ball late? Ariza? Hell no. Bev? Probably not. Smith? Again, hell no. Howard? Unless he is directly under the basket, no. What we need to do is start working in D-mo with our late game rotations, that way we have a consistent second option on offense that doesn't have a 50-50 chance of turning over the ball a la Dwight.
What do you guys think of a starting lineup of bev/harden/K-Pap/D-Mo,Dwight. Increases our passing and arguably (looking at Ariza's stats right now) 3 pt. shooting. And also move Canaan into the backup pg spot and keep jet as backup 2 or 3rd string 1. Could be temporary until Ariza gets his shot and confidence back.
Thib got a T for yelling at the ref and his team got 30 more FT than the Rockets. McHale kept quite we shot 3 FT until the last 20 seconds - including the T that Thib gave us. That's the only complain I got on him last night.
Have no problem with you disagreeing, but see there is a difference between the coaches today and the ones back in the 60's, 70's and 80's... A coach could give a damn about you and your star status, if your backup was hot you played him.. Example if Vinnie was hot Coach Daly would keep him in the game.. Daly didn't care about egos ask Adrien Dantley... Guys have off nights and then you have guys like Dmo, Bev or even Terry who are on that night, so you go with the hot hand.... You feed the hot hand.. I love Pop and Hollis, because they are old school coaches that don't care about this star tag, they care about winning. T_Man
I like Pop for the same reason you do but you have to kind of see that when you have a player like Harden you can't sit him in the 4th. We had a chance to win the game and Harden is the best chance we have to win the game even if he's cold.
Then McHale needs to let him know to get his teammates involved (actually McHale shouldn't have to tell him this)... A star has to learn that he can help his team in more ways than just scoring. Harden reminds me a lot of Calvin Murphy... When Calvin was on he was helping the team, but when Calvin was off he killed the team because he didn't play defense. The same goes with Harden... When superstars such LeBron or Durant are off, they will get their team mates involved and they will step up their D. Harden has to learn this. I'm not saying you have to sit Harden, but I am saying if his shot is off then he has to find other ways to win... If he's not doing that then you have to put someone else in who will. T_Man
Chicago is pretty good defensively, led by one of the best defensive coaches. A lot of the calls weren't going our way last night. I'm going to roll with that. It's just one game. We still have 48 more to play. Let's all calm down.
I have thought McHale was one of the worst coaches in the NBA for over a year now. Nothing he has done this season has changed my mind. His style of play encourages turnovers, poor shot selection, and little to no ball movement. The key to having a highly efficient offense is forcing the defense make as many decisions as possible in a given possession. We force the defense to make very few decisions because we play so much isolation and one on one. ESPECIALLY in the 4th quarter and at the end of games. There was a play last night where Harden drew a double team around the top of the key, kicked it out to DMO up top for a three, and Harden cleared out a couple defenders so he could shoot it. ARE YOU SERIOUS?? That's what we're going to in the 4th quarter?? There are many coaches who would bench both players after such a bad decision like that. McHale just stands there watching the game like a fan, complaining to the refs every once in a while, and really having no say as far as what the team is doing out there. By all accounts, he's a VERY nice guy. But so is my father and I wouldn't want him coaching the Houston Rockets.
If I was coaching this team I would have a belt and beard trimmer on sight. You want to play stupid come here.
There is absolutely no reason why Terry should be getting more minutes than Canaan and more appalling that Canaan has been getting DNPs.
