I think he's done a decent job. I like how he rewards the bench by keeping them in there if they preform well. Your thoughts?
I do not like how our defense has deteriorated since he became coach. I also don't like his rotations very much. I think we're winning more despite Sampson, not because of him.
First coach (McHale, JVG, Adelman) that will stick to players who are doing well during the game and not worry about giving the starters their minutes.
I feel the Rockets are improving as a team, and players have been stepping up more. No comment on in-game strategy, but the results are good. We need to play better defense, but I can't say that's a fault of coaching. Its a challenge for young players to play with pace and also defend.
That has a lot to do with the fact that we have so few veteran players. So without many consistent, dependable options, you'll go with the "hot hand" more.
Though Sampson has done the "right" thing to reward those who do well by letting this stay in the game, it does make things difficult for the struggling players - namely Jeremy Lin. Now, speaking from a totally unbiased standpoint, does a struggling starter really need the added pressure of having his minutes reduced? Will it help him regain his confidence, and more importantly, will it hinder his ability to live up to the value we have placed in him? I don't quite agree with Sampson's decision to allot time based on performance in the first half. While it may have short-term benefits - no doubt Toney Douglas contributed to winning the Lakers game far more than Jeremy Lin likely would have - it prevents Jeremy Lin from regaining the confidence he needs to performance consistently. Now it's been nearly 20 games into the season and one might argue time is running out for Lin to perform at a consistent rate. But prior to the Lakers game, in which ALL the starters struggled, Lin played his best against Utah, posting 19/8 in a great win. Then the next game he finds no respite in his good performance and again is relegated to the end of the bench.... This sort of inconsistency is damning for a young player. While having Toney Douglas finish games when he's doing well is great in the short term, the longer term repercussions are far more severe. Toney Douglas will gain nothing out of playing 5 minutes more. Sure, his confidence may increase and he may peform better, but it's not like he's going to consistently close games from here on out. tldr; Sampson cannot make last-minute decisions on who gets to play in the fourth quarter in the middle of the game. Either he makes a decisive move and keeps it that way, or he puts some damn trust in the current starter and keep the minutes consistent.
Like someone already said, our defense has been lacking since he took over. It's fine when our shots our falling, but like yesterday when no one could buy a basket playing some defense would have been nice. I also don't like his rotation and the way he manages the starters' minutes, especially Harden. It's a long season and Harden has never played so much minutes before.
Totally agree. The Rockets have certainly made progress on the court since the season began, but there are still somethings that cannot be coached.
So if he's not rewarding bench players with extra minutes when they play well, what incentive do they have to play well? The idea is to get the entire team to play well, not just Jeremy Lin.
i know its a different game but sampson's teams at oklahoma were always solid and always gave ut fits. love the guy
Again, I'm not a Jeremy Lin fan, so I'm not trying to "get" Jeremy Lin to play well. The major incentive for bench players to play well is to get a starting position or to get more minutes. More importantly, the incentive is for players to get more minutes more consistently. My issue is not with Douglas taking more of Lin's minutes. It's that we have no idea who is going to be closing out the game until the end of the third quarter. The players have no idea who is going to be playing in the fourth quarter. I don't know about you, but as an individual I value consistency in my daily schedule. Having to fight for minutes every single game seems a little bit disorganized. Either move Lin to the bench (which I highly doubt will happen), or give Lin the same amount of room to improve as Harden gets.
College basketball is a game of recruiting the one and done. If you do it really well you can get a job as a junior assistant coach in the NBA. Then you learn how to coach real basketball.
I have to humbly disagree on this. Benching him or giving some of his minutes to TD pales in comparison to the lack of his NBA success during his early years. If you look back at how he got here (failures and successes) , it is a testament of his mental strength and he did it without anybody giving him special privileges. If we want him to be the player we envisioned him to be, he needs to be able to figure this out without special accommodations.