Being "benched" means you lose your playing time. Coming off the bench is completely different. No it isn't. No coaching will fix a bad fit. Pop didn't fail with Manu coming off the bench. McHale off the bench wasn't a coaching failure. True False. Harden has been a brutally effective scorer. Its a false narrative to claim that he would be better and his shots would be easier if he was off the ball. He is simply not an off the ball player. He lacks the raw speed and endurance to be constantly cutting and curling like Brewer does. People need to accept the fact the best use of Harden is EXACTLY how he has been used. You may not like it, it may not be astetically pleasing to watch, but the simplicity of it is what made the Rockets into a Western Conference finalist, and Harden the runner up MVP. To demand changing something that brought us more success than we have had in 20 years is mind boggling to me.
Not this year. Not even without Lawson in the game. Honestly, if they keep playing the way they are playing; it will be hard to get wins if Harden is struggling.
Another trash the Rockets threads but praise dmo. Predictable, garbage thread is garbage. Dmo is inconsistent and immature, hes in the same boat as the whole team, minus Dwight.
How many games was Ty suspended for the other two? It seems 2-3 days is the standard, but I wonder if that will be escalated for multiple offenses. Either way, I don't think we'll miss his play right now. He just hasn't been the Ty Lawson of Denver thus far. Better to serve that time now, then down the stretch. I bet this is contributing to his poor performance. Weighing on his shoulder.
Whether he starts or comes off the bench, Ty is gonna play a bunch of minutes with Harden. They're gonna have to figure it out sooner or later.
Spent the morning pondering this very question, and I realized after reflecting upon this thread that what we seem to have here is a failure to communicate. Which would be a ClutchFans first, apparently. Therefore I took the liberty at lunchtime to employ the full technological power available to me in the form of Google Translate to find an answer. Here are the various translations from around the world of "stopbag," which as far as I can tell from the list below appears to be a Norwegian term for overall basketball suckitude.
Lol. Semantics, pee-pee game. Like I said, contenders usually have a playmaker coming off the bench. I already noted Manu. In this instance, it's been a failure completely. Lawson has been a failure. I would never suggest changing Harden's game. However, good coaches add wrinkles and call plays to get the ball in the hands of their best player when they struggle. No coaches here have made the game easier for Harden - and it's been 3 years. He's disappeared in big moments, most notably the Blazers series 2 years ago, several times against the Clippers and against Iguodala most recently. Instead of drawing up plays to get him the ball in situations the defense might not be prepared for we repeat the same mistakes over and over again until Harden finds himself on the bench in the 4th in a do or die game or turning the ball over a record breaking number of times in another elimination game. He's struggling on the biggest of stages continually, we do nothing to alter the scheme for him during those moments - yet you want more of the same? More benching. More turnovers. We finally start using him in the post and what happens? He gets into rhythm. GENIUS IDEA! It only took 3 years. That's what we need more of. Diverse sets. Wrinkles. Complexity. This entire "feel it out" scheme is great for seasoned veterans that have been playing together for several years, not for an undisciplined group like this one. We've been getting lost out there for 3 years now, it's time to define roles and give more direction.
