After watching H&H for a season I think that is easier said than done. While i agree that our role players have to all play to their potential I think Harden and a healthy howard are very hard to stop. Looking at Dwight, in his athletic prime (which he may be back to) he is unguardable. Dwight is a foul drawing machine and there is not a big man strong or quick enough to guard him for extended periods of time without fouling. Dwight's main focus should be to avoid the ticky tack fouls that he has a habit to pick up. Also Dwight's presence as well as Ariza with his shooting, prevents teams from doubling up on harden. In year one teams simply threw doubles on james and made lin and parsons beat them. This year we have great shooting in Daniels, Terry and Ariza (jury's still out on Papa) Harden is harder to double because of this. This is why It's to hand-wavy to say some hypothetical that a team can just NEGATE harden and howard. The blazers took harden out of that series (sans game six) and won the series on a miracle shot, hell they won the series with a negative point differential.
Kevin McHale on 790 right now with Charlie Pallilo. Once again paging J.R. for the full transcript word to word . Just typing this as I hear. Segment 1. CP: 6 down, 10 to go to the greatest undefeated start in NBA history. KM: 6 down, have a tough one coming up tomorrow night. Very good defensively. Our D has been carrying us. Guys have bought into what we're trying to do. Hell of a test tomorrow with GSW in town. CP: Rockets news - PB, TJ both shut down for the next week. Did PB aggravate the hamstring in Miami? TJ is a nerve condition? KM: With PB, he probably should nto have played in Miami. I told him he was not going to. Then we got to the game. Only way he would play is if he passed all the trainers stuff. He went through an extensive warm up with the trainers. He passed it and played. Unfortunately, he tweaked it again. Tough thing with hamstrings is you can get it to 90%, and 10% still has to heal. PB is highly competitive and wanted to beat Miami. In the 3rd Q, he started to get that hard stinging pain. He has got to be 100% next time or it ends up 2 games in two weeks. TJ has got some odd nerve thing in his foot and is having a hard time. In the process of figuring that out.
Segment 2 CP: urious what was your imediate reaction when you heard Pop was holding back TD and Gino and then Splitter. KM: Not really surprised. Pop is an old tough guy. Found out during the day that they were going to sit TD and MG. My biggest fear was TP was going to go crazy with no PB. But IC did a good job on him. We got up on them. They're a lot ebtter with their 3 HOF guys. At one point, you're like thank goodness we don't have to play those guys tonight. But we will have to play them at some point during the season. CP: 6-0 and all by double digits and that said anything unhappy with or greatest room for growth. KM: Yeah i think our transition D, we will get tested tomorrow by GSW. Movement and spacing on the offensive end. ALways something to work on. Good time to practice is when you're winning. Guys are receptive to everything. You can come in and say "we played well last night, but we have to work on this and this." CP: Harden D, was there a particular check list you offered him or point of emphasis or the overall committment? KM: We talked about it a lot last year, talked about it after the playoffs and again this summer. He didn't shy away from it. We ask him to do a lot offensively. He still has to do that but still play D. SOme of the schemes we have now are more aggressive allowing him to use his body. A couple of changes made defensively. Has been a good fit so far. CP: I know pride is a big thing and ego. How much of peer pressure and adding Ariza another big time defender, hey I want to roll to? KM: Ariza has been great, smart defender, has done a tremendous job. Great defensive instinct. Trevor definitely helps but no matter who was coming in, JH was at a point where he knew he had to improve on D and worked at it and get better adn get better. CP: SO tomorrow night, do you mix n match on guarding Thompson? KM: With them a lot of it is they switch defensively. WHo is guarding you is a big element of who you will be guarding. We need to get organized on dead balls and FT's. We will try to keep Ariza on KT but JH will get his shot too. CP: As a tandem if there is a two link chain, is there a pair that can fill it up like KT and SC? KM: They are just flat out scorers. QUick shots, can shoot it in motion. I don't think I have seen a pair that can shoot that well. Can't think of a pair of shooters all the time i have been in the league. CP: Kerr one of his changes was to improve their offense. THey're throwng 30 more passes per game than last year. WHat do you make of that? And do you think Kerr will thrive? KM: I talk to Kerr quite a bit when we were on TNT. Great guy. He always said he wanted to but we aso spoke about the committment it takes in terms of beign 100% ready and kids and wives. Coaching is really time consuming. I'm still in the office at this time, been here since morning, studying film etc. It's really a tough job. Once you're married priorities change compared to being a young player. COaching is different from GMing. You're traveling all the time. I think he will do a great job. He understands good solid D. They were a high octane team last season. MJ was a mis match coach. Kerr is more of a ball movement body movement coach. Comes from being part of the triangle. You're experiences in the NBA build your BBALL philosophy. You take all experiences and put it together and it becomes you. CP: If in 1985, I'd say to you if you wanted to be a head coach, what would be your reaction? At what point did it creep into you? KM: In 1985 I would have told you NO. But when i got into management and started GMing. When Flip came to Minny, we spent a lot of time talking about philosophy. I got a good taste early in my GMing career. My kids were younger and it wasn't a good time for me to be traveling a lot. I still don't enjoy the 3:30 AM flight after an away game. I like Houston, I like the area. Lots of turnover but I enjoy James and Dwight and all the young guys and working with them. CP: Post entry passes and angles and getting the ball to Dwight. One guy I wanted to ask you about is KP? KM: We work on it regularly. When we work on it,Papa can go have a Pizza during that segment adn then be our best post feeder without ever working on it. You can teach a guy to score, a hook chot, a floater but teaching someone post feeding is not the same. He has got a great knack for it. He is our best post feeder. A tremendous passer and a bright basketball player overall. Very few of our guys have played with big guys but Papa has played with some big guys in Europe. Look in US colleges now and no one throws in the low post.
I have to believe there's some sort of gif/meme someone can come up with on Papa eating a pizza and passing- ah, maybe not, it's the alchohol talking
Heads up: Kevin McHale on 790 here in a few mins. I have emailed CP asking him to ask McHale about the play were Black got the ball in the low post. Let's see if CP asks McHale that and what his response is
No Dwight right before the game but up 5 with 2 minutes to go... No question. We gave it away. Turnovers have been a bugaboo. We couldn't keep them off the board. Black is a rookie. Pap had a nice game offensively. They didn't guard Tarik and that put pressure on James. We missed shots, didn't grab rebounds, tough loss. We're low on numbers right now. Not a lot of inside scoring. Way too much east-west and not enough north-south. Priority to add bigger body? No doubt, bigger body and someone who can play north-south. Told the guys, we're missing shots but have to keep creating good shots for each other. Don't know how long Dwight is out but we have to find ways to win. There's 30 teams, 15 guys on each team, the talent is diluted. How many teams have a deep vet bench? A few and they're doing well. We played 2 rookies down the stretch. They played hard but...every team is gonna struggle somewhat. Word on Dwight? Don't know. Saw the doctor today. Hopeful early next week, end of the week. I really don't know. Still sore. Won't practice tomorrow, doubtful Saturday. Hoping on Tuesday maybe. ... They were determine to not let James dictate that game. Tarik has to make himself available in front of the rim. He played hard. Hard for me to give him criticism. He has to make himself available. We talked about it today. D-Mo's struggles? Yeah, I don't know. We need to get him going. Early fouls threw him out of rhythm. We need him to play up to his potential. He'll get an opportunity. TJ won't play for awhile. This is what you want. It's sink or swim time. He's in the deep water now, he gotta keep swimming. ... When he starts spiraling down, it goes faster. Calm down. He'll have an opportunity here for us to get a great look. We do need him. He's a good kid. Wants to do well. He has to get relaxed and go play well. Hard to play in a nervous, frenetic state. Isaiah Canaan another DNP. A lot of it is match-ups. They let Kobe and Young and Johnson handle last night(went bigger). Not a good night. We had a smaller guy on the floor. Isaiah has a lot of work to do on his game, his defense. He's working at it. He has a lot to learn and has to get better and he will. Dallas Saturday They're playing downhill on you the way I admire. They come at you in ways. They signed Chandler but got a bunch of good solid vets. Chandler might be the youngest guy they play. Everyone else had 6+ years of experience. They are attacking and flying at you. We have to be ready. ... Monta is in full attack mode. He's hard to guard. Barea, Nelson, Chandler play down hill. Then Dirk on the outside when everyone gets sucked in. We'll have our hands full.
On last nights game: It is one we gave away. Too any turnovers giving them 23 points. Low on numbers right now. No inside scoring. Right now too much east West going on rather than North South On what is needed for this team: A bigger body and a guy that can play make north south is what we need. Went over film and had a good practice. Down right now on bodies and don't know how long Dwight will be out for but have to find a way to win. How many teams have a deep bench of veteran guys that can play? Very few and those teams are playing well. We played down the stretch with two rookies. On Dwight: I don't know how it's going to be. He went an saw the doctor today. We are hopeful. Early Next week. Doubt he will play on Saturday. Hoping Monday or Tuesday. Black's got to go. He has got to to go get the ball. Right now he is kind of hiding underneath. If he wwnt under the rim he would provide James an outlet. The kid played hard. Very hard for me to give him any criticism. He has just got to make himself available. Pap made the right play and drew two guys an Black got to make it. On DMo's struggles: I don't know. We need to get him going. Got some early fouls. He is rebounding well besides last night where he played 20 mins and got 3 boards. He is going to get a lot of opportunity. TJ is not there for a while. I think he is struggling no doubt. D Mo is one one of those guys who goes faster when spiraling down instead of slower but will have a heck of an opportunity next few weeks. He is really conscientious and wants I do really well. On Canaan vs Terry: depends on match ups. Last night they took out Lin and price and went bigger. Tough night to get IC out there. He has a lot to do on his game, has to get better defensive. On Kobe: anytime you get the amount of points, games, minutes he has played, it's impressive. He is competitive, body in good shape. For him to be able to come back and achieve at this level is impressive. NBA is all about mileage you put on the body and not number of years. He put a lot of miles on his body and what he is able to do is phenomenal. Amazing to see that but I know first hand how the league is hard on you. On the Mavs: great offensive team and always go downhill and north south. They all play downhill on you and Dirk hanging on the outside. Going to have our hands full.
All you need to know from that interview is Dwight and Jones will be out Saturday night and Mchale already knows Rockets will get there butts whipped by Dallas so might as well talk about how great they could be.
Couldn't they anticipate that LAL would deny Harden the ball? For all his so-called basketball knowledge, he isn't very smart. It must have been he depended on Larry Bird all those years. The team was not prepared for the fact that they would double Harden. My God, even I could have anticipated that.
Memo to McHale. One of Canaan's strengths is his speed. If the opposing team is gonna go big, use that to your advantage and have Canaan attack them off the dribble and go to the basket. It's not like against the Lakers you have to worry about them posting up their PG against him on the defensive end. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not like the Thunder were running a bunch of big players out there(remember, Westbrook was out), yet Canaan still couldn't get off the bench for a single minute on a night the team was unable to crack 70. I think McHale's full of crap. He doesn't want to play the guy and is making up excuses to justify his decision.
WHat really boggles my mind is that Canaan was one of the biggest on ball defensive performers during P.Bevs absent Where is McHale pulling this 'Canaan' needs to work on his d nonsense from? Sounds like a scapegoat without looking into the facts, if a coach doesn't even know those details then I'd hate to see what his pre-game preperations and gameplans are (if he even has one)
It's BS. For some reason, McHale doesn't wanna play Canaan. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because we have a stubborn coach who prefers playing veterans over young guys regardless of how well the latter may be performing. Remember how last season we had to suffer through 10 or so games of the Twin Towers despite the team getting off to horrendous first quarter starts offensively every single time? Eventually McHale had no choice but to replace Asik with T-Jones in the starting lineup or else risk the team continuing to have to come from behind just to eek out wins. One would hope that a few more games with the same putrid offensive output we've seen since Philly last Friday and McHale will finally remove his head from his sphincter and understand that if Cisco can't buy a basket and Terry's shot is too unreliable, then he better get over his aversion to playing the younger guys.
Hearing McHale speak is infuriating. This guy since he has been here has given significant minutes to plenty of players that are much worse than cannan is defensively. Why is he using his defense as an excuse
