"Sometimes you have to go to plan B, the Rockets have Plan A, Plan A, Plan A"

Not exactly news.

 

Plan B costs money that Tilman doesn't have.

 

I feel jealous of seeing the way how Celtics defeating lal and how pelicans whacking up grizzlies…both Celtics and pelicans got so many weapons in their arsenal, got so many players off the bench to play, what's more, they playing smart, making good decision and taking good shots as Kenny mentioned.
On the contrary, our games is so predicable, heavily relying on whether harden's 3s falling or not. i suppose opps were cheerful to play against us, cuz they knew once harden/russ/cc got locked up…everything gonna within their plan. ('compete every night as the same level' is important, quote chuck as mentioned about this gsw)
Frustrated.

 

their only plan is to shoot at least 45 threes by any means necessary

Harden should not be allowed to go 1-17 from deep. Where is the structure? Where is the discipline? Harden should be able to realize that his 3 is broken in a particular game. There’s no need to be so stubborn. MDA should be telling Harden to stop the fckery at some point when he’s like 0-7 and still chucking. I can’t recall a time Harden started out shooting horribly from deep and then caught fire. The bricks just usually continue until he’s 1-17, 2-16, 3-18, etc. I imagine even Steve Kerr would’ve told Steph to cut it out and stop jacking up threes if he was bricking like Harden last night.

Morey and Tilman, where the hell are y’all at? This team is old, short, slow, and dumb. Morey is the GOAT at assembling a roster full of bricklayers, then he wants them to run “Moreyball” taking more threes than any team in the league while shooting a below average percentage...

On defense, they’re just running around in the halfcourt. The communication seems to be garbage. They never get back in transition. MDA insists on midget ball, and I’m actually starting to feel sorry for Hartenstein because he can play well in 1 game, and then barely get any PT for the next week. What more does he have to do?

even tho the offense has issues, let’s not kid ourselves, the main reason by far why this team won’t win a title is because they don’t defend...an offense consisting of a ridiculous amount of bricks won’t make up for this lack of defense

I feel sorry for Hatenstein, and I also feel sorry for the rims. U know they end up battered and bruised by these bricks every night. The abuse needs to stop.

 

Plan B involves things that I'm not sure Harden desires.

 

Harden and Rockets be like ....Ayyyyy!!


Go Rockets!!!
.......
.......
.......

 

$50 at any pharmacy last I checked, though that was at least a decade ago.

 

- Harden is a career 36% shooter from 3.
- He’s shooting 36% again this year.
- The league average is 35%.
- Yet he’s on pace to break his own record he set last year for most 3 PT attempts in a season.

He can dribble, crossover, side step, step back, jump off 1 foot or whatever BS he worked on this past summer trying to make it look fancy but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a mediocre shooter from deep.

His playoff career average from 3pt land is even worse 33% overall. The last few years it’s been 28, 30 and 35 percent.

Even when Plan A looked like it was working .... it didn’t work before and it’s not going to work in the future.

 

You guys are asking for a complete overhaul. To obtain a plan B, both Morey and MDA must go. Maybe Harden as well. This is who we are win or lose. Our roster is not constructed for a plan B.

 

Disagree, I doubt it was in OKC's ideal game plan to be down by 15 with 8 to play.

But this is really frustrating. And so predictable: we expect them to blow a big lead entering the 3rd or 4th now. Maybe not all the way, but if the Rockets are up by 17, there's this dread of, "All right, where's the 12-0 run to let the other team back in it?" Except when they play Minnesota.

What would a Plan B look like to CF? More pick n roll with Capela. Drive after drive with WB until they stop it? Put a gun to House and Mac's heads and order them to shoot if they're at the 3 pt line and get a pass?

 

What ever changes that need to be done in the offense are deeply systemic and need an entire off-season of practice to remedy.

 

Excellent points, they are playing team basketball and the way the game is supposed to be played. James was jacking up shots after the LA lost from the corner. He shoots maybe less than 10% of his 3s from the corner, so why is he practicing shots from there? Scoring is not our issue, getting stops is the issue and that comes with hustle and effort. Which we are severely lacking in that department. Plus our head coach is a lame duck that is constantly being out coached.

 

Plan b is Ryan andrernson in the paint.

MDA extension and a bigger contract is plan B.

 

Yeah, I unfortunately agree. MDA is probably not the guy to implement those changes. Nor is Morey a GM who likely will be on board with those kinds of changes. Heck, I don't know if Harden wants to change how they do things.

AJ Hoffman was subbing in for Lance and John on 97.5 this morning, and he brought up that, while Harden is one of the top 5 or 6 players in the league, you can win a title if one of those other 5 or 6 guys is your best player. He didn't think you could if Harden was your best player. Mainly due to outdated analysis about Harden's game requires a lot of respect from the refs, getting to the line a bunch, having defenders lay off his shots: all things that go away in the playoffs.

That said, I think there's a lot of truth to that observation, only my criticism is of his leadership. I'm not in that locker room, and I don't know these guys. But it looks like Harden does not want to be a vocal, "Follow Me!" kind of leader. A guy who holds himself up as an example of the kind of the player he wants to see. A guy who holds his teammates as accountable as he holds himself. Which is fine, but he doesn't want anyone else to do it either, and it looks like a team needs one of those guys in order to win big.

 

We have to let season ride out to the wheels fall off

MDA is half way to retirement and this is the farewell tour for MDA.

 

The offense is fine.

 

Shooters shoot...

But yeah, once 4th hit it became winning time. At that point you have to know what worked for tonight and stick to it. I hear Harden say after the game "We just got away from what was working."

Cool...then stop doing that. I don't want to hear that crap after a game anymore.

 

Plan B needs to be lock down defense when the shots aren’t falling.

It’s all about the defense in my opinion. 4th quarter defense to be even more specific.

 

Yeah because you didn't buy his book and aren't eating enough Willie Gs.