[Feigen] D'Antoni said Harden is "devastated." Open to considering strategic rest.

"More facilitating"...Chris Paul?

Spoiler

he's going to the Spurs

 

While Lebron laughs at James and Bev for "we too manly we don't sit out unless we injured"

 

That's moving the goalposts of your original argument though. I think they know a lot more about how grueling NBA games can be than you or me.

If these guys say that Harden has to do too much for his team, maybe consider their opinions. You just said the post before that no playerd that played would think this.

I think they need another guy that they can play through, not exactly another playmaker though. Simply a guy that can carry a team as well so Harden can actually sit back and watch another guy work. That's one thing he doesn't have that Lebron or Curry has. They can sit back and watch another teammate of theirs dominate. That's playing with a lot less pressure.

 

LOL, did you watch the Spurs series lil' Stevie Wonder?

 

I think he does need more rest(and help). But at the same time, that is not why they got beat by 39 in Game 6.

 

Translation= "Harden they're on to you. We'll take some blame as long as you stay in Houston"


Aslong as the fans we have a "chance" to win a ring every year, they'll stay watching the Rockets smh

 

The Spurs wore his butt out with their swarming smalls.

 

I call crap....

harden was so devastated he partied all night...

and MDA has run his guys into the ground for decades wo a second thought to defense... we has still defending 7 man rotation up to game 6 and chiding critics.... oh but now he's totally changed his views.... bullshit lip service...

 

Yes. I watched a professional athlete not have the ability to run up and down the court like all his other peers.

 

Ok I buy the strategic rest idea but the team needs quality players (veterans) that can come in and play D. Need a team that go 9 to 10 deep if need be. Go Rockets!! Beside the team getting a beat down last night I had endure the RGV Spurs legion of fans at work and driving to work. I hate seeing those Spurs flags on cars windows.

 

I don't think that the Roxs must move away from D'Antoni's run and gun/SSOL approach as this philosophy has shown times and again that it can produce historic offense with rosters that are from from star-studded. This means that the Roxs no longer have to chase the "three-stars/cornerstones" unicorns to be able to contend. Houston being a perennial second tier destination during free agency, this seems to be the most feasible route for contention.
The trick is try to tweak and improve quickly and meaningfully the D'Antoni offense so that it has less obvious shortcomings and its roster requirements have a lower negative impact on defense. I see three possible avenue of improvements:

(1) To make the offense less predictable, another competent ball handler is required. However, this hinges on Harden willing to remain an active and engaged off the ball threat.

(2) Dumping Ryan Anderson for a wing that rebounds well at his position and adding a mobile tweener PF that can run up and down the court and is not afraid to box the f@ck out of his opponent.

(3) Harden diversifying his skillset by adding a mid-range game or by developing a competent back to the basket game as he has promised to do during his last four exit interviews. Also, this year's playoffs is notable for the unprecedented level of attention drawn to the absurd level of flopping by perimeter players curling off a screen or initiating contact during drives into the paint. Harden now has a target sign that can be seen from space on his back and is going to be made an example of by NBA referees. He better clean up his act or he may well turn into Bad p*rn: Part II.

Option (1) and (3) requires Harden to mature into a franchise player that can carry a team to the championship. Option (2) involves Morey getting back to his senses and also finally hitting the jackpot in his longstanding tweener PF/C bingo series at the NBA draft. I purposefully did not mention Harden playing defense because I was only exploring feasible options.

 

Well, it may be lip service concerning MDA, he's certainly known to be stubborn to a fault.

Only time will tell, I'm sure not ready to fire him after one season. Dude has to get tired of getting kicked out of the playoffs by Pop though, it's probably not a bad idea to learn a few thing from Pop, that is resting players and giving your entire team experience.

 

But does this really happen or will MDA, Harden and Morey simply "double down" on what they're doing now because it won them 55 games. MDA was absolutely lost on what to do to counter Pop's defensive adjustments and strategy even though he's seen this from SA during the past season and other seasons prior. And even though there was a tweet (which gave me quite a chuckle) from MDA that actually mentioned the word "defense", I won't believe this happens until I see evidence on the court. My gut tells me that all MDA and Co is trying to do today is weather the storm - come fall we'll see MDA Part Deux which will be more of the same only faster with different players.

 

On that last point, I could see D'Antoni reassessing his approach if Morey(and possibly Les) had a chat with him after Game 6. His 7-man rotation arguably cost the Rockets Game 5. And there's no way to know what happens in Game 6 if the Rockets come home up 3-2 instead of down, but I can guarantee you it wouldn't have been the sh-tshow we saw last night.

So going into next year, D'Antoni probably realizes he cannot afford a postseason flameout like this. There will be expectations next season unlike coming into this one off of 41 wins. Which means he better expand that rotation, develop some bench guys(like he sort of did this year with Dekker and Montrezl before bailing on them in the playoffs), and get his key guys some rest heading into the postseason.

On that note, there's also pressure on Morey. He doesn't necessarily need to land a superstar free agent, but he better get some more depth. He traded away KJ and Ennis, cleared a ton of capspace to sign waived or bought out players, and came up empty-handed. He has to be more aggressive early on with filling out the roster and not wait til the last minute. Cuz we all know most quality bought out players are gonna wind up joining LeBron anyway.

 

everybody knows if we would have just had James sit out two more games in January he would have come out with the effort needed to win this. LOL

Rest and effort are two completely different things. I'm personally more concerned with effort.....might be just me though.

 

How is that moving the goal post? I'm stating that national TV game commentators have a very superficial understanding of the team because they only tune in when they have have to cover them. They see Harden do his 'let me half ass jog the whole 38 minutes I'm on the court" and they assume 'o he has too much of a load the previous weeks leading up to the game and now it shows'. They don't want to flat out say "Harden has very weak conditioning". That's not how these commentators work. They always play the PC narrative. Shaq and Barkely are the only ones who go against this mold.

 

Ricky Rubio, the savior

 

This is why it's moving the goalpost

Now you're saying their opinions don't matter.

 

I think the issue is he isn't in very good shape in the first place