J.B Bickerstaff Post Game Press Conference (1st win)

for at least the past two seasons, they always brought out an assistant coach for half time interviews. that was werid, usually its a player but not with a us. i'd always say "oh **** its assistant coach jb bickerstaff!". my how far he's come. from halftime interviewee to head coach of the rockets

 

He sounds so much more knowledgable about the game than McHale. Which is surprising considering McHale is an all time great.

Was a pleasant surprise seeing him look just like an avid fan on the sideline after that Brewer 3.

Up and involved. I like it so far.

 

The Rockets required like 85-90 minutes between Harden/Howard

The Rockets shot 35%

The Rockets required a fluke off balance 3 by Brewer

This team was coming off their coach being fired and this is "inspired" against Portland?

Requiring 40+ points from Harden and the team hitting 85% of its free throws?

 

come on it's not racist to comment on coach's ability to speak english well. its just a man to man comparison with mchale who did not have that ability.

i like this guy. yesterday he put out good lineups, emphasized defense and passing, made some nice moves in the 4th. i think we lose that game with mchale. 1-0!

 

Yeah, this game meant nothing. Blazers are on losing streak of 6 themselves. Harden still shot 35%. Jones was bad again. Dwight was good, but 5 shots in 40 mins... It's not his fault you know. I would rather let Dwight fight inside against 2 than watch Ariza and others brick random threes all game.
On the other hand, J.B. didn't even have a single practice as HC, so expecting something different would be naive. Guys showed passion in first quarter. But then went to their lazy habits in 2nd.
We're not out off the gutter yet, not even close. Dmo needs to return asap and Lawson needs to have a drink, because he's not being himself.

 

Harden didn't really take off last season until Dwight got hurt, so maybe this is the kick in the ass he needs to start his new mvp campaign. Also I don't think Dwight plays back to backs until Dmo gets back

 

Les sounded kinda pissed on ESPN that Dwight doesn't play b2b. I get it, you pay him huge money, you don't care about his future after basketball. But then don't praise Haren right after, as if it's no biggie, just a slump all stars have at some point.

 

Agreed. We definitely needed this one but lets not celebrate like we actually "won" last night. We played like absolute DOG**** for almost a full 3.5 quarters.

This team has a lot of work to do. I like what JB is preaching and I hope that this team takes what he says and what they have saying been over the past week to heart.

 

the offensive system is still crap and needs to be completely revamped.

more player and ball movement, better spacing, more variation on play calls, more structure built-in so players know where to get in spots and expect the ball to come to them, more screens both high and low, more cuts and loops. t

hat scoring drought from the end of the 1st through the 2nd quarter was brutal.

 

Bickerstaff's offense will look great...once DMO returns.

IMO, the true litmus test is how well he incorporates Lawson. I'm not asking him to coexist with Harden, just provide a consistent spark off the bench and become a viable option when the offense hits a wall...like DMO did.

 

Great point, I actually like the lineup with James at the PG position with Trevor and Brewer at 2 and 3 spots... I do find Jones disappointing at the PF with only 2 rebounds in 30 minutes???

I'm hoping we can upgrade the 4 spot with a trade for Ryan Anderson, New Orleans going no where fast.

 

With all respect to McHale, what I saw from JB last night was a very welcomed site.

I always wanted McHale to show some fire on the sideline. I specifically recall the first game of the season when we were facing the Nuggets and Mike Malone was constantly up and firing up his guys. Even when the Nuggets were up 20 on us late, Malone was still up, talking to his players, yelling at refs and doing the things a head coach should.

Never saw that with McHale. I recall in previous seasons where we start losing momentum or the calls start favoring the other team and our guys start losing intensity, and thought McHale needs to do something like get a technical to try to get the guys fired up again, but that almost never happened. I don't think McHale had more than 10 technicals in all his time as a coach here.

But it's not just technicals, McHale was rarely ever as fiery and energetic as JB was tonight. I always thought our team needed McHale or who ever our head coach will be to bring some sort of edge to the team. We need someone to keep intensity up when we are down big or up big, someone who isn't afraid to call a timeout a minute into the 2nd half if the team comes out flat, etc.

Not saying JB should be the HC after one game but if he can bring that type of energy every night and especially on nights were we have big leads and keep them, then he will be doing a better job than McHale for this team.

 

We actually.did go small in the 4th quarter. TJ was subbed for thorton, who was subbed for Brewer (who sent the game into OT). The difference I would say is we didn't overplay it with small ball it was more efficiently used imo

 

Lawson was benched, that was a big move, harden off the ball and on the post, subtle changes that helped a lot.

DD

 

JB: "The guys who took accountability and spoke the loudest yesterday, showed up the biggest tonight"

Translation? Harden finally woke the hell up and got his act together.

JB on Harden: He's got the skill, he's got the FAME, now get you some WINS and uplift your team.

I'd play for this guy. Only one win but I like him already.

 

He's undefeated!

 

I'm not sold on his technical ability and coaching nuances considering he was assistant to the doofus McHale who is absolutely worthless as a coach.

So it remains to be seen how much him being assistant to Mcfail has stunted his growth. I wager he has learnt nothing to develop as a coach under McIdiot over the past few years. Usually coaches learn under their head coach like Bud did under Pop etc but I doubt JB could learn anything but bad coaching habits from McClueless

Having said that, I Like the passion he has for the Rockets. The fist pumping on the sideline and the emotions he showed definitely got the players going. players saw that and it pumped them up to make a miraculous comeback

if it was Milk Hair he would have sat there scratching his head and nodding his head not knowing what hit him.

 

I really like what I heard from JB. Like how involved he was throughout the game. Getting the team to focus on the job at hand.

 

The Blazer shots 40% and under 40% throughout most of the game. That's the most important sign for this team that haven't defended all season long. It's especially note worthy in this instance because even past year Rockets under McHale would fell to defend when they are struggling on offense. Last night they absolutely fail on offense, shooting under 30% for MOST of the game, but yet continue to put in effort on the defensive side. Very encouraging to see.

The losing streak they have been on, not just losing, but how they lost, does thing to your confidence. The shot is going to come back.

Once the offense come back to baseline, I hope we see some changes to make it less predictable.

 

"You Know" - Coach JB.