Hopefully after tonight, McHale realizes both Beverly and Douglas are capable backups for both Lin and Harden, both of them need rest.
Nice analysis... I saw a lot of cutting by iman and Landry in Knicks... Arhh I just hate how ugly Rocket's game has become... perhaps things will improve as the coach gets more time? or is the coach just simple not capable enough not to run iOS ball?
One would hope. It's really not brain surgery. I think an ideal target would be 30ish minutes for both during schedules with heavy back to backs and 35ish minutes during less painful schedules. It's not hard to manage 30 minutes for the both of them. If you plan on playing Lin and Harden together for the last 8 minutes, that leaves 22 minutes for each. Play them together for the first 4 minutes of the 1st, then stagger them for the remaining 18 minutes. 1Q 0-6 Harden/Lin 7-12 Harden/Beverly 2Q 0-6 Lin/TD 7-12 Harden/Beverly 3Q 0-4 Harden/Beverly 5-12 Lin/TD 4Q 0-4 Lin/TD 5-12 Harden/Lin Totals Harden - 30 Lin - 30 TD - 16 Beverly - 16 And easy enough to squeeze an extra 3-5 minutes for Harden or Lin if you want them closer to 33-35. They just should NOT be playing so many minutes during months like this.
I would gladly give the Wizards Jeremy Lin, future picks, and whatever else they wanted outside of Harden for John Wall. I'd be willing to take on a bad contract or two as well.
He's streaky, yes, and not just shot-wise but entire game wise. He'll be great one game then be flat the next. I still wish we could've just kept Dragic. Supposed his play last year translated to this year, we would be killer. None of this pondering which Lin'll show up.
I'm guessing you haven't been following Dragic. His play this year has been all over the place, and that's playing with a green light. Goran Dragic Season stats... http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Goran Dragic Game Log ... http://www.hoopdata.com/gamelog.aspx?player=Goran Dragic And what makes you think that Dragic would handle the ball any more than Lin or Beverly does under McHale when Harden is on the floor? Harden would still be initiating the offense... ie, less touches for Dragic, and more mid court drop offs to Harden. Harden + McHale + any ball handling PG = sub par results
Like I said, supposing his play last year translated to this year. And Dragic handled the ball a lot last year under McHale, if you followed the Rockets then.
He handled the ball a lot under McHale because the #1 shooting option (Kevin Martin) was not an off the dribble player and heavy ball handler. There's a huge difference in synergies between Dragic/Lowry/Lin and Kevin Martin vs Dragic/Lowry/Lin and Harden. Harden needs to play a semi-PG function. Kevin Martin does not. And while Dragic would translate slightly better than Lin as a spot up shooting guard, his numbers would most likely take a serious decline given our current line up and how often he would need to give the ball up to Harden when initiating the offense. And having Dragic wouldn't necessarily help open the lanes any better when you have Morris and Patterson at the 4 bricking shots all night and getting out rebounded by the guards. TD + Harden is a much better fit in my opinion than Dragic + Harden.
We are not assured he'd be used in the same way as Lin - not that I'm ceding to the idea that Lin's constrained by the coaches that seems to be popular with the LOFs. Dragic certainly would make more out of every opportunity compared to Lin. And Dragic is a shooter. No, Dragic would've been better.
Except Beverly AND TD are being used the exact same way. Do you seriously believe that Dragic would get priority on ball handling over Harden? $80M Harden? I refer you to this from TTNN... pay special attention to the images...
Great post with all the images and hilarious comments that followed the images. Great job coach, we are going to win it all with that.
dragics numbers this season have taken a huge hit being the primary ball handler. Asking for him to be a spot up shooter would be just as disastrous. Coach always talks about not getting "sticky" and ball moving side to side. The starts with the pg doing pg duties. Benching said point guard is not going to unsticky the stickyness. Democratic ball will though. It's frustrating right now. Lowry didn't enjoy being the spot up guard and he was pretty good at shooting, except during that streak too. What is it with these losing streaks. they just get me in a bad mood.
