Mike D'Antoni said he isn't a fan of rest thinks it caused hardens shooting to go down

I agree with @durvasa statement. This is Harden's lowest workload as a Rocket. It is kinda a put up or shut up year. 35.5 minutes playing at the slowest pace in the NBA should not lead to tired legs in the playoffs. I won't buy excuses. He is the MVP.

 

LOL does those minutes lead to most wins in the league/1st seed over all/hca all through out the playoffs/ best pt differential?

LOL you don't think harden has done more than enough leading the best team in win shares compared to other superstars and best box score PM as well?

so in your eyes harden NEEDS to play 36 mins and risk getting injured each and every meaningless game we have left?

 

Spoiler: ;)

 

So much beauty in this post.

 

There’s is something to mitigating injury risk at the end of the season.

There is also something to avoiding a string of losses to playoff teams just before the playoffs in order to keep team morale high and not allow players to lose focus.

I’m OK going in either direction.

 

so you don't mind the league MVP or #1 overall seed team's best player plays 36 plus minutes while the rest of the role players plays 28 minutes at the most or the 2nd best player sit down and rest in this 5 meaningless games that the coach clearly isn't trying to win??

 

I don’t have a problem with him playing his players the same minutes they have been playing all year, and I don’t consider them meaningless games for the reasons stated.

 

you are so sure all year the rest of the starters and role players are averaging less than 28 minutes a game??

if the coach isn't even trying to win it then they're meaningless right??

 

hmm.. what would 73 win gsw team or lebron or pops do in this situation?

 

They would be if D’antoni was trying to distribute minutes to Ariza, PJ, LMM, and JJ at the forward slots all season. JJ is a new addition to the rotation whom MDA wants to give reps to and LMA missed a chunk of time.

MDA was coaching to win against a potential playoff opponent. Harden playing 36 minutes in his second game in 6 days should not be a big deal. Quit overreacting.

 

Lol so its okay to distribute everyones minutes but not the mvps minutes?

So if mda just started doing something he never done before then hes experimenting and not trying to win a game

Wanna tip jar bet that in the playoffs mda will play ariza an avg of 32+mins and ego an avg of 30+mins?

 

We are thin at PG and so Harden played a whopping 36 minutes in this game and you are complaining that Harden played his season average minutes and Ariza and EG did not — when you should know full well that MDA is still trying to get meaningful reps in for JJ and Green to decide on his playoff rotation.

 

LOL I thought he was trying his best to win this game

is he still trying to decide the playoff rotation or not?

so lets tipjar bet then good for the board

I bet trevor and ego will avg 32+ and 30+ minutes respectively

not 28 mins because this was an experiment/not a must-win game

 

Health is the priority. These guys will be amped up for the playoffs. Just make sure they’re healthy and rested.

 

If I see GG riding the bench while JJ gets playoff minutes...

I was watching the game and I had an epiphany, The ultimate difference between us and San Antonio:

They have Danny Green

We have Gerald Green.

 

If guys are healthy then they should be playing to stay sharp. Just reduce their minutes.

 

D'antoni did say he'd play Harden his full minutes load once or twice to keep his conditioning up

 

He is trying to win and decide the playoff rotation. Crazy, isn’t it?

What am I supposed to be betting on? I fully expect the rotation to shorten in the playoffs.

 

Exactly you can see players are hesitant right now to dive on loose balls and over extracting on plays in fear of getting injuries that could hamper the playoffs performances. We are in total self-preservation mode.