Rose gets hurt cause he plays like a ding dong with complete disregard for physics and the limitations of the human body. It's cool for 1 flash in the pan season,but eventually the law of averages sinks in. That and he eats like a woman. He only eats fish and chicken. Maybe if he ate a damn steak every once in a while, with or without A1, he wouldn't break down like a fragile little girl every season.
Or you simply waste Harden's time as a Rocket with a mediocre team... but hey, at least he's not worn out, right? Too many people confuse playing hard every second of every game with "wearing down players". Guys like Derek Rose get injured after a sneeze... it happens. Coaches who are successful typically also demand their players play hard. TBH, if the Rockets/Harden play as hard as they can every game... they'll often times not have to log heavy minutes in the 4th quarter.
If you want the same offensive output out of Harden AND good defense then he won't be able to do it for 38 minutes. Something will have to give. You got to be smart with these things, also the team has to know how to play both with and without Harden. I'm not a fan of Thibs, but if you we are talking about the low probability scenario where we have Durant and Horford in the bag to join Harden, then Thibs would be a more than adequate coach to push them to the Finals repeatedly.
Will not happen, their relationship didn't end too well the first time and no way he puts up with Morey's controlfreakery. Leslie might not even want to pursue him.
exactly what i wrote in my thread (see my sig). les called JVG style ugly and specifically wanted an up tempo game. however, les wants a big name coach and thibs is that. while morey needs a safe choice to keep his job, he is also a control freak about his numbers. thibs will have to convince les that he learned up tempo offense during his visits with seemingly every nba team this year, and that he's committed to playing fast on O. he will also have to convince morey that he's committed to using analytics. attending the analytics conference is a step in the right direction.
I think both Thibs and JVG would be receptive to working with Morey again. Battier helped bridge that gap during that time, then that staff left and watched as Morey (working with more autonomy) went and added a ton of firepower, with guys like Scola. Meanwhile JVG was stuck starting Clarence Weatherspoon in the playoffs and died by the sword, insisting we add guys like Charlie Ward and Oakley to the roster while Morey proves he can find Dragic's and Lowry's. During JVG's final playoff series our 4th best offensive player was Luther Head. Within no time Morey was able to add so much talent that Head couldn't even make the rotation. Elsewhere - Battier goes on to win a title for JVG's old boss. Battier's calling card during his tenure with Miami? Karaoke & introducing in-game analytical strategy to the young, stubborn Miami Heat. JVG & Thibs have seen the success here and elsewhere, and certainly understand their own failures. And Morey his own. Also, don't forget - Morey had JVG's contract extension on the table. JVG or Thibs/Morey - I think they still like each other and would work well together. Now, Les? That I don't know about...
Would Bickerstaff be willing to take a "demotion"? I doubt he'd get another HC job immediately unless the team can pull a playoff upset. If that were to happen I can't see us firing him.
JB is as good as gone unless we are in the finals. Even then I would still let him go. We will have a new coach next season or this organization is crazy.
I can see Morey trying to keep him or offering him HC of RGV but a new staff might not want anything to do with him (common). JB has people all around the league looking out for him so he'll wind up on someone's staff quick. He might want to consider college basketball too. I think he should, but he might not. The NBA is in his blood.
Did Leslie promise to call JVG/Thibodeau and never did? Can't blame 'em. I probably wouldn't want to work for Leslie either. Jeff & Rick are still waiting for those phone calls.
Great post. I think Les has a lot to do with who the coach is. I am still not sure whether the McHale extension was Les's or Morey's idea. But the firing definitely was Les's.
It's important to note that CD really strapped the Rockets with no first rounders when JVG came on board. In JVG's first two years, we had no first rounders. Third year we picked Head at 24, and the final year we traded for Battier. That's one first round pick for the entire JVG tenure. It's weird that people say JVG didn't play rookies. He actually played the few he had quite a lot, except for VSpan, of course. Just noting this, as it's true Morey got more autonomy and developed his strategy later, but as far as JVG's era goes, neither CD nor Morey had much in the way of 1st Round Assets to use...except for the Gay/Battier trade. Here's the list or Rookies that made JVG's teams: 2006-07 Steve Novak (2nd rounder, 32nd pick) VSpan 2005-06 Luther Head (1st round, 24th pick) Chuck Hayes (undrafted) Stephen Graham (undrafted) John Lucas III (undrafted) 2004-05 Andre Barrett (undrafted) Brandin Knight (undrafted) 2003-04 Torraye Braggs (27 year old rookie, drafted in 1998 57th overall)
Yeah, but CD traded them for TMac.....we had TMac and Yao, that team was good enough to win - but fell short year after year. So, you can't on one had say no first round picks without recognizing that we had just added one of the best players in the league at that time. DD
Not sure the history of how we traded away the 2003 and 2004 picks, but they were lost BEFORE we got TMac -- which was a 2004 summer trade. Luther Head was our pick in 2005. We didn't use that in the trade, either. And 2006 we had our pick as well, used it for Battier. What do you mean CD traded our 1st rounders for TMac? Did you just make this up? I actually don't think *any* of our first rounders were used in that trade. We gave them Francis, Mobley and Cato, instead.
You are right to a certain extent. I do believe that JVG could have had more success if he had Morey longer. Morey is good at getting good role players. And JVG had the healthiest years between Yao and McGrady. After JVG left, the two stars seldom played together for a very long stretch.
Are you agreeing that CD traded our 2003 and 2004 first rounders in the TMac trade? which is the opening comment in his post? Are you agreeing that CD traded *any* of our first rounders in the TMac trade? CD strapped us with no picks in 03 and 04. Took awhile for DM to make a difference with no assets to use, and by then, JVG was gone. Ziggy is right. Yao and TMac were surrounded by their worst role-players in the early years.
Morey wanted to extend JVG? What is Rick implying in that article about when he was meeting with Leslie & Morey, they would talk beforehand and basically ganged up on him or a decision was already made? Is he talking about his firing?