Why are you so interested in seven years ago? Harden was a lot worse in 08-09. Does that mean something?
He was fired, let it go, let it go....don't hold back any more....let it go...let it go, McHale was shown the door....they don't know....... DD
One primary goal is to enjoy watching the Rockets. When McHale was here, we got the most wins in history. I enjoyed that. You were not satisfied, because WCF is not satisfactory to you. I guess you are a "winner" type and I am a "loser" type, right? Yet our teams have the same exact record, and I enjoyed the last four years while you did not. Congratulations on your championship/unhappy mentality.
I've never seen a coach bench a player that came in second for MVP. True superstars don't get benched. In today's NBA the superstar players have tremendous power. I don't see Harden responding well to being benched. Hiring a hard ass to put Harden in his place would backfire in my opinion. If a team has to consider hiring a hard ass to get the superstar to play, then maybe that superstar isn't the guy you want to build around. Also keep in mind that Cutchfans wanted JVG fired, and the Bulls were happy to see Thibs leave.
inconsistent shooters, undersized post players, and flawed stars are the result of morey's bargain hunting. you want consistent shooters? pay a premium. want 2-way players with size? pay even more. want a real star? sell the farm. morey is shopping the clearance rack. but dont get me wrong, i still think he's a great GM... but i'm becoming skeptical about how much power he should have. i think my current state of thought is that we should hire a real basketball mind (like JVG, or adelman, etc...) and allow them to be the coach and the pres of bball ops (in charge of morey). this way the morey leaves the coaching to the coach, because the coach is his boss. but he can still work his magic on cap loopholes and trade negotiations. SVG and kidd got deals like that, and i think thats the right organizational model to follow. granted i dont think adelman or JVG would be hired by les anytime soon, but you get the idea.
You seem to over exaggerate the impact any coach has on his team. Luke Walton's GS is on a historical winning pace this season. Does that mean Luke Walton is the best coach in the league right now? BTW, how are you going to prove the success of Rockets team last year is somehow connected to McHale's coaching? what if it's the other way around? what if we underachieved precisely because McHale was our coach? what if we could have advanced to WCF - or even to the NBA Finals - in a more dominant fashion if it wasn't McHale who was at the helm? correlation does not mean causation. stop making connections that is not there. any fool can figure out McHale was complete dunce as a coach, and he's the one who should be grateful to have coached Dwight and Harden.
What the hell are you babbling about? How does hiring an authoritative coach smooth over the fact that Harden is uncoachable?? What is it about harden's demeanor that makes you think he would listen to ONE WORD from thibs or JVG? There's no mincing Harlan's word here - harden has flat out turned into a primadonna and he is 100% responsible for McHale's firing. And now with these comments from the locker room the team is fracturing. Harden's attitude has always been a little questionable but with this new found super stardom he's becoming a cancer. He's playing on island, for himself only. It wouldn't shock me at all if he has alterior motives such as returning to LA or what but he sure as hell isn't focused on taking this team to the promised land and it's a damn shame. No coach is goin to corral a player like Harden - if a true players coach like McHale rubbed him the wrong way than he's a lost cause until HE decides to man up. And the problem is it sounds like Morey knows that. Until Harden decides to mature there's nothing that can be done.
We saw McHale for 352 games. Luke Walton has coached how many for GS? I have facts: highest win %, WCF. You have imagination: "Imagine a different world, where McHale wasn't the coach, and we got as many wins as I'm imagining. . . ." Facts trump your imagination.
I didn't mean to abandon this thread... it was literally just an opinion that I have about this. I was tired last night so I got the interview videos up and crashed. I personally think this is primarily about Ty Lawson, though again, this is just an opinion. You're talking about the two point guards of the team last year, the guys who initially lost their spots from last season (for the most part). Lawson has been awful and it doesn't look like he's trying much anymore. Terry was asked about Ty's struggles just before this: "Change is new for everybody. He's going to have to figure it out. There's nothing really that I can tell you, but the only way you can figure it out is to play through exhaustion. You play one minute, it better be the hardest minute one minute you've ever played in your life. That's how you have to approach it." After the previous game against New York, I saw Terry at his locker, with a box score in his hand, talking hush-hush to James Harden and he was not happy about something in the box. I could not hear anything but at the time, I thought the only thing he could be really pissed about was Lawson going scoreless. Again, I have no real facts on what was discussed... I just thought that at the time. Harden seemed to be pretty short in not wanting to hear too much about it. I've got the audio only of Terry's interview last night. I'll try to get it up. On the bright side, just before Harden's interview last night (and he was pretty good with the media), Dwight walked right behind Harden and they had a pretty genuine, friendly exchange. Harden was laughing about something Dwight said. I say this because I swear I almost never see those two interact in the locker room. Their lockers are on opposite ends and you just rarely, if ever, see it.
hmm.. let me see. a completely incompetent coach prior suddenly transforms into a winning coach once he gets the coaching job for the team with two highly talented superstars. I wonder what caused that to happen? maybe he suddenly became a strategic mastermind at the age of 50? or is it possible that the players he was coaching carried the most of the workload for him? I wonder what is the more likely scenario...
hmm.. let me see. a completely incompetent coach prior suddenly transforms into a winning coach once he gets the coaching job for the team with two highly talented superstars. I wonder what caused that to happen? maybe he suddenly became a strategic mastermind at the age of 50? or is it possible that the players he was coaching carried the most of the workload for him? I wonder what is the more likely scenario...
I'm not sure if Harden's that much worse, sure he fell off, but I think in recent games he has played a lot better. It's not like he didn't slump in the previous seasons. This is how much each person has declined Harden -2 Dwight -2 Jones -7 Brewer -10 Ariza -4 Terry -6 beverley -8
I agree, it's likely about the PG given it's the two PGs commenting. I also think the loss of Josh Smith is related and significant in regards to toughness, some needed additional offensive creation, and at least some defensive anchoring & presence. The discussion and circumstance of Harden's attitude and Moreyball gone wrong is certainly interesting. Makes for a lot of unique side analysis.. And if one looks down the roster more carefully, I suppose it's not too surprising to see how the wheels have come off and we don't have the size or scoring needed to win.
I agree that two way players not even cost more to trade for but also to pay. The problem is that more and more teams have gone more smart in finding and signing or keeping players that show potential that will erupt with more opportunity. And defence isn't ignored or severely downplayed anymore as it was for a very long while. Right now defence can pay. Less than offence but the difference has become much less than in previous years. Brew when we got him noone else wanted him. Proved by what we traded for him. Ariza didn't have that much interest around the league otherwise he would have gotten more than 8 per. And then you have some two way roleplayers that their teams rushed to resign as fast as possible (like literally minutes after the FA period started) or teams paid premium price for . Examples Middleton, Crowder , Caroll, Milssap Galloway etc. In other years before players like Caroll would be happy to resign with 5 per even with the cap rise. Bad example to bring up Kidd and SVG. (but nice to ommit the most failure of all Rivers). Kidd and SVG in even a short while they have had GM powers have fcked up. Rivers has fcked up more than anyone else. Examples of their mistakes. SVG not extending Monroe at a price that right now would be normal or doing the s+t that had 3 teams interested, letting him go in the end without compensation, refusing to trade Smoove even when there were teams interested, severely overpaying for a second string C that is kinda useless, overpaying for R.Jackson without even letting him go in the market. Kidd trading the Lakers pick for MCW, trading a 1st and a 2nd for Trashquez, letting go of Dudley, Ersan and Zaza for completely free. Rivers doesn't need any explanation everyone should be aware of his ineptitude by now. That's why a GM-Coach is a recipe for failure.
Kinda makes sense. But Lawson barely played yesterday and the team was still terrible. And if we're calling out Lawson for not playing hard, then you cant avoid talking about Harden
Interesting. " I just thought that at the time. Harden seemed to be pretty short in not wanting to hear too much about it." Pretty short means that he didn't want to hear Terry's comments? Sorry I don't know that expression. I agree with this. Not to mention the lack of any kind of you know..real in game coaching in adjusting, rotations, plays out of time outs, ball movement etc etc.
What?! Pat said he & Ty = trouble for the NBA! Now he's barking a(bou)t his teammate. Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trouble for the NBA me and <a href="https://twitter.com/TyLawson3">@TyLawson3</a></p>— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) <a href="https://twitter.com/patbev21/status/622965526164193280">July 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I don't think we know exactly what specifics Terry was referring to, but I could apply to it most of the team. Harden has started finding his scoring a bit again. But he isn't playing the same defense he played last year, he isn't distributing the ball the way he did last year, and something is going on with him not getting Dwight shots or the ball. Last year he was all about winning, he trusted his teammates, and we were a better team because of it. Harden isn't the only one that isn't the same. Smith is gone, Brewer shot (uncharacteristically) well from 3 point last season. Ariza started the season fantastic from 3 pt, and could often be counted on to pour in some threes. Beverley was pretty consistent shooting before his injury. It seemed like the whole team believed they could succeed even when commentators, journalists and others didn't. The solid play helped folks like Terry come off the bench and contribute in a meaningful way. Now Lawson is here, and people were expecting big things. He was someone who could distribute and create a shot. He was going to force other team's defenses to not focus only on Harden. He's failed at that, and doesn't seem to put in the necessary effort to remedy the situation. McHale is gone, whether that's good or bad doesn't matter, it's different. I will say that Clutch's follow up post in this thread was positive in one area. The fact that JET was going over box scores and concerned was a positive, but what seems more important than that was the fact that he felt that Harden would be concerned as well and was going over the box score with him. Honestly that gives me more hope than anything I've seen this season. Though I don't know what to make about Harden not really wanting to hear about it. The sad thing that's a mighty slim thread on which to hang a fan's hopes.
