JB Bickerstaff's strong words after the Pelicans game

Every guy in that lineup has the ability to walk. Therefore, they should be able to move around on offensive sets. The more movement, the more of a chance for a defensive mis-match or breakdown.

Hitting a rolling Capela, a moving Howard or a cutting Brewer (as bad as he has been), or setting up a give-and-go is better than James dribbling 22 seconds and dumping it off to the nearest person, or heaving up a desperation shot.

 

he's meaning this as everyone to a man.

frankly, he's probably less on howard and harden than on everyone else who's in a contract year - but it's quite obvious that the superstars share the load too.

Dwight is too inconsistent from night to night - no longer impacts the defensive side as he once did - and has accepted limited scoring opportunities, further diminishing his value to the team.

Harden has been inconsistent from a shooting and defensive perspective and still actually quits on plays when things don't break his way (see last play last night and his lack of desire to force his way towards the ball when thornton did a horrible job (and that's being polite) with his pick.

Terrence get's caught up in matchups and increasing his market value (he also knows he's probably gone from this team)

Thornton is disinterested in anything other than shooting

Lawson occasionally plays with passion and intelligence and then reverts into a wallflower if he's not the dominant ball guard

Capela is growing but is still very inexperienced and makes multiple mistakes

All players are having a problem when they are the helper of getting caught in nowhere's ville and allowing too many easy buckets to an open perimeter threat

Outside of Capela and Dwight, no one has a passion for rebounding

I'm sure HeyP will b**** about this, but frankly, much of this is still coaching related. You have other people on your bench that can provide more consistency, passion and effort; but he seems bound and determined to get specific players going.

Dmo needs more time. Tjones needs to be sat. Capela should probably play less minutes until he cleans up some of his youthful mistakes.

More postups need to be called to help out when the offense stagnates - be it harden, howard or dmo.

Until marcus commits to anything out side of shooting, i wouldn't let him see the floor again.


and Calvin did a great job breaking down why the box set up used on the last play sucked. Again- coaching. And what was his defensive game plan against eric gordon to start the game? they obviously weren't accounting for him being an offensive player and had to stop and reset... ummm

 

His rotations disrespect the game

At no ****ing point should Dmo/jones be at the 4/5 at the same time. They can't get one damn board. Dmo might be 7ft but he is a PF and nothing else

 

Harden passes enough at least in my eyes. He finds his teammates. It's up to them to hit shots and that doesn't always happen.

I'm just really curious to know who JBB is talking about. I don't think its Harden to be honest. I'm thinking its Thornton which is the reason his minutes are so up and down. It's cool to see Lawson finally getting it together, but if he doesn't have a breakout game soon, I suspect he'll be traded.

Its going to be very interesting regarding roster movement after January 14th.

 

Why the hell would you propose that lineup when we have Ty, Marcys, and Dmo?

Harden has other offensive options. His most potent needs much more time and continuity to work. His other lne is coming off a long and injury and coachs rotations are brain dead. And the other gets benched randomly.

Harden has options, its on him & JB to make the process easier. Harden is to blame more so Dummy JB

 

It's Terrence Jones

 

There's a reason why Harden is the only player in this league that gets to the free throw line as often as he does.

It takes a pretty damn big toll on your body going into the land of the giants consistently each and every night.

To expect Harden to do that for 40 minutes each night is nigh on ludicrous.

In no way am I defending his ending to the game last night (in fact have harped on how pathetic it was) but be realistic here.

 

That was not the lineup towards tbe end of the game. It was Lawson, Bev, Ariza, Dwight, and Harden. Lawson just dribbled around then did his usual pass off to Harden to watch in the corner. Ariza, Bev, and Howard can't create for themselves efficiently so they just spreaded out to the perimeter to let Harden do his thing. There was no other players in the game that could take the pressure off of Harden like Dmo or Thornton. There was no moving or cutting or plays being run. That's all on JB.

 

You're watching a Houston Rockets basketball game.

Surely the past 3 years has taught you not to expect this.

 

If the offense was good last night they would have won. For stretches like always the offense looked good but the last 3 minutes the offense was stagnant. Harden went back to jacking up his threes down the stretch. Not one PnR was run to try and get an easy bucket. Idk who or what is the problem but this whole issue with the Rockets is embarrassing. Seems like a buncha children in the locker room.

 

Is this anything new?

 

JB has had his fair share of mishaps but it's on the players!!! Not much has changed from McHale to JB. The guys are playing harder but that's it. That's a result of not wanting McHale. If these guys are losing its bc of the players. Stop blaming the coach that's just lazy.

 

With all this BS drama it's probably safe to say we should start thinking about the post Harden-Howard era. This team needs drastic changes. Doubt they happen during the season.

 

Don't know if your joking or not. But T-Jones has confidence issues when it comes to his play. I don't think JBB would risk that especially considering Morey might be trying to trade him.

 

In my opinion ,poison on a team chemistry , was when Mchale sat Harden in playoffs Clippers game, Smoothe and Brewer came and win it all that night .And we all was cheering on that brave decision,and afterward it all went down the drain.Divas ego was hurting .

 

Yeah that's totally inaccurate. The team played a great game 7 and the first two games against GSW were superb. I think losing those games got to them emotionally. Oh and by the way Harden was the first person off the bench during that epic game 6 to high five and congratulate everyone. That has no bearing on this team. Two different teams.

 

I don't get why people think that JB has to be a great coach to call out players who are lazy and/or selfish. If he didn't do it, he would be even worse than what he already is.

The season is pretty much lost. JB's chances of getting the permanent HC job is low. What has he got to lose?

 

.... I didn't propose that line up. I said it's a possible line up during the game.

 

Thing is he didn't call out players. If the players care, I bet they are trying to figure out who JBB is talking about as well. He's not being clear. How about just going directly to those players & telling them to their face instead of being so vague and cryptic in messages sent out to a third party? I don't really see how talking to the media as a coach or player is ever wise.

And you don't have to announce that you are going to start benching ppl for different reasons - just do it!!!! It's kind of expected you do that as a coach from the beginning.

As for all of you thinking he's talking about Harden, I'm pretty sure you're wrong. He knows we don't have a chance of scoring or winning without Harden. If I was Harden, I'd be so frustrated playing with these "professionals" who are so inept at basketball basics like hitting open shots and converting point blank opportunities. But y'all keep blaming him for everything.....

 

If I was Harden's teammates I would be frustrated with his 'smokers lungs' defense of doing as minimal movement as possible on that end.