Harden showed significantly better commitment this year. I put the "meltdown" down to exhaustion. MDA should have cycled the bench in but then again, if they lose because of the inexperienced players, he would have been criticized.
Nobody within the Rockets would have D'Antoni's back if he benched Harden last night early on in OT for not running his offense. Everybody within the Spurs organization would back Pop if he benched Kahwi for going rogue on offense. That's the difference empowering a coach makes. Hell, last night Pop benched Kahwi and he was pissed about it, it showed during his interviews. You think Leonard is going to try and get Pop replaced now?
I don't even agree that, he needs the weight, it's one of his advantages. He will never be as quick as Wall or Westbrook no matter how much weight he loses, he uses his strong base to take contact on drives and to go through defenders without being bumped everywhere. He needs to stop jacking up threes though, he's too streaky to shoot that much
Harden just orchestrated one of the 10 best offenses in NBA history with no other Top 40-50 teammates around him while leading the NBA in assists. How is he like Carmelo again?
I didn't see a lot of strategizing by McHale during that postseason. Benching Harden was a gamble, but nothing more. He had a unit in there that was effective and the Clippers were playing tight and fatigued. So he just rolled with it and it paid off. It happens. Phil Jackson is one of the greatest coaches of all-time, but do you think he seriously planned to have a unit led by Bobby Hansen bring the Bulls back from 15 down in the 4th quarter of Game 6 vs the Blazers in the 1992 Finals? Part of coaching is gambling on who you think is hot at any particular time. My frustration with D'Antoni last night is that Harden clearly wasn't effective for the better part of the 4th quarter and all of OT. So why keep allowing the same mistakes to be made every time down the floor when the game(and really, the series) is on the line?
Harden was a liability down the stretch last night. You can't have your best player be a liability down the stretch. It's hard to have faith after a game like last night.
I am more thining it is because of hacks on the hands and wrists. . . . When those are NO CALLS . . . turnovers are going to happen Rocket River
It's not his decision. He can't control Harden's turnovers, and he can't control Harden standing around dribbling the clock out. You don't think Dan Tony stressed ball movement in the late huddles? of course he did! Every coach does!
Is this the thread where we all think we're a better coach than Mike Dantoni? Is this also the thread where we think James Harden has nothing to do with our success and we should trade away a player who was top 3 mvp candidate the past 2/3 years if you include this year?
Our coach can't prevent 3 straight minutes of ISO-ball in OT? Seriously? He can't call a timeout and draw up a play to get a good shot?
He just.... Stands there.... In like one place during half court sets. WTF is wrong with him in the second half?
I am sure he didn't wan't ISO ball, but thats what Harden does. Why are you assuming that Dan Tony was ok with what was going on out there? The point is, Harden does what he wants, he always has. Like I said, there were stoppages, you don't think Dan Tony told harden what he wanted, it doesn't take a full timeout, it takes one word. "Move!"
I assume D'Antoni was at least mildly okay with what has happening given that he sat back and allowed it to happen for pretty much the entire 4th quarter and overtime with but maybe 1 time out.
Harden's problem is that he's not Lebron...Melo's problem is that he's not Harden People are really gonna disrespect Harden by putting him in the same sentence as Melo?
