He actually played a solid 5 minuets but yeah MDA lineups and minutes can be frustrating but hard to hate if we’re winning
Nah Johnson defense looked like Dirk's tonight. He's goin to get isolated on defense in the future. He can't stay in front of a quick drive
Without a doubt. Rockets need to get some blowouts for Green to get legit floor time. Another problem is there are only 24 games left in the season. At some point D'Antoni will shorten the rotation as they tune up for the playoffs.
If you want an example of why you should rest your guys and run with bigger rotations during the regular season, look at the other side of the floor tonight. I'm not saying lack of rest was necessarily a factor, but it was only a matter of time before Butler, Wiggins or KAT went down with an injury. There's no room in the NBA for that archaic coaching mindset of "play the best guys on the floor as much as possible" in the regular season. Rest is necessary if you want to amount to anything in the playoffs, and I'm glad D'Antoni is trying to adapt to that.
10 guys with Gordon out and Wright (DNP-CD). If Gordon were healthy he might have played 11 guys though Green does seem to be odd man out with Joe Johnson playing now. He said in an interview tonight he prefers 8 but might go with 9 in the playoffs this year. I don't see how he gets it down from 10, even if you count Nene and Wright as half a player each or just count Nene. 1. Harden 2. Paul 3. Capela 4. Ariza 5. Tucker 6. Gordon 7. Mbah a Moute 8. Anderson 9. Joe Johnson 10. Nene/Wright Which one gets benched if he actually goes to 9? It seems like it can't be Johnson. And it can't be any of the other guys above. He obviously believes in Johnson and has been giving him minutes he earned seasons ago. I think it's 10 with Green first guy up if we have an injury.
Early in the season, MDA looks down his bench, sees Black, Brown, Williams, and Zhou and goes "Hmm.... James, I need 5 more good minutes out of you." Harden looks at the scoreboard and replies "But coach, we up by 20." MDA "... Exactly." Now, he looks down his bench and sees JJ, Green, Wright, and Black and goes "Hmmm.... I don't know what to do... Maybe play my starters less minutes? Can I really do that?"
You guys missed the bigger story which was that MDA played 10 and Thibs ended the game playing an even deeper rotation than MDA.
Just reading the current Rockets lineup puts a BIG smile on my face. Top to bottom every player (Green included) is serviceable on a championship team. Wow! When was the last time the Rockets let alone any team had THIS kind of depth as a contender?
Whoever struggles matching up against the opponent in the series. Against certain teams (like GS) it may well be Ryan Anderson.
You realize they’re two of the best players in the league, right? You also realize that makes them two of the most competitive players in the league.... right? So what makes you think they’d let him curb their minutes like that? Sure he’s the coach but they both want to play - a lot. MDA can’t just force his superstars to sit for 16-18 mins a game. He may want to, but if they want to play they’re going to play. Besides, the more they play the more we win. Moral of the story is harden and Paul are going to play heavy mins... especially harden. Get used to it.
Harden and Paul were under 34. Ariza, Tucker, Luc, Johnson and Anderson were all under 28 minutes. It isn't as if we ran guys ragged in lieu of giving Green minutes. When Gordon is back, I'm almost positive we will still find a way to carve out 15-20 minutes for Johnson because of his ability to play 4, but Green is out. Sucks for him, but no team plays an 11 man rotation.
I'm glad MDA is expanding the rotation... but the highlighted is just an example of how the things he says just makes me shake my head... So if he's got 10 guys hustling and doing a good job... he's gonna keep 1 or 2 of them on the bench because he "prefers" playing 8 or 9... wtf is that? Does he think our players are too stupid to grasp working with 9 other guys over the course of a game? If playing a deeper rotation results in issues - fine, then make adjustments accordingly... but to go in with a preconceived agenda limiting the weapons at your disposal is just stubborn and shortsighted for the sake of a personal "preference"... I would hope, ideally, we could run the whole roster in and out throughout games seamlessly and get contributions from everybody... obviously that may not be realistic - but it's a lot better aspiration than arbitrarily deciding you're going to limit the number of players you play - that's just stupid, imo... The correct comment would be something like... "Hopefully we'll have games well enough in hand that we can go 10 or more deep on a nightly basis... if a game is tight then we might have to limit it to the 8 or 9 guys that give us the best chance to pull out the close ones..."
If anyone's losing minutes it's Gerald. It may not seem this way, but Anderson is a better defender and a way better rebounder. And with how much he's getting paid, Randerson will always have some sort of role on this team. I'm still hoping with the trade deadline off his back he'll heat back up again at some point
I was hopeful at first, then I heard Gordon was out and he will only play 9 in the play-offs and that's a maybe. Sad to have such a stubborn coach, he would be a legend if he only accepted change.
