[The Ringer] Kevin O'Connor Mad At Harden, Thinks MDA Sucks At His Job

It's 4 vs 4. The stationaryness of Harden allows for defenses to easily recover back once Harden passes out of the double.

Also Harden walks into doubles where the Lakers want him to get doubled because it specifically closes off the passing lanes to three point shooters forcing Harden to pass off from the double to a guy usually within the mod range area not looking to shoot.

 

That is besides the point, KOC was wrong.

If he was wrong before, he can be wrong again.

And he wasn't just wrong, he was HELL wrong. No team is ever going to beat the Rockets with a traditional center.

You beat skill ball with MORE skills, not less.

 

Exactly. Magically Russel Westbrook cannot form basic NBA pg duties? Of course he can pass to a off ball moving Harden.

Harden was extremely dangerous off ball in his OKC days with WB.

 

The whole Harden off ball movement isnt some grand solution either. It's stupid to think that coaches arent taking these things into account. If you think Harden moving off ball is the solution that makes our offense better than I dont really think you understand that Harden has way more value on ball and that thse 4v3 should be creating better offenses these off ball stuff you call for lol.

And you'll definitely find out if this off ball movement works because if we lose Dantoni is gone and then you can really see how good of couch coach you really are.

 

Yeah, honestly, what are we couch coaches doing here? Let the professionals do their jobs. Harden knows best playing basketball. MDA knows best coaching basketball. And don't forget, Westbrook is a pro too. He knows basketball more than any of us. Who are we to say that he is dumb? Let's just shut up and watch them lose.

Just curious. What are you doing here in a basketball forum if not discuss basketball?

 

Part of it is that, but the bigger part is that Westbrook kills our spacing so it makes it easier for guys to double and recover. If I were wrong the Harden only lineups wouldnt be doing so bad....but they are in fact our best lineups through out the playoffs and this series. Go ahead and double down when the numbers come to you.

 

See the thing is I'm pretty confident MDA probably would prefer Harden to move off ball. More than likely Harden just refuses to or is incapable and MDA does post hoc rationalization to them media to cover for Harden by making excuses such as "we want to play 4 vs 3 so it's by design".

 

I pointed out this exact problem in a different thread. The problem is the lakers "small ball" lineup is better than ours. Morey tried to find an advantage, which was small ball vs traditional bigs. We won the first game where Dwight/Javale played 30 minutes. In my opinion we would have continued to win if they continued to play Javale and Dwight. The same way we got destroyed by tThe other team stopped playing their bigs, advantage lost. Now it's small ball vs small ball, and unfortunately, their lineup is better.

 

Why is is that people think Im saying dont discuss, what I'm saying is that this off ball stuff is not something thats new or something that the coach's dont consider. You spam off ball so much without taking into account the defensive responses to said adjustment and how in the end it just plays more into the defenses hands.

 

Players on this team have said multiple times that James does what the coaching staff asks him to do.And either way you are gonna find out if we lose.

 

I mean are his teammates really going to call out Harden? One tried and got kicked out of the team.

 

Okay so you think the players are lying got it. And James didnt kick out Chris Paul, @Nook has repeatedly said this.

 

Harden is a big part of the reason why we can't capitalize on the advantage. Often times it takes him way too long to make the right pass out of the double, and after he does, the lakers rotate and he doesn't move. Advantage gone. The other reason we can't take advantage is because we are running a dumb system which won't allow players to take open shots.

Harden's best moments in this series were when Vogel would decide not to double for stretches. Once he realized Harden uses the double team to throw in the towel on plays, it was used consistently.

Every once and awhile James can dribble around or through the double, but if he doesn't, he becomes a statue and his part in the play is over. Unacceptable.

 

Because you are saying we "couch coaches" questioning the coaching decision or how Harden should play is worthy of eye rolling.

 

The Lakers biggest advantage with small ball is that their 7 ft big man is perfectly capable of playing small ball meaning they don't sacrifice length when they go small. Same with LeBron. He's a tall point guard at 6'9".

 

KOC was bananas wrong, he insisted that playing Javale with AD and Lebron was critical because it was a net positive in previous Rockets game albeit small sample size.

NOT playing Javale or Dwight was obviously the CORRECT strategy.

Beating skill ball requires opponent to have better skilled starting 5.

Every Lakers starter is not just as long or longer than Russ to rebound and defend better, but they can all shoot 3ball better.

Vogel defensive adjustment has been better than MDA offensive adjustment.

Rockets cannot shoot 3ball at required volume when Lakers trap Harden and/or slow Rockets pace.

 

Yes Westbrook does make it more difficult. I don't want to pretend that he doesn't. Hence why when Harden is being doubled, Westbrook shouldn't be hovering around the three point line but rather start cutting to the basket or run to the mod range area where maybe Harden can pass the ball with Westbrook having a running start to slash to the rim. But he definitely shouldn't be waiting at the three point line.