Miss you too Houston, but i got my girl, my money, and my 4th year in Phoenix. And it doesn't matter Phoenix traded me and a 1st round pick for Aaron Brooks.
These early games are more about learning what your personnel can and cannot do. The upside is that it shatters the myth that Toney Douglas can stop opposing point guards. He clearly cannot. I doubt even a mere assistant coach as consistently overmatched as Sampson would have the nerve to try this with Douglas again.
Those learning experiments are supposed to be tried by headcoaches, not by an interim headcoach and certainly not during a close game. Sampson really went way over his head last night.
Counterpoint: The thing you always want to do with the player having his best game of the early season, who is flirting with a triple double, is bench him.
can't be sure of it , he did it with Asik in Miami game , then he did it again in Memphis game . Maybe he's just not as clever as we think he is
Somebody needs to flash the McHale Signal in the sky. I imagine it looks like a lanky, tube-armed geek in Celtics green connecting with a sweet hook shot in the low post. McHale can't come back soon enough.
I really prefer K Martin, he doesn't hog the ball just like Harden did in every fourth quarter every night. The only reason JLin got 10 assists is that Harden didn't grab the ball that much in the first 3 quarters last night.
I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he seems pretty clueless at this point. I can't wait for him to find his old seat on the sideline. Speaking of seats, I also get the impression McHale isn't exactly texting Sampson lineup changes seated at his daughter's hospital bed, too. These wonderful new ideas like "Omer Asik cannot grab rebounds" and "Jeremy Lin is not a good defensive PG" may come exclusively from the mind of Sampson.
These are not "maybes"; these range from outright falsehoods to extreme improbabilities. They already have enough solidly good plays to run an effective offense. We see them utilized quite effectively in games whenever the coaching staff actually let them go at it without interference. The coaching staff just appears to prefer the solidly bad plays instead whenever they get a chance to "impart instructions." I'm sorry, but when you are closing the 4th with a multiple possessions lead which your team offense has gotten you, and you end/lose the game with 5 straight Harden ISO plays which result in 4 Harden miss/TOs and 1 Lin miss off a Harden hockey pass, that is by coaching staff design/failure. If it wasn't then the coaches had better had called a timeout and chewed Harden out on the sidelines after the third straight Harden ISO resulting in miss/TOs. Harden is not a selfish player. Can't put that one on Harden. The coaching staff is 100% responsible for that one. I would like to believe that this is a mandate from Les for his bid to have a player in "his" All-Star Game and the coaches hate it just as much as the players no doubt do by now. I would like to think that no coaching staff is this incompetent, but who knows. All I know for sure is that, if this is a Les mandate, he has just permanently ruined all prospect of McHale/Sampson ever coaching in the NBA again post-Rockets. Remember the previous Sampson interview where it was confirmed that Lin was supposed to hand it to Harden and go sit in a corner? Yeah, that one. Lin's shooting slump is on Lin (as much as it may be while being handcuffed), but his "lack of aggressiveness" is on the coaching staff. Being aggressive is his nature, minus the coaching instructions and chew-outs when he does go aggressive.
If only... Except...it obviously doesn't. Have you seen the number of posters who argue that Douglas was guarding Lillard better than Lin this game after Lillard went 3/9 0 assist against Lin and 6/9 5 assists against Douglas? Oh, right, the EYE TEST, as in late in the 4th when Sampson inexplicably sub in Douglas for a few possessions: Immediate wide open Lillard 3 (hit), back-to-back wide open Lillard 3 (barely misses, sigh of relief from Douglas). Okay, touche Douglas, touche. Lin back in, but hey, let's have more Douglas on Lillard...for the entire OT because he's a better matchup on Lillard! *facepalm*
Douglas did NOTHING in OT. Sorry, he missed shots,, took a BAD quick shot after grabbing a reb after his own miss... He did not slow down Lillard even a bit, and called Lillard's shots "Hope to Jesus" shots, which means he admits he couldn't guard him... On the flip side, he NEVER MAKES PLAYS, and you NEED PLAYS in OT! JLin showed last season he is MONEY in clutch! And THAT's the ONLY thing that should have mattered.... Oh yeah, besides the 11pt 11ast 6reb 2blk Lin had Vs. basically complete darkness from Douglas.... Protecting Sampson here makes as much sense as leaving your best PG on the bench for the whole OT, on a day he is having a great game...
even with that debacle, Lin was standing there giving everyone a high five after the game including Douglas. I know, I would be too upset to do that, Lin has superb character but maybe he needs a little fire in him and let them know that wasn't the right move, including the play calling this year.
