Does anyone cringe when Harden plays over 40 minutes? I thought that Daryl Morey had cleaned this roster of veterans with the hope of playing a deep rotation, making it our prime objective to either develop another star or build value to trade for one. We will need Harden to be completely healthy and productive 2-3 years down the road, when we ARE A CONTENDER, after we get him some help and phase our team into "win now" mode. There is NO REASON for him to waste away playing long minutes for a team that should still be in constant roster flux. It seems to me that this last offseason we clearly chose development over wins, having the youngest roster in the league. It is clear that we do not have a championship team, so why is Harden playing championship minutes? Let him play 36 minutes a night, and keep a deep rotation so we can really see what we have on this roster. (We should take some lessons from Gregg Pop on how to use a rotation, keeping players happy, healthy and competitive.)
Completly agree...Tim Duncan is still playing at an Allstar level..because Greg Popp..doesn't overuse his stars. Mchale is going to ruin harden ...playing 40+ minutes a game the way Harden plays= Dwade in a few years. We need to get rid of Mchale to protect Harden..he's running him into the ground.
Straight up, we need a better coaching staff that can read the mood of games and believes in resting players. There was no reason to play Harden or Parsons over 40 minutes on the second day of a back to back. Delfino getting over 30 minutes a game is also pretty ridiculous considering he isn't that great of a defender or offensive player.
I agree Harden is playing and having to do too much. The problem is Rox don't have a starting point guard and is having to play two guard and point guard most of the time. Harden also tweaked his ankle tonight so he was spent by the 4 Q. Don't want him to break down in his first year with the Rox.
well most "superstars" do play heavy minutes in their 20's. kobe, wade, lebron, duncan etc, etc all played over 38 minutes per game in their younger days
Cook needs more pt to get comfortable so harden can rest . I was pissed all game with harden playing so,many minutes .
The Rockets is slaughtering Harden the goose that lays golden eggs. Harden better recruit the Suns trainers who kept Nash healthy.
Those guys specifically weren't exactly on completely ****ty teams. Regardless, this is a unique situation. We are rebuilding. Slow down on the minutes, even If it costs a couple wins, imo. Give up a couple wins now, rack up some rings later...
not necessarily true. kobe: 41 mpg in 05-06 wade: 38 mpg in 08-09 lebron: 42 mpg in 04-05 those teams were in rebuild mode. not saying i agree with it but coaches usually give a lot of minutes to young superstars.
Like I've said before, the only way to limit Harden's minutes is to find another star player to take the load off of him. In the end, no coach with his job on the line is going to sit their only superstar in a close game. The Spurs are a horrible example because Popovich has total control and total job security these days. You know what was Duncan's playing time his first 6 seasons? 39mpg every year. It's only when he started breaking down that Popovich began to rest him. I once made a get-Iggy thread because I saw this problem, and felt that Iguodala may help in this regards, giving our coaches another option to Harden at various moments during a game.
McHale was hired because we were rebuilding, right? And because he would be a "Yes man", right? Not running Harden into the ground would be a great start to developing a bright future.
Just because clutchfans make up random BS doesn't make them real. Morey never said he wanted a Yes Man. He wanted someone who could work with the management more closely. But if an NBA coach can't have autonomy in rotations, then that coach is nothing more than a tool. Morey never wanted tools. He wanted people he can work with.
I think Morey hired McHale because he is a tool. An asset, If you will. Are Morey stats telling McHale to play Delfino and Toney Douglas heavy minutes? Interesting.
I recall at season start McHale said we would need to play 10 deep due to our pace. Well, we're #1 in pace, but he's really running Harden and Parsons to the ground, especially Harden expecting him to be the primary playmaker, scorer and iso player all at once. 45 min on 2nd game of back-to-back. At this rate, Harden is at risk to get injured.
