the D on the last mayo 3 made me want to throw up, child like, no talk one switches and one doesnt (stopper toney and bing) and a wide open shot for a guy with 37 points........ we are only in or win games when we shoot the lights out, if not we lose because we leak more points than a paper boat and toney, he's a nice player and grown on me, but Lin should be in more and same for Asik, Lin when he penetrates hard to basket (even with a jumper that needs work) is much better for the team offense than toney ever will be, and Lin's D is nowhere as terrible as first thought.... Asik must be in more, love small ball but we have to have a defender and rebounder at the big spot
Actually JVG could be pretty good for this team. His defense is elite - his offense is: let the stars do their thing. And that's basically our offense. I always like JVG, I always liked Adelman - but it is kinda hard to like McHale as a coach, because you don't see his style. On offense it is iso or pick and roll, on defense there is a lack of effort and help. The only thing that he might be credited with: his young players seem to develop pretty nicely (Parsons, Patterson, Morris, Smith) - and perhaps that's the main reason why he is here. But he either needs to have better game performances, or he will be out when we have all the pieces we ned for a run...
Shaun Livingston is no longer available. Washington Wizard has signed him as their guard. Delonte West may still be available. But Houston already has a Royce White to deal with.
Is this a rant thread? My rant is about Harden playing 46 minutes, and this despite twisting his ankle stepping on a dude's foot, and Parsons playing 42 with a sore shoulder. Did that make any sense at all? Are we going to run those two into the ground? Asik and Lin sitting as long as they did was bizarre as well. Unlike the OP, I watched the game, and I just don't get those decisions. /rant over
Could not agree more. McFail is a complete and utter joke and needs to go back to broadcasting before he gets us into any deeper of a hole.
This is what most bothers me. The coaches show no discipline in their rotations and wear down the closures before the 4th quarter even arrives. On top of overplaying two guys, I think their rotation habits have the potential to undermine guys confidence, especially when a guy gets benched for what appears to bento apparent reason. Or a guy can't get off the bench despite players ahead of him stinking up the joint and/or the team being blown out.
May I propose an alternate hypothesis. Morey is not even half way into building the Rockets. The game changed completely when Harden was signed. Would Morey have done it differently if he had Harden first? Of course, but he didn't. I think Morey would have signed a couple of mid-level salary players and had a go at the playoffs. Maybe the Rockets roster is badly unbalanced, and just not very talented. Where is that aggressive stretch 4 rebounder? Ideally it would be a Parsons clone, just an inch taller and 30 pounds heavier. D-Mo in a year or two? Where is that break their ankles, pass the BB though an eye of a pin PG? Macado? Coaching matters about 5% of the time. Four games a year. Talent? 75% maybe? And lets face it, young teams suck. The only team to break .500 with a roster under the age of 25 in recent years is the 2008-2009 Trailblazers. Didn't they have a couple of phenomenal young players on that club?
I thought I'd respond to the comments I bolded. First, I completely agree that we're in the middle of a rebuild, or somewhere in there, but who the hell really knows? Morey catching a break dealing, a player or two blowing up, a long stretch of a largely healthy team, and the timeline could be sped up, although that's pretty obvious (as is being horrible if we have bad luck with the "i" word). I also think Morey would likely have gone a different route acquiring players if he'd snagged Harden first, but again, you never know. Asik is a player I can't see Morey passing on when he thought he had a serious shot at getting him. And while he might have passed on Lin, looking for possibly a better fit in the backcourt, or an upgrade at the 4 (despite having a dozen of them), if he thought a different direction was called for, there was Alexander behind the scenes, probably influencing that move pre-Harden, and possibly influencing a post-Harden move. Jeremy continues the Rockets/China connection, which Les values, IMO. What do I disagree with? That "coaching matters about 5% of the time. Four games a year. Talent? 75% maybe?" I've seen too many coaches come in and have a greater impact than that. Bill Fitch taking over for Del Harris and Rudy T come to mind. Don't really have a beef with the talent impact. If anything, I'd probably put that impact at a higher percentage, depending on the talent, of course. All my opinion, naturally. Yes, young teams are wildly inconsistent. Why so many here expect veteran play from the youngest team in the league, by nearly a year, baffles me. It's truly bizarre, but you see that attitude towards the Rocks and the staff all over the GARM. They'll play like world beaters one game for 48 minutes, then get blown out the next, or let themselves lose over the last half of the 4th quarter. We've seen a lot of that already, and will see a lot more. Not related to your post, but earlier here, when I had my rant about the minutes Harden and Parsons played during the last game, I pointed out that playing Harden like that when he'd twisted his ankle during the game was inexplicable. I didn't know James was missing the game at the time!
