I read numerous posts about giving Harden more rest and wanted to start a thread primarily discussing thoughts around the issue. 1. Do you think he needs have his minutes cut? Why? 2. Why do you think coaches are having him play extended minute games when we clearly lost? While i have a readers attention some items I wanted to vent about. If we want to be a fast paced team we have to take more open mid range jumpers. We have plenty of guys on our teams that can hit a pull up jumper and there's nothing wrong with a fast break pull up. JET does it all the time (granted the go in most of the time), but our guards and fowards can do it. Lin needs the green light for more shots. He's got to take that off the screen jumper more consistently. I looked at OKC and both westbrook and Durant avg 18 shots a game. There's no reason we can't do that in houston. Taking that mid range will give us a shot attempt and in theory reduce driving t/o or bad pass t/o. Rotation. Can DMO rebound? if yes get him in there. Beverly needs to come in for Lin and TD for harden with better minute spread. TD has been very good scoring and staying agressive. We have to maximize that and beverly looks like a legit PG and a fantastic backup to have.
the only person who should be getting tired is asik. he has played more minutes this season than he has his whole nba career
I just checked, your statement is not true for Asik, but true for Jeremy. A pro after 2 yrs as he is should handle 30min/g no problem. I wish he gets rest earlier in the game instead of sit out the entire 4th.
Ya I noticed that too. During the loosing streak, Asik played fine the first 5 min and disappeared afterward. When he's tired he's useless because he sucks at offensive end.
1. Yes, he seems tired and frankly I want him to be a great player for the long term rather then a few seasons and then watch him be plagued by chronic injuries like we had with McGrady and Yao. Cutting his minutes will also force the team and coaching staff to learn how to play without just relying on him to be 90% of the offense. 2. I fear that the coaches don't really have an offense game plan. Last season a lot of the offense seemed to run through Lowry and/or Dragic with heavy reliance on using Scola in the Post when they couldn't get shots to go down. This "Fast Paced" offense is for suckers, it is just another term for being a "Jump Shooting" team. The only recent teams, the Thunder and Magic, who are jumping shooting teams, and they not could finish. It is too simple so teams that know a bit about team defense can easily defend it when they have guards that can keep up with ours or big men that can out work or defend the paint. I don't if it is just meant to be easier for Harden and Lin to score or if the coaching really don't know how to plan offense well but the style of play we are currently using will do nothing for our team in the long term.
yes. ideally, harden and lin should start. then stagger their minutes. every one in our backcourt is a "combo guard" anyways...
I know many have said this before, but I like the way Sampson ran the team. It seemed that everyone played together, and if you were playin bad you sat on the bench. Mchale has no clue
No. He should be reading tweets more. If he would switch to reading Royce's twitter feed and make some snarky comments, it would be more enjoyable.
Yes Harden need to rest in the third quarter so he can take over in the 4th quarter and the final minutes. Toney Douglas can replace him and he plays well with Lin. Same goes to Lin, Beverly can play with Harden when Lin rests.
Actually, he should be sent down to Comcast's D-League...which is basically a tiny sports show on public access TV, filmed in Ho Chen's mom's basement.
Yes of course. He's going to get hurt at this rate. They also need to stop playing him at PG and give Lin more freedom. This of course will not happen because McHale does not even want Lin on the team as evidenced by benching him in crunch time even when playing well.
yeah Im with reducing harden minutes specifically in blowouts. the guy is a near future superstar and id like to keep it that way.
