I wish his first instinct was to talk about defense, but I must admit I like both sides of his game. He's pretty close to being a superstar if he can play offense like last year and defense like he did in his first year.
Wouldn't say he is close to being a superstar (as a basketball player, that is), or even a star yet. But the trajectory is in the right direction if he can keep the improvement going.
Seems he is already aware of his defensive regression last year and plans to work on it. Very encouraging.
This will be the most exciting Rockets season since '94-96'! I expect to see improvement from almost every player on the team from last year. Add in Dwight...the sky is the limit. I even expect to see improvement from Coach McHale this year, especially after what he did in the playoffs. I don't expect to ever be calling him "McFail" again!
"Adding guys like Ronnie Brewer and Omri Casspi to Jeremy and Patrick Beverley, we can all lock in and be good defenders" I didn't know Omri was a good defender.
Loved hearing that whole team is all ready in town and working. Who ever makes the final 15 is going to have to earn it.
You will McHale will still experiment with unconventional lineups till Morey has enough of a sample size to be useful. He will still use suboptimal lineups for stretches because there are 240 minutes to be distributed each game, and the best 6-7 players can't play all of them. He will still sometimes play guys who aren't ready yet for developmental purposes, and when he's doing it you'll be mad at him for playing someone who isn't ready, and when he isn't you'll be mad at him for not carving out enough time for development. He will still sometimes pull a player who's made a few plays, because he can see the player is getting gassed. He will still sometimes play a guy because he's doing something well in practice, and McHale wants to see if he can do it in a game, and sometimes, the player won't be able to. McHale will still use certain lineups that aren't positionally traditional, giving up defense for offense, or offense for defense. He will still ask players to play roles that aren't ideal for them individually, if that role is what the team needs from them He will still sometimes make the best decision, but it sometimes won't happen to work out, and you will say he should have made the other decision, which is actually the next best decision, because you're sure it would have worked, and hey, flip a coin, maybe it would've. And he will still sometimes make the next best decision rather than the best, 'cause even Pop does sometimes, and McHale ain't Pop. But you will call him McFail less often, because we'll have a better roster, he'll have better options, and so we'll win more. Damn, that was scathing. I address this not to Utimate6thman but to all unjustified McHale related outrage, 'You' being a nonspecific plural.
Oh don't forget the best one. He will still sometimes (but here I really mean often) call late game iso Harden plays when clearly that is all the other team is expecting, even if Harden's been cold for the other 45 minutes of the game. But I hear he's funny too.
The standard "NBA Offseason Hercules" spin for gaining 8 lbs would be "I gained 20 lbs of muscle and lost 12 lbs of fat."
I think the best case scenario for Parsons is some combo of Mike Dunleavy Jr and Luol Deng-- fundamentally sound defender and versatile on offense.
Chandler is a stud He needs to teach Harden some defensive If Harden played D and had heart like Chandler, Harden would be a top 5 player in the entire league
He KNOWS how to play defense. That was demonstrated clearly in his rookie year. Last year, it was either getting tired or just trying too hard on offense that made him slack off on D. For him, defense is definitely about effort.
