Hi McHale, Did you watch how spurs defeated the blazers?

The reason we were not very good in the 4th quarter was because they often tightened on the defense and every iso or post was heavily contested. With Harden, even Dwight, not getting the call, we turned over the ball a lot of time and pretty soon the double digit lead just vaporized. It was actually very predicable and very easy to observe, even for us fans watching the games. But either dumb McFail never realized it or he didn't know what to do to counter this. His strategy was really just Harden iso and D12 post game. Anything Lin brought on the table unexpectedly was welcome by him but he never planned for that because Lin wasn't even the starting PG nor the floor general. I don't think McHale even practiced it much with Lin & the starters. We have a clueless coach and a lazy 'superstar' who faded away every playoff season. Where is the future for championship unless Morey make some changes.

 

The Rockets have the talent, everything else about injuries and lack of depth are just excuses. It's funny before the playoffs started everyone thought we were gonna win, but now we suffered from lack of depth. No we have depth, it just wasn't used properly.

 

Linsanity was a winning streak that happened in spite of overwhelming odds. (For instance, Lin was able to do it with a team of scrubs. Has Parker done that?) You call it luck. I call it evidence of great courage and sustained excellence.

Frankly, the evidence is on my side. When Harden is not dressed and Lin has been permitted to run the offense, he has been averaging something like 21 points and 6 assists per game. That tells me the Parker-level talent is still there. Which is why I conclude that in Tony's situation, Jeremy would be doing at least as well.

The blame you place on LOFs is laughable. You dislike them due to your dislike for Lin, plain and simple.

As for this forum being infested with "a bunch of racist southerners", those were your words, not mine.

 

Pop's system of team ball is so good that he doesn't need to have his oldie stars play 40+ minutes like what we do with ours. He can make journeyman players like Diaw, Green, Belinelli, Bonner & Splitters become star-like players so they can help their stars rest. If McFail were their coach, Manu & Duncan would have worn out or retired long ago.

 

Talk about lack of depth.

Blazers sure are less talented and have a weaker bench. How come they pulled through.

I was browsing Blazersedge.com the other day and this is from a blazers fan:

"Rockets are stacked but they donot know how to execute".

 

Quite true. Do you know that Pop wanted to cut Parker during Tony's first training camp? "I never want to see him again", said Pop. But due to pleading by the scouting staff, he gave Tony another chance, and the rest is history.

So yes, I agree that Pop could have buried Lin on the bench. But that would still be doing at least as well as Parker.

I agree. Emotion is what drives lynch mobs.

 

And we we will continue to not know how to execute for at least another year. Milk Hair has to go.

 

only the rockets can't see this . to me it still seems like the team is figuring out how to play with each other...who gets the ball in crunch time?

as for the expectations of lin, the guy has been in and out of the line up, starting, and on the bench all year lol. talk about adjusting. he already had to adjust his game to fit hardens, then teh bench, then harden again. i commend him for being a great teammate and not b****ing much. next year there shouldnt be any excuses for anyone. well - bad coaching. as for the players, there should 0 zero excuse to see improvement in skill level of the players.

 

How did this conversation get hijacked by Lin talk?

 

Lin is relevant. We would probably have beat the Blazers if he were guarding Lillard in that fatal last 0.9 seconds of game 6. That Lin was benched -- and we lost the series -- is on McFail. So you see that Lin is very relevant in Milk Hair's thread.

 

You know, I even think the Rockets could have a good regular season record with McHale next year. It's just I never want to see him coach the Rockets in a playoff game again.

 

Below I listed the 2013-2014 season (not post-season) Team/Player Defensive stats: RPM (http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/DRPM/position/1), XRAPM (http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/), and DRTg http://stats.nba.com/teamPlayers.html?TeamID=1610612745&MeasureType=Advanced&PerMode=PerGame) for the Houston Rockets, Portland Trailblazers, and San Antonio Spurs. Review the data. It helps to explain why the Spurs are up 2-0 on a team (Trailbalzers) that bested the Rockets 4-2 in the first round.

HOUSTON ROCKETS (2013-2014 season)
PLAYER----------RPM (Def)---------- xRAPM (Def)----------DRTg
Chandr Parson------- 0.57------------------0.15--------------------104.0
James Harden------ -2.87---------------- -2.65--------------------103.1
Dwight Howard-------4.91------------------4.69--------------------102.2
Terrence Jones----- -1.91---------------- -1.45-------------------105.8
Pat Peverley----------1.30------------------1.08--------------------101.8
Omer Asik------------4.82------------------4.24--------------------102.1
Jeremy Lin-----------0.30-------------------0.07-------------------102.0
Troy Daniels-------- -1.52---------------- -0.89-------------------104.8
Team Average-------------------------------------------------------103.1

SAN ANTONIO SPURS (2013-2014 season)
PLAYER----------RPM (Def)---------- xRAPM (Def)----------DRTg
Tim Duncan------------5.29----------------5.03--------------------100.7
Tony Parker---------- -0.06-------------- -0.52--------------------100.8
Marco Belinelli------- -3.15-------------- -3.82--------------------102.6
Boris Diaw-------------1.01----------------0.95--------------------101.3
Kawhi Leonard--------1.92----------------0.97----------------------97.7
Danny Green----------2.54----------------2.19----------------------96.4
Manu Ginobili-------- -0.03-------------- -0.86---------------------99.5
Patrick Mills------------0.35-------------- -0.02---------------------98.3
Tiago Splitter----------4.60----------------4.43----------------------94.5
Team Average-------------------------------------------------------- 100.1
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS (2013-2014 season)
PLAYER----------RPM (Def)---------- xRAPM (Def)----------DRTg
Nicolas Batum-------- -1.10-------------- -0.95-------------------104.8
Damian Lilllard------- -1.95-------------- -1.77-------------------105.1
Wes Matthews-------- -0.97-------------- -0.60-------------------104.7
Robin Lopez------------3.00----------------3.33--------------------103.7
Lamar Aldridge---------3.17----------------2.97--------------------103.4
Mo Williams----------- -2.59-------------- -1.74-------------------105.9
Dorell Wright--------- -1.01--------------- -1.87-------------------104.6
Joel Freeland-----------1.01----------------0.91--------------------105.4
Thom Robinson------ -1.95--------------- -1.25-------------------108.9
Team Average-------------------------------------------------------104.7

Conclusions:
1. The regular season stats suggest that the PG tandem of Beverley/Lin (Rockets), especially Beverley, plays better defense than the PG tandem of Parker/Mills of the Spurs and the PG tandem of Lillard/Williams of the Trailblazers.
2. The Portland Trailbalzers PGs (Lillard and Williams) and SG (Matthews) and SF (Batum) are very poor defenders.
3. Danny Green of the Spurs is a much better defender than James Harden (Rockets) or Wesley Matthews of the Trailblazers; e.g., the Spurs enjoy a huge defensive advantage over the Rockets at the SG position.
4. Defensively, the Spurs also enjoy a huge advantage over the Rockets at the Small Forward position; Kawhi Leonard is a better defender than Chandler Parsons (Rockets) and light years better than Nicolas Batum and Dorell Wright., who are both poor defenders.
5. Defensively, the Spurs also have the edge over the Rockets at the Power Forward position; e.g., Tim Duncan is a much much better defender than Terrence Jones, and, a slightly better defender than Omer Asik. More importantly, he is a much better defender than Lamarcus Aldridge of the Trailblazers.
6. At the center position, the Rockets and the Spurs are about evenly matched; although the Duncan/Splitter duo is slightly better the Rockets duo of Howard/Asik. But, both the Rockets and the Spurs are much better defenders at the center position than Lopez of the Trailblazers.
7. The numbers suggest that the defensive weaknesses for the Rockets lie at SG and PF positions, and to a lesser extent the SF position, while its strengths lie at the PG and Center positions.
8. Why are the Spurs up 2-0 on the Trailblazers? From a defensive standpoint (obviously the Spurs execute better offensively, even if I didn't post the stats to support it), the Spurs are playing better defense against the Trailblazers than we did. Why? The Spurs have better defenders than the Rockets at the SG, SF, and PF positions.

 

irrelevant and TLDR

playoffs are totally different from the regular season

as for the spurs domination, the reasons are simple: Pop and experience (or, alternatively, superior teamwork)

 

remember how mchale theory no midrange shot, Parker won't be our superior PG..

NO MIDRANGE

 

You know, now that I think about it, almost every star point guard in this league has had a reliable mid range game... Steve Nash, Tony Parker, CP3, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lilliard.

You need the mid range game to keep the defense honest when making a drive to the basket, or trying to establish a high-post area post up. Have y'all noticed how many turnovers we have as a result of guys driving in and getting stripped or tied up because defenders have picked up on the Rockets tendencies to not pull up after they have taken that first step to the basket?

 

mmm yeaaah ok.... no.

Parker is miles ahead of jeremy lin. Get over it.

 

Wtf was Harden doing in the game at that point in time? He should have had his ass on the seat.

 

Fine, have it your way. Trade Lin, or buy him out, or cut him again. I'm in favor of whatever will end the vicious lynch mob atmosphere in this BBS.

 

I agree. I think McHale was determined to prove that he could win without Lin, and he learned just about the hardest way possible that he couldn't. Only Morey's loyalty has saved McHale's coaching career.

By the way, Morey probably had to put his own butt on the line for McHale's sake. If the Rockets screw up again next season, Morey will probably be right next to McFail on the unemployment line.

 

Damian Lillard: "(The Spurs) screens hurt. They actually set real screens. They do a great job of setting and holding screens. It wears you down. Chasing Tony Parker is one thing. Getting hit every single time is another thing. It takes a toll on you."

Life was good playing against the Rockets, who rarely set screens.... This was another big reason why we lost the series. And aside from "Moreyball", my biggest pet peeve with this team.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...etting-hit-every-single-time-by-spurs-screens