We look like a first round fodder team. D'antoni's Suns were loaded with high level talent: Nash, Joe Johnson, Marion, Amare, and a young Barboasa off the bench. Johnson was later replaced with Diaw, which was an overall downgrade but Diaw had a unique skillset. We have Harden and a bunch of role players. Not only is our talent level lower, but the league is faster now. Few teams could keep up with Suns twelve years ago, but their pace would be below average today. Our offense is clicking, but our opposition can score right along with us. Unfortunately, no defensive scheme is going to work without some defensive anchors. Clint struggles to protect the paint and having Harden, Gordon, and Anderson in the starting lineup doesn't make things any easier. We'll rarely be able to put teams away easily.
If Lebron gets injured Cavs are doomed. If Westbrook gets injured OKC are doomed. If Kawahi gets injured spurs are doomed. Welcome to the NBA. If Durant or Curry goes down the Warriors are somewhat doomed
I'm still very uneasy and kind of disappointed the established vet bigs don't want to play for the Rockets.. It's an incomplete roster..
Whilst it's not entirely surprising that we're a one pass/shot and out offense right now, I would like it if there were more moving parts leading up to that one pass. There still seems to be too much standing around, but I guess it's early days. I would like MDA to perhaps employ a secondary offense for when Harden sits. Perhaps something more predicated on ball and player movement.
Those Phoenix teams not only had two other elite players, but were also average defensively (like 14th-16th range for the three years). So, obviously not great, but if we get to that point then we're in good shape IMO.
Cause it doesn't take a lot to let a player convince himself that taking a contested shot is ok. I don't think the org cares about Harden's trade value or his ability to rack up assists in a down year >> zero value for the team. They don't plan to trade him, so their value to the team totally negates his value to the market. Most fans don't pay money based off Harden's assist numbers either. If he's getting Marburyesque assists and the team is not really passing the ball, there is no value for the franchise or team. What IS happening imo is MDA believes taking shots early in the clock is beneficial, so with that mindset by the time a player gets the ball from Harden it's time to shoot. If those players are not high IQ players, they will take contested ones knowing there is an easy excuse - coach wants us to shoot it early. I think there is some truth to MDA's idea (shooting before the opponent defense is set), but at the same time I don't think it holds true with a contested Anderson/Gordon 3pter or any shot by Corey Brewer. We can get that shot with 2 seconds left on the clock. The point is to get a decent look early in the clock, and the next best thing is ball movement or a Harden iso. The team is getting better at it, but there's still a lot to learn about which shots take priority over others. It takes getting used to, because players are told their whole careers to be patient in getting an open look. Players will grow accustomed to it, and the coach will figure out who has the bball IQ to make those decisions. I'm still VERY patient about it because I see improvement in that area as well as improvement overall in the offense. i just wish MDA wasn't preaching that giving effort on D entitles you to take silly shots to feed your ego. It also worries me that MDA believes a pay check is a real motivator for a basketball player. Nothing could be further from the truth. The likelihood of a player's effort being correlated to their paycheck is none, if not negative. The money motivator works for mechanical tasks, but it has no benefits in tasks that require decisive thinking. This is a qualm I had with the MDA hire - that he has always been pretty terrible at understanding player psychology and having the EQ to motivate them - but I have set it aside because his overall value to us was among the better ones with the coaching options that were available given Les' desires, Morey's preferences, the team's mindset and the market in general. So far, MDA has delivered on the offensive side. Where he hasn't delivered is bringing Bzdelik's influence more to the fore at the expense of some energy on offense. That could bring us a boost in point differential. We'll see. After reading the part in Lowe's article about Bzdelik, I felt a bit reassured. That's a smart thing to do and required considerable thought and effort. If that kind of effort keeps coming from Bzdelik and MDA is giving it sufficient light in practice, we will be more than ok, maybe even homecourt advantage. Fingers crossed.
"After advancing to the playoffs the previous season, the Suns started off to a disappointing start under head coach Frank Johnson. With the team at 8–13, team management elected to turn to assistant coach Mike D'Antoni to take over for Johnson. Under D'Antoni, the Suns would lose 40 of their next 61 games and miss the playoffs, finishing sixth in the Pacific division with a 29–53 regular season record, the first time since the 1987–88 season the Suns recorded 50 losses or more. " From the WIKI Add Nash and few other parts and they were 62-20 Rocket River
You are right but Kobe had several monster seasons just doing scoring, he is just a specialist, they became different players.
