It's incredible how much depth we have this year. It's like Morey took a look at last season and how the injury to Nene devastated things for us as well as Ariza playing way too many minutes because we had no one worth a damn to spell him and was like "OK... enough is enough." Black is infinitely better as a 3rd string backup than Chinanu, Zhou, Harrell, or D-Mo's rights. PJ Tucker gives us a serviceable stretch 4 when Anderson sits or starts shooting blanks AND can spell Ariza at least 5-10 minutes a game. Moute is like a poor man's Ariza and can also spell Ariza and whoever we have at SG. I am STOKED for the season to start!
all that is moot if MDA still can't figure out how to increase his rotation like Kerr and Pops and continue playing Harden 200 minutes more than Lebron 300 minutes more than Curry, PG, Davis, Lillard, 500 minutes more than Kawhi, Draymond
Chuck Hayes and Yao Ming was an absurd defensive front line to go against, and we had Deke off the bench. That's just nasty.
This is why we got CP3. Unlike everyone else, the Rockets were a one pony show... - Lebron had Irving and Love - Curry had Durant - PG had Jeff Teague - Davis had Holiday and later Boogie - Lillard had McCollum - Kawhi had Poppovich and LMA - Donky had Curry and Durant Harden only had Ego, who is really like a poor man's Klay and can't really create. Bev tried, but ultimately he is who he is. Point is, MDA didn't have any real options to run his offense outside of Harden, which is why I always stated that getting CP3 was far better than getting any of the available PF's during offseason.
That's a conscious decision on Harden's part not to rest games. He wants to play all 82 games. All the guys you mentioned took games off. Last year Harden played his fewest minutes per game since his season in OKC. If you look at minutes per game the field is actually quite close. Minutes per game: Lebron: 37.8 Harden: 36.4 Davis: 36.1 George: 35.9 Lillard: 35.9 Leonard: 33.4 Curry: 33.4 Green: 32.5 I'd love to see Harden's minutes drop down to 34mpg, but that's not really the issue. He needs some rest games during the season. Everyone's doing it. Time to adopt the strategy. And when the post season comes around he can't be tasked with doing everything. Last year he was our main playmaker, scorer, closer, and had to guard big men in the post. We took small ball to the extreme limits, especially when Nene went down. I don't want to see Harden in the frontcourt rotation at all next year with the additions of Tucker, Mbah a Moute, and Black. And of course CP3 will be carrying some of the playmaking/closer duties. D'antoni already said he plans on having one of CP3 or Harden on the floor at all times, so we're looking at some staggered minutes. We're so deep that I think we can lower minutes for some guys and give rest games. I'd rather be 3rd seed and rested than 2nd seed and tired.
yeah but easier said than done. harden rests half of what lebron rests then houston maybe looking at 4th seed at best or 5th seed no HCA at worst.. then meet superteam in the next round. easier to skip games if you have a roster like spurs and a coach like pop.. kawhi missed 8 games and they won all or most of them its not as simple as harden resting. the coach and team still need to guarantee the same chance of winning
Still, not trading for Melo is a massive mistake. Our frontcourt is full of stiffs that cant create. Now OKC clearly has a better than Houston. And I am skeptical about whether CP and Harden would work. Sure they can play together, but can both ball dominant guards flourish together?
James Harden has read my posts of me b****ing about his weight. But in all seriousness, these are the steps he needed to take to reach that next level and sustain a successful playoff run and remove that image of him as a playoff choker. He's putting in the work. He always had the natural talent.