Seriously. They have been M.I.A. in these playoffs. One of our biggest advantages during the regular season has virtually disappeared in the post season. Both the Wolves and Jazz bench's have outplayed ours so far and it's really disappointing. Gordon, Green, Ryno, Nene, and yes even CP3 in his role in running that 2nd unit have been far from what they were during the regular season. I'm not ready to completely give up on them yet, but they better wake up soon or we'll be watching the WCF instead of being there.
That is how the Raptors found out that the Bench is not going to get them through games. I think the bench will come alive now and then but it aint a big factor here than it was in the RS. If you have a Super bench player like Harden for OKC or Steph Curry in the second game......feel free to use. Or just Josh Smith.
it should’ve been known that Ryno was gonna be useless in the playoffs, u can’t rely on him Gordon’s been playing dumb and chucking up bricks...7 games in and he’s shooting 31% from the field and 31% from 3 with a 9.7 PER...that’s just atrocious Nene just looks old CP3 has not been impressive for most of these playoffs...some of his turnovers have been head scratching, and he hasn’t been a great #2 option...we need more from him
James Harden needs to stop playing ISO Dribbling For Too Long, because you running the clock down, it creates pressure on other teammates. Pushing the tempo and Clint needs to be in the offense more. James and Chris needs to setup passes for our bench scoring in Eric, Luc, Gerald, Ryan. Low bench points have been hurting the team.
We didn't even have Luc til this series, so he's still getting his legs back. But EG has been awful for the most part in the playoffs, particularly at home which is inexplicable. Ryno didn't play the first 2 games of the Minnesota series, but since his return, he's had only one good game(Game 3). Otherwise he's been a total non-factor out there. He doesn't even look to attempt any shots. Nene hasn't been good aside from the first two games of the Minnesota series. Green was terrific in Game 2 against the T'Wolves, but otherwise has been streaky offensively and not very good defensively. It's not like we need all these guys to be lighting it up. But at the same time, they can't all stink offensively if we expect to win these games. Gordon in particular has got to show up. His 18-20 points a game are crucial if the Rockets hope to advance to the WCF and beyond.
CP3 is basically our bench so yeah... no. His play this playoffs thus far has been unimpressive. I still want CP3 back next year regardless, but we see now how in the playoffs when the defenses tighten up that he just don’t have the physical capabilities that a Lebron, or a Kobe have/had to take over a playoff game. And if CP3 doesn’t get the defensive respect to take over offensively, he then will have trouble getting others good shots like he can in the regular season. If we are going anywhere here deeper in the playoffs Harden has to be otherworldly every night. CP3 can give him some rest in games but he’s just not going to be enough in tight games to get this team going on runs.
Harden went 2-18 in Game 2 against Minnesota and the Rockets won by 20. He doesn't have to play out of his mind for us to win these games. But someone has to step up besides him(in that game, it was CP3 and Green) and the team must play great defense all night(which they did in that game).
Tbh Ryan and Nene have been both bad from the start of the season, the negative surprise for me so far is Gordon, when i look at thim i don't know, he's just playing out of control, he rushes everything, dribbles, passes, shots...not sure what's the deal with him...even though i feel like he didn't play that different in the regular season, maybe the fact that we're playing in the playoffs just highlights that for me. As for CP3 i don't know, i just kinda miss his playmaking, running the court and finding open guys...it's just like he's literally playing like Harden but he's not Harden, not sure if this is my impression or what but yeah...
I see maybe two years left in him being able to score at a high enough level to justify a max contract. On the back half of that contract I want him shooting lights out from 3 like the role Jason Kidd transitioned to in order to still be a factor. So I think either way you have to realize the last few years of it are going to be negative returns but you are all in on winning a title the next two years... hopefully after going to the WCF at least this year. But yeah I’m not comfortable with it either, but realize it’s likely necessary if we want to contend next year and get the comfort of a top seed with a great regular season roster.
Seems like Ryan has lost confidence in himself. There’s been quite a few times in these playoffs where he’s been setup for a three and hesitates to shoot so he ends up just passing it back. Last time he played in Utah he got hot from 3 so hopefully he does again?
D'Antoni needs to play Anderson at the 4 with Nene and not play him at all. It's ABSURD how he can't get minutes at the 4 against the perfect team because of Favors. This is the perfect opportunity to utilize him and it'll make CP3 better as well.
Ryno invaginated in last year’s playoffs too. You can play him garbage minutes and I’m sure some threes will go in, but he’s just one of those players who cannot perform under pressure. He’s done as a Rocket to me. Gordon LMM Green and 15 minutes of Nene is our bench. I have faith they’ll show up here and there before it’s all said and done.
From last night game, harden dribbled 20 seconds for half of his possessions, which works great if he drilled the three or make a flashy play at the end, but if those two don’t work, we are in trouble and I saw quite few times that he doesn’t even want a screen at all, others are just watching.
Our switch-everything-D means Ryno and Nene are unplayable. Our bench is EGo, LMM, and a couple of minutes of GG. EGo playing so attrociously is really hurting the team, but we should've won yesterday regardless. Crowder and Ingles playing the best game of their lives made the difference.
I'd rather see what energy Black can give us at this point. I guess father time has claimed another victim because Nene looks done.