The issue Harden’s greatness is masking is that Paul is having a shitty year; otherwise, everyone currently in the rotation has stepped up with him. Paul is supposed to mask any other issues.
Yeah, I agree. Of course, I'm aware that James is playing heavier minutes mostly because we're shorthanded at the moment. But it grinds my gears a bit at times in games when the second unit has either given us a lead or extended a lead for us while James is on the bench, and instead of letting James rest a bit longer while the second unit does its thing Mike puts him back on the floor. Last game was the perfect example. Rivers and co. were on a roll and continued to extend the lead early in the second quarter, then James comes back out on the floor right after we go up 32-18. Why? We need every bit of his strength when it matters most, so why not conserve him until necessary?
We have the luxury of hindsight, we won the game so we can propose all sorts of scenarios that would probably get the same results. Coach does not have that. Use the same scenario you used and replace the outcome - we lost. "He shoulda brought him in earlier" comments is handily ready for the negative crowd once again. HE CAN'T WIN! We can sit here all day and site instances of couda, wouda, shouda and at the end the most were gonna get is that he makes good and bad decisions. Coach has stated in past interviews that minutes are a concern yet he does the opposite. What does that tell us,he is a liar? If you buy into the idea that he is the right coach for us, then you have to trust that his decisions are made on good reasoning. If you don't, then you'll focus on the negative and dismiss everything else.
You are definitely on point. It's the main reason he has never gone to the finals. D'Antoni's answer to in-game adjustments is to go from a seven man rotation to six... I believe when D'Antoni was a kid he kept putting his shoes on the wrong foot until they fit
Classic, lazy homer "you're smarter than coach" argument. "Stop criticizing Mark Jackson, Jason Kidd, or Thibs. You don't know any better!"
It does not make any reasonable sense to argue that JH should be brought off the bench when our second unit is on a run early in the 2nd, whether we lose or not. I know I surely wouldn't be saying that. I don't think I'm asking for anything ridiculous here- when we're up 22 it doesn't take any special foresight to think it's a good idea to rest Harden for a few. He didn't sit for the rest of that MEM game despite large leads, and he looked straight gassed at the end. I mean, you have a point there. Ultimately, I like D'Antoni a lot, and I trust him for the most part. But managing player minutes is one area where his history has given me cause for concern because it's not been successful for him. My most recent memory of this is Mike playing an aging Bryant 38+ minutes in the 2012-2013 season. Lakers clinch 7th seed, only to be swept in the first round by the Spurs, who in the regular season played an also aging Tim Duncan 30 minutes, maximum. But, the past is the past, and the Rockets are a much different team than the 2012-2013 Lakers, so I suppose I'll swallow my concerns and hope that Harden and Mike know what they're doing.
Homers here are so hilarious. I looked at that announcement and laughed as well. Did you know D'Antoni's brilliant strategy this month? "Play Harden for 38-40 minutes and hope he gets 40 points a game."
Homer, criticizing a team's/coach's weaknesses doesn't mean I should become a coach. What part of that do you guys not understand?
I'm amused that all the arguments calling this thread unnecessary whining center on Harden... yeh, having Harden run outta gas in the post season is a concern - we've seen it happen... but the bigger concern imo is our 33 yo guys - PJ and CP3... Obviously Harden is Harden and if he wants to play - he's gonna play... hopefully he gets some rest in before the post season... but I'd really like to see Clark get some minutes and bring PJ's mins to a reasonable level... he's getting some dead legs out there on occasion. and CP3... well i think its pretty evident at this point that you cant overrun the dude... hopefully Rivers alleviates this going forward upon CP3s return. Last year Ariza got run into the ground... It's not always only about Harden... Yes, he's the key - but MDA needs to manage other guys minutes as well...
If there are instances where a player averages a ton of minutes and still wins a ring , the argument fails. What that shows is you can win both ways and to site heavy minutes as the reason for failure is just more confirmation bias. Theres to many variables required to win a championship and to simply blame it on one factor is not being reasonable.
I would argue the 2 biggest reasons he hasn’t been to the finals are a Horry hip check and a Paul injury.
I didn't mean to imply it was the sole factor, just an important one. To your credit, in 6 of the last 12 championships, the star player or players on the winning teams averaged between 35-38 minutes played per game in the regular season. I don't think that really detracts from what I'm saying though, as D'Antoni's signature of running a tight rotation with heavy minutes for the protagonist has not panned out for him in his last 10 seasons under his own offensive system(s)- he's had 3 deep play off runs in that time. This could be a factor as to why he hasn't seen the post-season success other coaches have when giving players so many minutes, especially in those seasons where his teams were quite competitive. _____________________________________________________________________________ Anywho, I've gotten away from what I was saying initially in this thread. For now, in the short-term, I realize heavy minutes and a tight rotation can't be helped. However, I'd like to see Mike be wiser about Harden's minutes quarter by quarter when possible (i.e. if we're up 22 on the enemy, Harden should catch his breath for a moment). Either way, I hope we continue winning.
