https://www.chron.com/sports/rocket...wolves-13695767.php?__twitter_impression=true Asked if Harden is good about sharing how he feels, D'Antoni said the response "mostly is 'I'm OK, I can play.' "You know 99.9 percent of the time he's going to play no matter what. He's not going to be, 'I have a little owie, I'm not playing.' He has to be injured not to play, not hurt. If he's hurt, he'll play. If he's injured, hopefully he won't play." Harden does not want to take off days, a position that he said on Friday had not changed. With that in mind, D'Antoni said he has tried to limit Harden's workload between games and hopes that having Chris Paul handle some of the load in games helps. "We try to manage it off the floor, first of all," D'Antoni said. "The work he puts in in the weight room and getting himself ready. We try to cut down any kind of practice or extra activities involving basketball. That would help. That's better than other years. The third thing is having Chris, lets him play other plays. He (Harden) doesn't have to do it all game. "We hope 36 minutes, they're different minutes. They're hard minutes without Chris doing everything or 36 with him is completely different. The last thing, you just talk to him. If he needs a day off, he should take a day off. But he's totally against that. Chris is totally against that, which is really a good thing." D'Antoni said he thought fatigue might have been an issue at the end of the 2017 postseason "because he was doing everything all year. "We didn't have Chris," D'Antoni said. "The first series (against Oklahoma City) he was unbelievable. We got to San Antonio, blew them out the first game. He got tired. The overtime in Game 5, he got tired and couldn't recover in time for Game 6. Everybody was like this and that. James is great. He's human. With Chris, we feel that solves a lot of the problems. "We feel we'll do the best we can to manage and he'll do the best he can do and we think it's good."
Lol mike saying all of this like he's some pro-rest guy and harden is making it hard for him to follow his plan . Mike , you were at fault the San Antonio series . Don't make it sound like no one had any idea james could have been tired at the time . His "hands off " approach works great for a lot of things . It does not work in this case . He's got to protect the players from themselves . That's HIS responsibility
Harden doesn't want to rest. That's his demeanor. He might have threatened Tilman that if he rests him, he will call Silver to squeal on him so he can get fined by the league. Seriously though, no one is going to convince Harden to rest. That's just the reality. You guys love blaming the Rockers staff, etc but James won't let them do what's best for him. The only fault Mike D has is not resting him more during games. I bet he could reduce his minutes to 30 mpg over the remaining games to give him rest.
So...Let harden play or make him sit so he can demand a trade next season? Ok Harden, the courts all yours.
God, this coach is something...You know you and Morey can sit the guy down, right? You're a coach for a reason. Everyone can see from miles away that Harden is struggling. I don't give a crap if Harden is stubborn and hasn't learned that rest is important. You have to pull him.
not to mention he had Harden covering LMA and Pau - bc he had Trez glued to the bench bc he wasnt 'comfortable' with him... smh... Funniest part was before game 6 Mike was saying that people that were questioning his short rotation "didnt know what they were talking about..." and now Mike doesnt have the stones to make Harden take time off to recover... he's too worried about being 'McHaled'... MDA has his attributes... but the dude has blindspots you could drive a semi through...
Pringles needs to f***ing do what he has to do for his own players' good sometimes, can't just be their little b****
This is all you need to know about the relationship between MDA and Harden, probably about MDA and his players and maybe even Harden within the organisation:
How are people still putting blame on Pringles for not resting Harden? Harden is clearly ****ing stating he does not want to take a day off. Instead of absolutely doing nothing, Pringles at least will try to limit Harden's off days.
Harden dicides if Harden plays or rests. MDA really has no say in the matter. Harden has all the power. It doesn't matter who the coach is. Superstars decide when they play and when they sit.
He clearly is having conversations with Harden about resting and Harden doesn't want to. Do we want Pringles to just ignore his franchise superstar and rest him against his will? Is that road we want to take?
Geesh the hate for Pringles today. If I wasn't smart I would confuse yall for some dramatic Lakers/Warriors fans
