people seem to assume that McHale calls an iso play each time Harden does so. If the same people would actually pay attention, its clearly visible that Harden creates these iso plays that we have all come to hate so much. Upon catching the ball, Harden waves off the player that is supposed to set the ball screen, thus freezing the rest of the players while he dribbles out the clock. I'm positive that McHale, or any other coach for that matter, does not spend countless hours per week drawing up as many iso plays as we've had.
Managing ego's is the toughest part of an NBA coaches job. Getting them to consistently buy into a system is even more challenging.
The problem isn't who is creating the iso-plays, but why it hasn't been fixed. Coaching is needed to fix players' bad tendencies. Harden needs not only be fix his iso-heavy tendencies but that awful step-back 3 (one of the worst shots, if not the worst, to take in basketball) he loves so much. I don't think McHale is a bad coach, although I don't particular like him as a coach either (the lack of effective set plays, especially out of timeouts and inbounding sets are mindboggling), but I do believe the players don't respond very well to McHale's teachings, which is an important aspect of coaching. Definitely agree. But also this supports my point that McHale is having problems with this aspect of coaching.
Is this actually a problem? Harden averages 1.08 PPP on isolation's and the Rockets average 1.06 PPP overall. I honestly do not know.
Yes it is a problem when your best player and max contract guy averages a tad above the team average. You'd expect your franchise player to do better than that.
Make sure Howard knows how to seal his defender on the post by using his lower body more efficiently. I don't understand why he doesn't do this better.
That's just Harden iso PPP vs overall team PPP. I would guess Hardens overall PPP is much better than his isolation PPP.
