Yeah, and it seems like the other players defers to Harden more because the coaches probably keeps reminding them that Harden is the man. xD That could be the reason why some of them seem very passive.
They should run high screens for both Lin and Harden. This will allow them to get into the lane more. McHale is not helping these guys out at all.
exactly. This superstar ISO set doesnt work long term. Plus Harden is not lebron. THe majority of the ball should go thru Lin as the playmaker and a facilitator a la Rondo. I think Mchale got spoiled by the first two games.
Yup. The rockets changed their whole identity with Harden on board. I think it comes down to the fact that there is still utter lack of respect for Jeremy's game even among Rocket coaching staff. There was a rumor that Mchale never wanted Jeremy on his team. If so, they need to find a new coach fast.
Harden is definitely the #1 option but our gameplan can't be so ******* predictable, he needs to play more off the ball. I get the feeling that McHale doesn't trust Lin much, doesn't let him handle the rock enough, doesn't remind him to take open looks.
Near the end Lin started getting more aggressive and Harden was picking his game up a little bit...its just awful watching hero ball, then the expecting the rest of the team to bail out Harden when he really gets stopped by the defense. I really hope omer develops his offensive game, cuz it looked sooo bad. lol. Coaching staff has its work cut out, its only been 4 games but tonight really looked like the coaching staff hurt the team more then build on a pretty good start.
Just wondering... do they have advanced stats on the coaches, or at least a rating system? If I do remember correctly, coaching contributes A LOT for winning championships.
To be fair, a bunch of the TOs on Harden were fouls that weren't called. The refs didn't just swallow their whistles, they hid them in their rear-ends. But, I will agree that the just-give-the-ball-to-Harden strategy is a bad one. I wonder how many games like this it will take before they realize that.
Honestly, it looked more like they were practicing offensive sets more than anything else. I saw Harden running the same left side, low screen play 6 or 7 times. They all ended badly. I didn't see Lin run a single PnR, only call for a couple picks, and there was very little screening to break him free. Most of the times he passed to Harden, it never got passed back to Lin until the 4th quarter. Harden would set up and call for people into position and try to run the play. Defensive rotation was awful. When people got brushed off screens or picks, secondary defenders were VERY slow to cover, or didn't rotate at all. And off the ball movement by most of the team was horrible. Very few back cuts, very few positional switches. It felt like McHale was trying to run a training camp during a live game. Not the worst way to get reps, but an awful way to get a W.
There's no reason why Lin and Harden cant split the ball bringing it up court. Rondo is waayyyy better then Lin, but it wouldnt hurt for them to run it like rondo does with Pierce. They essentially were doing that the first two games, without any practices and just playing pure team ball with Harden doing his thing. THe rest of the team still contributed in those games. Now its like coaching staff is just defer, defer, defer. Then the rest of the game everyone else is playing cold, until the 4th quarter comes around and suddenly everyone starts really pushing for it.
That. This disrespect for Lin's game is unbearable. What is the point of a PG if his job is just to bring up the ball, pass to Harden, and then go camp at the baseline 3? And then not expect him to have a bad shooting night?
lol...you'd think the 3 days of practice would have hashed some of those issues out. I get that you cant get real results when testing out new things in actual game situation, but it sure didnt look like it. Defense did pick up near the end of the game...
yup. rockets should trade lin for mario chalmers, maybe add a first or second round pick. chalmers is good at bringing the ball up, pass it to lebron and hit the 3 pointer.
I actually don't think this team has ever had good chemistry. If you watch closely, the team doesn't do the normal basketball etiquette like when you get a sweet dish for an easy dunk, no pointing to the passer. When a guy makes or misses a FT, 1-2 guys don't slap hands. Dude falls into the cameramen, no one goes to see if he is okay. And today, Parsons kept screening his own teammate from his defensive assignment. These are little things, but I don't see this team gelling right now and they don't look like they are having much fun even when winning.
