[Feigen] D'Antoni said Harden is "devastated." Open to considering strategic rest.

This was always my prevailing theory. The way we lost Game 5 was totally demoralizing. I hoped they were mentally tough enough to come back from it, but that was a big ask.

 

I don't know how much Harden jogs vs. sprints. I do know that he lead one of the best offenses ever, so I'm fine with whatever he's doing. Not what he did last night, obviously, but overall, yes.

And yes, he plays more minutes than 99% of the league. I imagine he does tend to run up and down the court as much as his peers.

 

Anyone who thinks Harden is hurting this team is an idiot. What is hurting this team is lack of another star. Although, I could have sworn MDA saying something like the bench runs a system more similar to his Suns, and what he runs with the first unit is a marriage of his vision and James' vision. I could be wrong. I think Harden is every bit as good as Nash, albeit it, Nash was far more injury prone.

 

Do you seriously watch Rocket games?

How can any sane person say Harden runs as much as his peers up and down the court?

The amount of energy Harden tries to conserve by walking and standing when the ball isn't in his hands is unprecedented in my NBA viewing history. There are points in the Rockets half court offense where when James Harden doesn't have the ball in his hand, the team runs a 4 vs 5 offensive set where James Harden is basically useless standing near the half court line. That's absurd. Tracy Mcgrady was booed out of town for doing that in one ****ing game and now James Harden does it as a staple of his offense.

 

Nope. Don't watch any games. How'd the Rockets do this year? With Harden leading them, from what you're telling me, they must have won 25 games! How could a lazy bum like him produce anything? Surely D'Antoni hated coaching him, right?

 

Game 5, that charge being called a no call, or hell get flipped into an unfair block call and we would be singing a very, very different tune.

 

The Rockets post all-star break were mediocre. Teams figured out their gimmick. There was nothing special about the Rockets besides jacking up an unprecedented amount of threes regardless of whether they were open or 5 ft behind the line while being contested. I think most teams with competent shooters could have the initial success the Rockets had pre All-Star break if they decided to take 40 threes a game.

What the Rockets did was 'shock the system'. When the system was shocked and compensated their gimmick became an obvious gimmick.

 

I agree! Now it's time for them to evolve. It was a successful first year of the rebuild, overall. Now time to build on it, and that includes Harden, D'Antoni, the role players, and Morey to improve the team.

As for their being nothing special about the Rockets, they were statistically one of the best offenses in the history of the NBA. Clearly they did something right.

 

They jacked up 40 threes a game. That's what they did right. I think half the teams in the NBA could have matched their volume offensive production with same attempts.

 

There was also a turnover credited to Harden that led to more SAS points but was actually a foul and should have been Harden shooting 2 FTs...

 

"Strategic Rest" is code. Spurs do a lot more than rest their players by having them skip games during the regular season. They also rest them during games while they're on the floor.

Last night for example. It was all about getting the ball to lamarcus on the post. They went right to him for the first few possessions and he was scoring or initiating the scramble. Then mysteriously they just went away from him and started working pick and roll action with the smalls and Pau. LaMarcus just lays down low in the weeds conserving energy, available to finish and board, but not active in the play. That goes on for a little while, then LaMarcus goes out, Manu comes in and they initiate with Manu for a few plays. Then they let Simmons go a couple plays. Then LaMarcus comes back in and they poind it to him on the post again for several plays. Rinse and repeat the whole game. At the end of the game they're still fresh with plenty of rubber on the tires, plenty of brakes, and plenty of gas.

Go back to when Kawhi and Parker were playing in the series, same thing. Kawhi brings it up and initiate and creates a few plays. Then out of nowhere Parker is running things. Then out of nowhere they're pounding lamarcus in the post. Back to Manu in pick and roll. Parker, Kawhi, LaMarcus, Mills, Manu, Pau......all of them taking turns running the action, being the source, the initiator.

That's why all those old men stay fresh and Manu can come up with a great performance in the playoffs out of nowhere.

You gotta have multiple playmakers though to operate an offense like that and you gotta trust them and give them the basketball.

 

the team is mentally weak if they can't handle losing game 5 in that manner. It wasn't even that bad of a loss. If anything the team should have been encouraged that they took the spurs to OT in a must-win game for the spurs on their home floor.

 

F strategic rest, he needs to play off ball. that actually saves energy imo

 

Maybe so.

Criticize those teams for not doing what the Rockets did and maximizing their talent level.

 

maybe those coaches and managers realize that the gimmick will only work for half the season before competent teams adjust.

 

That's really strange, because game 5 was the Spurs to lose, as in it's bad that we lost, but we still have game 6 at home as insurance. Why are they so down to play game 6 at home. Teams usually come out hard game 6 at home.

 

Once nene went down our point guard became our best low post defender. .....


5 days off did not prep him to bang down low

Harden sucked but mike and moray moray him no flavors hit series

Rocket River

 

Haha

Alright man. I'm not gonna debate with you anymore. If you hate that the James Harden and the Rockets had a modicum of success this season, then fair enough. I'm sorry they only won 55 games. I'm sorry they lost to the Spurs. I wish they won more, too. But it was a fun, successful season.

 

Pretty similar to Game 3 after the two close losses in Golden State in 2015. Team was obviously dejected. Appeared that way last night too.