Unfortunately the coaching has been atrocious and Moreys butt should be on the line for this. The team is a hot mess.
Our bench is ****?! Trade Jones and Brewer for picks. Sign Jaron Johnson, Joushua Smith and Raphaiel Putney. Vipers>Bench!
It's early, but I don't think Bickerstaff has a plan. Strikes me as someone who is fiddling around, but not too sure what is happening. If the blame for the defence early in the season was 'lack of effort', then he hasn't managed to address that issue at all.
This team's problem is the character of the players on the team, starting from the top (Harden). Firing McHale and promoting his assistant does not address that in any way whatsoever. If anything, it makes it worse, because they will have even less respect for Bickerstaff than they had for McHale. There are only two options: 1) Trading Harden and completely revamping the roster or 2) Firing the current coaching staff (all of them) and bringing in a hardass disciplinarian, and making it clear to Harden and everyone else on the team that they have to put up and shut up. And see what happens from there. You can still trade them if this doesn't work. One thing is clear: Bickerstaff doesn't have a plan, and the players don't give a damn about it if he even had one. Harden does whatever the hell he wants, the shooting is atrocious, there is no offensive plan, and don't even get me started on the defense. It's not the talent of the players. It's their character, and the only way to address it is to bring in a real disciplinarian.
This. Realistically without any type of change from a new coach or some extremely fortuitous trade it's going to be a very long season. As a longtime rocket fan I don't remember ever seeing a season like this with such high expectations and a monstrous letdown. Objectively this current team is much better than this.
When the Rox are playing at their worst, this is exactly the time when Ariza, Brewer, & Terry must play at their Best. That's one of the main reasons these Championship Veterans were re-signed. It is unrealistic to expect Harden to score 40+ points, and get 8+ assists, 8+ rebounds every game in order to WIN. However, the Rox should expect him to be one of their Defensive Leaders every game because he is capable and that is one of the necessary steps to move forward. The Rox are still helping their opponents eat well by turning the ball over too much with not enough boxing out & glass cleaning.
