Although his rotation has been random and at times stupid, he finally sit harden to make a statement. hardn's lack of effort on d is not a secret. McHale should have done this earlier instead of playing harden to death every game and suddenly benching him for what he has not been doing all season long: defense. he can also use other method. what about getting in his face instead of giving up the game. but doing something about it is better than nothing. he should have played parsons and asik though. even Lin wasn't not that bad. we killed Memphis last time when Lin was running full court offense. but I'm glad McHale finally did it especially on the first of back to back. now I just want him to take some responsibility on losses during interview instead of blaming everything on players.
The difference between harden these last few games and the rest of the season is simply that he is not getting calls. Its hypocritical of mchale to suddenly be uoset because the offense has been run this way consistently the entire season. In other words its mchales gameplan. Had harden gotten his usual quota if free throws we would have been in a position to win. Refs whistles are totally out of hardens control. Hardens never plyed d. Mchale has never called him out. This is a tacit approval of his lack of defensive effort. Harden looks gassed at the end of games despite mailing it on defense. I dont think he has the stamina tomplay d and anchor the offense and play 38.5 mins per game. If mchale wants defensive effort then he needs less harden offense and or reduce his minutes. The implication of this is manifold, the most important of which is thst he needs to trust otger players. Sure, mchale should have dine it sooner. But he didnt. Simply, this is on mchale, not harden. He basically threw the entire team under a bus for the monsrer he himself created.
Is there a rankings of coaches somewhere? I guess it's much harder to evaluate a coaches performance than a player. ie. I'm guessing Popovich would be up there. Am just curious if McHale would be considered top half or bottom half of the current lot.
What's new about this? McSuccess's game plan consist of pushing the pace in a run n gun setup which requires a minimum amount of tactical coaching and Hardenball in the half-court. This has been highlighted since the beginning of the season as it was also pointed out that his gimmick offense would be found out once we reach the business end of the season and play-offs teams tighten up their transition defense and forces a half-court grind. McSuccess can't make the necessary adjustments to counter this: he can't just start to run set plays this late in the season when up to now it was mostly read and react crap. Interestingly, just to show McSuccess incapacity to adjust, Lin came out and spoke about what coaches are expecting of them which is high energy, uptempo game with quick ball-movement or, to be more precise, more of the same crap. Unwittingly, Lin has just shown all teams in the league how to beat the Rockets: concentrate on transition defense as the Roxs has got no plan B to fall back to. Harden played laughable D from the start of the season, only it was anathema to criticise him since he was deemed a superstar carrying such a burden that he was comparable to old Atlas holding the sky. When it was pointed out that the Roxs were not shorthanded on offense (being the 3# offense) and that Harden's skillset was limited, meaning that he will be found out when teams seriously D up, it was said that Harden is "elite at drawing fouls"; not at shooting lights out from 3, beasting in the post or driving to the rim like prime Rapebe/Wade but invoking the charity of fickle refs. Prime Corey Maggette must be proud to know that he was a superstar too. But I don't really blame Harden as he is young and it is up to his coach to keep him accountable and develops his skillset from his raw abilities. Finally, LOL at those people thinking that a legit defensive team like Memphis is a good match-up for the Roxs. I am tired of McSuccess and his bull**** coaching. It was fun cracking jokes about the TWolves when McSuccess was their problem, now not so much. After following this young team since the start of the season, I do not have the heart to jump on the Heat/OKC post-season bandwagon; guess that am done with BBALL for this season.
You don't make a statement when you're trying to fight for the playoffs. McHale is a terrible substitution coach, and he needs to be fired. I respect that he happens to be coaching a great young team (not like he's the one who is playing!), but he needs to go. Harden is the one guy all year who has been a consistent scorer, and to play him barely when we we were down 17 with time on the clock, is just sickening.
Harden doesn't have very many off games. Lin on the other hand has been the most inconsistent player on the Rockets since Rafer Alston and Luther Head.
Yeah, Harden is the most consistent player. He is so consistent that he is predictable. He has the ball to score come rain or shine, and good and bad. He makes the same predictable steps every day and scores .... from the foul line. About time, sit him.
Free throws inflate every star player's numbers. What are you talking about? I would hate to see Kobe's numbers if you took away his free throws. I was all for sitting the starters in the fourth last night when they were playing like dog****, but you guys acting like Harden hasn't been incredible this year are really something else.
Does anyone see the irony of this statement? The most inconsistent actually becomes the most consistent at something.
Check league leaders in freethrows and get back to me smh. He is inconsistent just like the rest of the players on this team.he barely made the allstar team but clutchfans calls him a superstar. He routinely shoots 7-19 with with over 50% of his points being freethrows. As we have seen many games this season when he is guarded by the elite 1 on 1 defenders and ref's aren't gifting him freethrows when he forces contact in the paint, he disappears
These threads make my head hurt. Harden bashing from the Lof, and finger pointing everywhere else.... What else is new? The fact is, everyone sucked it up the past two losses. The leaders(plural) are all going to need to find some serious inspiration real fast or they could see themselves with an early summer break. I hope they got the message the past 72 hrs not from the coach, but from the other teams that beat the crap out them. This team can't afford to act like they are the next dynasty in the making, the fact is they just aren't that good yet, and they are gonna have to bring it every single night.
Why are you tearing down Harden? I venture to say that any of our players will suffer "when he is guarded by the elite 1 on 1 defenders and ref's aren't gifting him freethrows." But other teams don't even pay that much attention to any of our players except Harden. So what's your point? Harden sucks? Harden does worse when conditions are bad?
I do agree the benching last night of Harden kind of made McHale look like a hypocrite. I guess better late than never. I do feel if McHale would have held Harden more accountable like he does other players earlier in the season, it would be paying more dividends by now. This is why I feel McHale won't be coach when team is back in contention. He is just too inconsistent and overall not a good coach at all. I love Harden and the Rox were very fortunate to have him fall in their laps at the beginning of the season, but I never was more disappointed with him than I was after last night.
Excuse me sir, so you're saying McHale waited all season long until we are racing down the home stretch to the playoff finish line to bench the best player on the team because of his defense...??? When McHale's own job could be in jeopardy depending on the outcome of the season...??? And are you saying that the defense by the other Rockets players was GREAT and Harden's teammates shut down Memphis's big men and point guards and it was only Harden who played bad defense...??? Is that the case you are making for the entire season that everyone plays GREAT defense but Harden...??? Lol...!!! Guys like Lin and Parsons hustle hard on the defensive end. But don't confuse activity with productivity. Meaning just because they are playing defense doesn't mean they are stopping anyone... McHale benched Harden because he wasn't trying on the offensive end. McHale and other players have continuously talked about ball movement and the ball being sticky all season long in the media which are indirect shots at Harden. McHale has even blamed Lin's lack of production in the past few games on the stagnant offense which McHale himself installed to highlight Harden. Harden got tiered of everyone running their mouth and gave McHale and the other starters what they wanted. He played good team ball and didn't take over and allowed the other starters the opportunity to take over the game just to show McHale that his offensive system sucks and the Rockets best chance to win is playing with Harden's sticky balls unless McHale implements a disciplined offensive system. Something that would require actual coaching.
Harden played like a joke yesterday, real rox fans will admit that. Its just funny when the LOFs come out and are like "See we told you!"
