I don't really understand why the rockets never have a sense of urgency with their season on the line.
It’s funny how these brief moments are the only ones where people are forced to accept reality. Give it a few weeks and you will be an LOF who doesn’t have an appreciation for “harden’s greatness”
This is likely a Harden thing, not a Dantoni thing. In Phoenix, his teams were known for their run & gun 6-seconds or less philosophy. He tends to adapt his systems to the players he has. I know this was sort of a joke (maybe?), but it's really true. A slow offense with little ball movement, even if it's effective, lets a team (that had no depth) rest and helps the opposing team's offense. Curry & Thompson running in circles all game, even if they miss shots, forces opposing players to expend lots of energy.
Players get lazy and complacent, it's the job of the head coach to not let that happen. The 7 seconds or less offense went away a long time ago. We played faster in the past but it was no 7 second offense, But if it's being brought up, Nash was the one pushing but at times should've slowed it down during crunch time. The one common denominator was danphonie not saying a damn thing and only relying on his players to make things happen.
The reason Harden walks up the floor is because of short rotations and insanely high usage. He plays tons of minutes but these are also very high usage minutes. Walking up the floor is needed because it is a way to rest while being on the court.
Harden has walked the ball up the court since he choked on a turd against Portland his second season here
There needs to be some deviation from the “layups and 3’s” scheme, especially in clutch situations. Look at Shaun Livingston, he cant shoot 3’s at all and Kerr adjust the system to work in his strengths. D’Antoni would have him being a spot up shooter like he did MCW. It’s a good system (for 3 quarters) but it needs to be tweaked.
We need more variety, that is obvious except to Morey and his puppet MDA. That's my main reason why I want MDA fired. I want Tilman to give us a coach who at least challenges Morey, but the last good coach who did that got the axe. We lost this game on defense, so we just need to embrace our defensive identity since that gave us a chance last year and this year, not our offense though that got us some regular season success.
If you judge everything by whether or not you can beat golden state, then 29 systems fail every season. The system works, and it's been by far the most successful against them compared to other teams. I still think last year was the year if not for the injury. It's a talent game in the end, and Golden State just have too much. Rockets needed more from Paul than one good game, and Capela was just awful. It's like beating Thanos, there are few scenarios where you can win. HAVING SAID THAT, it's clear CP is no longer an elite iso threat so the offense does need to be looked at. I'm curious to see what's done. Harden seemed sure of what needed to change so I'm thinking that their offense could stand to have some more diversity. You can't ride one player the way they have Harden. Mike D, Paul and Harden are all creative players, it should be utilised.
