With this logic, the starters should just play 48 minutes because “you’d rather bet on them”. Silly. MDA needs to trust his bench and let them play through mistakes/lulls. The starters need rest and the bench guys need confidence. But I get it. MDA has trained people to think depth and bench guys dont matter and that Harden just needs to save the day every time with a 50 point game. I get it.
I dont know what to think on WB and CP3 I stand by my preseason analysis that it raises our ceiling but lowers our floor. If WB knocks down any of those 18 footers tonight then the game is over. He didn't , he had a bad night ... and will shoulder some blame accordingly. Im too pissed to watch the post game confrences but im sure he will say that he sucked and needs to play better. Having Cp3 would have helped us tonight . But he wont ALWAYS be better than WB . Its possible for Cp to have an off night too. The difference is that on an off-night for Cp3 he can stand at the wing and space the floor and no one is gonna leave him open. He fits better in MDA's cookie cutter scheme. I think it can be true that WB > or = to Cp3 but CP3 is better for MDA than WB is. Because now MDA actually has to figure out how to use WB besides "stay still while James holds the ball and shoot if he passes to you." Also , to be fair, its possible that WB has a hand injury right now. Also to be fair, its possible that WB struggles shooting all year long. I dont know. I think it can be true that WB had an awful game but the ultimate ( or lions share) or blame goes to the coach. Clark and Hartenstein have been playing serviceably and one gets 8 mins and the other gets 0. A 3 and D vet you brought in gets 3. How did Thabo play poorly enough to only get 3 mins and Clemons who goes 0-6 gets 10 ? To me the game was lost when MDA put james back in to start the 4th and then subbed clint and PJ in at the 11 min mark.... at that point we have to build a big lead and build it quickly .... otherwise a clock starts ticking down to where our guys run out of gas before SA because MDA isnt gonna sub. He placed James in an impossible situation ( along with PJ and Clint) where if they play really hard and try to extend the lead ... then they still have to hold it until like 3 min left because MDA wont sub. And if they play really hard and dont extend the lead then they are ****ed. And anything can happen in a 2-3 minute span .. its a make or miss league , duh. Our lead was like 15 to enter the 4th. Why put in james so early ? If he bumps you up to 20 the game isnt over. If you leave him on the bench and he lead falls to 10 the game isnt over. The difference is you buy James a couple extra minutes of rest .. which doesnt sound like a lot , but when he does EVERYTHING its huge.
You're banking on Westbrook's potential which is fine, its good to be optimistic.But against better teams and in the playoffs people will take advantge of the fact that he cant even hit open shots at league average. Gary was terrible, I hope he gets another shot, but he and Clemmons were bad, both offensively and defensively. They gave up the lead while they were on the floor. When Harden went out the lead died, very quickly. We have the WORST bench in the league. They might need some time but if they were gonna be in, a loss tonight would have been inevitable either way. Mike should give them more chances though.
Youre right that Russ is going to have to get better at hitting his shots. Im not talking about open 3's ( tho they would be nice) ... shots like his 18 footer and bank shot need to go in at his career averages. The bench was bad no doubt. Clemons was worse than Clark IMO , who seems to always BARELY miss his 3's. I cant believe Thabo only got 3 minutes. How was Clemons outplaying him ? I think we are making it hard on clark. It seems like we play him at the 5 one game and then the 4 the next. Hard for a young player to learn multiple positions . House and / or Gordon being back will help us a ton , but im not sold on those guy's health. You've got to make due with what you've got. Its always been MDA's penchant to tighten those rotation strings when the going gets tough. The stats probably say its a good idea, after all, who do you want playing instead of harden lmao ? But he applies this with 0 discretion and to pull the plug so early is just asking for guys to be out of gas down the stretch.
Thabo hasnt been great man...hes been terrible pretty much the whole time. He's gonna have to play Gary, Harty, and Clemmons more to get ready for stuff like this, if we have to lose some games, so be it. Mike's gonna have to....its his last chance...its Harden's last chance and its Russ's last chance. We have to do it now,otherwise we are through.
MDA (and Morey) have constantly said that even misses can net good. Instead we had turnover after turnover and offensive fouls after offensive foul none of which even give you a shot attempt to miss or make. Tired players make mistakes and tired legs miss. MDA is a stubborn, stifling, b**** ass coach.
LOL, all of the leads we had were LOST when those guys came in, if we were gonna depend on those guys tonight for serviceable players, we were gonna lose anyways.
Oh, Thabo aint good. He's very clearly a bench journeyman guy at this point. Im still frustrated that he only got 3 min. He can hold is own vs the spurs equivalent of Drew Eubanks or Demarre carrol. Thabo has been a decent shooter in the past ( on low attempts) I prefer clemons over him in the long run. But if youre missing your forwards .... id rather you play thabo to cover their minutes over clemons ... unless clemons is hot , which he was not. I feel like MDA made his mind up before the game started who was gonna get House/Gordon's minutes and it didnt matter how they played. If they played well maybe he keeps them in longer , if they suck then that slack harden/wb/pj/and rivers have to pick up. There never seems to be any thought of giving multiple bench guys opportunities in games. Same thing with clark or hartenstein. MDA has a 3 man rotation at the 4/5 ( outside of tysons weird 7 minutes) . If the designated scrub performs poorly then its up to PJ and CLint to pick up the slack and we just end up playing the main guys heavier minutes in the second half.
I donno, doesnt seem like we have any ANY room for errors at all and its like this every season. Like I said, I think Mike should play those guys more but its not like he has a lot to work with regarding the bench.
What is even the point of Mike D'Antoni? Why even have a coach? Tilman can save money with no coach. Last real Rockets coach was Rick Adelman 9 years ago. It's not like he's coaching. It's not like he's making adjustments. It's not like he calls timeouts. It's not like he's managing a rotation. It's not like he's developing young players. It's not like he knows anything about defense.
You realize he had to trade picks to dump Paul right? You think OKC is playing Paul right now because they want to win? LOL.
I do realize that. And that’s just another reason why we shouldn’t have made the trade. But hey...it is what it is.
I think maybe on that could have put a hand in Walker's face a time or two Harden was gassed and chasing the 20something year old 14% 3pt shooter did not help Rocket River
