Today the Rockets scored 120 and still managed to lose. Who do you think is the culprit for the awful D? Coach Sampson recently: "The most overrated thing is that you're a good defensive team because of your coaching," Sampson says. "No. You're a good defensive team because you care and because it's important to you." Shots fired at the lazy team? or just deflecting the blame?
We just have perimeter players who aren't very good on D. Especially Harden, but also Parsons and Lin. I don't know what happened to Parsons though, he used to be a really good defender. I blame coaching partially, but you can't discount personnel as a factor. Tonight against the Mavs though they were make a LOT of contested jumpers. When you have a hand in a guy's face and he makes it anyway there isn't a whole lot more you can do. Sometimes teams get lucky, even mediocre teams like the Mavs.
I like Sampson, he's a stand up guy. I also feel he would have the balls to bench Harden more for his lack of effort on D if he were the head coach. It sucks when your best player doesn't even give a damn on one end of the court most of the time. The perimeter D is a joke. If Rox were just average with their perimeter D, they would be at the very worse about 11-2 right now.
My gut would be to blame coaching because they should motivate the players... however, given Coach Sampson's outspoken criticism of Houston's defense in addition to the complete lack of effort/thinking I see from Harden (and others), I have to say it's ultimately the players. I realize coaches can yell and penalize (i.e. bench) players, but in the end, it comes down to the players.
James Harden is 24. Right now is the most important time in his development. Mchale and the coaching staff need to instill the importance of defense. It will make him a better player thus making his team better. Mike Brown is accredited to making Lebron a better defensive player. Mike Brown got LeBron James to not only buy into his defensive philosophies, but also use his insane athletic abilities to play defense. Mchale has to get Harden to buy into defense RIGHT NOW or he'll never take that part of his overall game to the next level.
That's a cop out. You think Thibodeau would tolerate lazy D? How about Pops? Or even Lionel Hollins? Or Vogel? Serious defensive coaches run defensive drills more than offensive drills. They reduce minutes and call time outs when there are defensive lapses. They call out their players when the defensive effort isn't there. It's easy to get defensive minded players to play D. Any mediocre coach can do that. Really good coaches get non-defensive minded players to play D. That's what seperates coaches like Vogel, Thibodeau and Pops from wannabe "defensive" coaches. Blaming the players is the refuge of the weak coach. Strong coaches take responsibility for everything that happens on the floor.
He's more stand up than McHale. Sampson just tells it like it is especially when it comes to the team's defense. The Rox don't care about defense that much and it shows.
sadly it's looking that way. if mchale continues to enable harden. harden will continue to fall into the same habits and never change due to lack of accountability. GREAT coaches challenge their players, not coddle them. :-/ Even great players like Kobe and Tim Duncan were not above criticism from Phil and Pop.
The ultimate way to get players to buy in and play the way they are suppose to comes from holding them accountable. Only McHale can hold players accountable on this team because he is the head coach. You can run all the drills and preach it to them all day but if the head coach doesn't hold them accountable and bench them for not giving a better effort, don't expect much to change. Harden has been so bad that he deserves to be benched for being a liability out there. Better head coaches wouldn't stand for this.
Blame the league. The stat sheet doesn't record individual D effort. Players (and fans) are too happy scoring 40 pts in the first quarter, even though we gave up 29 pts which is quite a lot. Then the coach, for not making or not being able to make "certain" players play D.
this i do blame refs someimes, but 20pt lead shouldnt evaporate when you're, "contending", or w/e mchale calls it. esp when u have dwight howard. strange, but it did happen a few hours ago. must be the players fault, as mchale says every post game interview.
