Chron: Harden excited about MDA & coaching staff

[Mr. E]

The full article is at the link (if you have your volume on there is a loud commercial that autoplays). Harden discusses the coaching staff & possible roster changes along with his All-NBA Team snub. Jason Terry seems to take greater offense to that than Harden!

I had no idea that JET had a SiriusXM show. I'll have to check that out. If he does return for one more season then I hope that the Rockets retain his services. It's good to have a guy like that on the team. He does seem to be pretty high on Harden and his potential.

http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/Rockets-James-Harden-excited-about-new-coach-7958087.php

The selection of Mike D'Antoni as Rockets coach will not have to win the approval of guard James Harden. Harden, who had been kept abreast throughout the coaching search, endorsed the pick in an appearance as the first guest of teammate Jason Terry's radio show. "I'm excited," Harden said on Sirius XM on Wednesday. "I'm excited about the opportunity. I've been hearing great things about him, what he brings to our team. Obviously, our assistant coaches (Jeff Bzdelik and Roy Rogers) as well. A new beginning and I'm excited about the opportunity.

"I'm excited about what D'Antoni brings to our team. Bzdelik is a great defensive-minded coach coming from Memphis who is going to help our defensive schemes. Then the players we're going to get, it's set up as a great season for our team next year."

Terry immediately told Harden he thought D'Antoni's offense would fit especially well for Harden, comparing Harden's playmaking to Steve Nash's when Nash was D'Antoni's point guard with the Phoenix Suns. "I told people D'Antoni works perfectly for James," Terry said. "If you look at your numbers, you're primarily, basically, the point guard for the Houston Rockets. You fill up the stat sheet. The ball's in your hands 90 percent of the time. It's kind of similar to what Steve Nash was able to do his two years in Phoenix where he became the two-time MVP. You're right there on the cusp."

[TMU]

Except Nash was a pass-first player who also happened to be a great shooter without having to force his shots or turn the ball over too much. The league has picked up its pace since the Nash era and With MDA, I think this team will play at a high pace. If Harden is going to be given that role as a scorer and a distributor (the role I think he has already assumed since the beginning of this past season), he's going to have to do a better job protecting the ball and also rely on his teammates. To do this we definitely need better shooters around him than what we have right now.

And with that said, I think one of the biggest questions is will we get a starting PG over Beverly if we are utilizing Harden as this pure combo guard? My intuition says we should, but we might not if MDA has that much confidence in Harden.

Going a little off tangent, someone like Brewer, I won't be surprised if he remains on the roster because (well aside from the fact that I think no team would want to have him after a disastrous season) he could potentially do better with MDA. Yes, I said it.

[ken6199]

Based on the difference between Terry's reactions to Harden on the show and Howard (his interview with Barkley), at least it's clear which side he is on. That also means the entire locker room is not on Dwight's side. That further confirms Dwight is not welcomed back here, maybe by the organization as a whole.

Except Nash was a pass-first player who also happened to be a great shooter without having to force his shots or turn the ball over too much. The league has picked up its pace since the Nash era and With MDA, I think this team will play at a high pace. If Harden is going to be given that role as a scorer and a distributor (the role I think he has already assumed since the beginning of this past season), he's going to have to do a better job protecting the ball and also rely on his teammates. To do this we definitely need better shooters around him.

And with that said, I think one of the biggest questions is will we get a starting PG over Beverly if we are utilizing Harden as this pure combo guard? My intuition says we should, but we might not if MDA has that much confidence in Harden.

Someone like Brewer, I won't be surprised if he remains on the roster because (well aside from the fact that I think no team would want to have him after a disastrous season) he could potentially do better with MDA. Yes, I said it.

Even assuming Capela becomes a poor man's version of A'mare, or little chance of Harrell breaking out...the rest? I am really pessimistic of MDA simply because the lack of shooters needed to support his system.
- Marion was producing 19/9 as an undersized 4 on that Phoenix team, I don't see Ariza anywhere close to that. Maybe Dekker will breakout?
- Steve Nash shooting over 45% from 3 while as the primary ball handler, Harden?
- Raja Bell shooting 43% from 3 as the lock on perimeter, Ariza, Brewer?
- Even Barbosa shoots over 40% on that team, and they have Diaw which was essentially the Royce White to be.
I really don't see us solving the shooter problems, unless MDA works wonder and get us 50% more wide open threes with his innovated offense.

[MaxRider]

of course Harden is excited
now he has a coach that won't about him not playing defense

[texasholdem]

Going a little off tangent, someone like Brewer, I won't be surprised if he remains on the roster because (well aside from the fact that I think no team would want to have him after a disastrous season) he could potentially do better with MDA. Yes, I said it.

Brewer can be great under MDA if not forced to just spot up threes. That's never been his game.

[TMU]

Sixers and Hawks are working on a trade involving Teague and Noel. I wonder if this means Horford will be a free agent.

[texasholdem]

Sixers and Hawks are working on a trade involving Teague and Noel. I wonder if this means Horford will be a free agent.

Horford is unrestricted this summer. By the way, he turns 30 tomorrow. Happy Birthday AH.

If Hawks are getting rid of Teague I'd be interested in a Pat Beverley for Kyle Korver swap.

[rockets22]

Harden in the pick and roll and pick and pop which are two of the most used offensive plays in D'Antoni's offense will thrive. Plus Harden plays amazingly well in the open court where he can attack the bucket or find the trailer on the fast break. He is made for D'Antoni's offense. I would not be surprised if Hardens assists numbers increase to something like 9 a game. He will also get even more free throw attempts with this offense because of the pace which will have defenses on the back foot on the transition defense which Harden is the master of exploiting..

The issue now will be finding an stretch 4 like Ryan Anderson or a Horford. We already have Beasley who I think will also thrive in this offense.

[K_chile22]

Harden in the pick and roll and pick and pop which are two of the most used offensive plays in D'Antoni's offense will thrive. Plus Harden plays amazingly well in the open court where he can attack the bucket or find the trailer on the fast break. He is made for D'Antoni's offense. I would not be surprised if Hardens assists numbers increase to something like 9 a game. He will also get even more free throw attempts with this offense because of the pace which will have defenses on the back foot on the transition defense which Harden is the master of exploiting..

The issue now will be finding an stretch 4 like Ryan Anderson or a Horford. We already have Beasley who I think will also thrive in this offense.

I don't know... Beasley never passes the ball so he might not play a ton haha


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[Winejk]

Harden will love it. He won't have to play a lick of defense.

[ALPHAandOMEGA]

Of course he is pleased.....bet he was terrified that JVG or TT would be coach.

[rockets22]

Harden in the pick and roll and pick and pop which are two of the most used offensive plays in D'Antoni's offense will thrive. Plus Harden plays amazingly well in the open court where he can attack the bucket or find the trailer on the fast break. He is made for D'Antoni's offense. I would not be surprised if Hardens assists numbers increase to something like 9 a game. He will also get even more free throw attempts with this offense because of the pace which will have defenses on the back foot on the transition defense which Harden is the master of exploiting..

The issue now will be finding an stretch 4 like Ryan Anderson or a Horford. We already have Beasley who I think will also thrive in this offense.

I don't know... Beasley never passes the ball so he might not play a ton haha


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Beastly can run the floor and has a solid mid-range game. Even a solid 3 point shot. I can see him filling in a Tim Thomas . Just like I can see Josh Smith having a revival year with his playmaking under MDA and playing a Diaw role.

[K_chile22]

Of course he is pleased.....bet he was terrified that JVG or TT would be coach.

He loves TT do I doubt it..


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[tsherkin]

Cheers, folks; peeking in from elsewhere to come badger ken and TMU.

Except Nash was a pass-first player who also happened to be a great shooter without having to force his shots or turn the ball over too much. The league has picked up its pace since the Nash era and With MDA, I think this team will play at a high pace.

Food for thought, but the Rockets have been playing at 96.1+ possessions per game since the 2013 season:

2013: 96.1 (1st)
2014: 96.3 (5th)
2015: 96.5 (2nd)
2016: 97.6 (7th)

Daaaaaang, the league was fast relative to recent seasons, right? And the Rockets are themselves trending upwards in pace consistently from year to year. But that average pace hasn't come with an attendant increase in league offensive efficacy. So yeah, the Rockets will run, and they've generally proven willing to play at among the fastest tempos in the league, but they don't have a team full of shooters... and they don't even have that many particularly GOOD shooters, which further undermines the idea that they should play a ton faster than they're already playing (mind that league-high pace this season was 100.0... but that was Sacramento, at 106.0 ORTG in a 106.4 ORTG league environment).

MDA will have them running, but will that add value to the team? I imagine he'll organize their breakout a little more effectively, because he was good about that... but he doesn't have Amare Stoudemire with his sick mid-range jumper to run around post screens for jumpers, and of course Dwight is a giant pain about running PNR sets, which are the mainstay of MDA's offensive philosophy, and of course Harden is nothing like Nash as a playmaker. This is going to be a rough spot for MDA: he's not shown a ton of adaptability as a coach, and has only really had success with Nash, and doesn't seem to have the ability to reach Howard and make him not be stupid. If he opts out, then the team is going to have to hope for a lot of major steps forward in order to really get going. Historically, lots of teams with weak offensive talent have tried to push the tempo in order to compete. Now obviously, Harden isn't "weak offensive talent," but the Rockets have no punch or creators outside of Harden if Dwight opts out.


Should be a very interesting season, though, as far as evaluating what MDA has as a coach. What can he contribute that the Rockets don't already do? Might he help Harden improve as a playmaker? Will he try to get Harden off-ball a little more? The addition of Bzdelik is also a little interesting, from a defensive perspective. It's nice that MAD is willing to work with what is pretty clearly a defensive assistant addition, since that's a thing he refused in Phoenix years ago. I guess he's looking for a little redemption after doing nothing of consequence in New York or Los Angeles.

Lots of questions, but there is this: they won't be worse, and there's some potential that they could improve. Morey's got some work to do, but this is a team that was a WCF squad as recently as last season. They don't have the stuff to compete with the Warriors or the Spurs (if San Antonio is able to repeat what they produced this season or last season), but they could be a second-round squad if they manage to sort out some of those details and if Dwight sticks around. Will be an eventful off-season and I'm curious to see what Morey does.

[Mr. E]

From this point on the major concern for the Rockets will be health. I'm hoping that Gordon can remain healthy and that he is finally the guy who can spell Harden so that the Beard does not have to carry the offense every night for 40 minutes a game.

I'm thinking that we are actually going to see a situation where Houston's front court will be Anderson, Gentile & Motiejunas for stretches of the game. That's some size & shooting right there!

[ken6199]

Cheers, folks; peeking in from elsewhere to come badger ken and TMU.

Ha, late on this. My excuse: too busy dealing with them KD haters on GB to care about your little essay here...

Daaaaaang, the league was fast relative to recent seasons, right? And the Rockets are themselves trending upwards in pace consistently from year to year. But that average pace hasn't come with an attendant increase in league offensive efficacy. So yeah, the Rockets will run, and they've generally proven willing to play at among the fastest tempos in the league, but they don't have a team full of shooters... and they don't even have that many particularly GOOD shooters, which further undermines the idea that they should play a ton faster than they're already playing (mind that league-high pace this season was 100.0... but that was Sacramento, at 106.0 ORTG in a 106.4 ORTG league environment).

There is more to just running. You can't have the team running if they are a bunch of Tony Allens. This actually shows why Parsons was so valuable during his first 3 years in Houston, because while averaging a league top 3 distance covered per game, he also had relative low turnovers thanks to his bball IQ and handles. He is also pretty good a varying his speed by blending pull ups and ball fakes into his rhythm. You reference of Kings exactly shows that - forcing a higher pace than what you can afford directly results in a league average ORTG. JBB is a terrible coach, but he knows we have no chance against Warriors' defense if they are all set, so our only chance is to run them apart. Result of that? We keep ending up with confused 3 pointers in 3-on-1 fast break situations, and we hurt our defensive rebounding by leaking out early.

MDA will have them running, but will that add value to the team? I imagine he'll organize their breakout a little more effectively, because he was good about that... but he doesn't have Amare Stoudemire with his sick mid-range jumper to run around post screens for jumpers, and of course Dwight is a giant pain about running PNR sets, which are the mainstay of MDA's offensive philosophy, and of course Harden is nothing like Nash as a playmaker. This is going to be a rough spot for MDA: he's not shown a ton of adaptability as a coach, and has only really had success with Nash, and doesn't seem to have the ability to reach Howard and make him not be stupid. If he opts out, then the team is going to have to hope for a lot of major steps forward in order to really get going. Historically, lots of teams with weak offensive talent have tried to push the tempo in order to compete. Now obviously, Harden isn't "weak offensive talent," but the Rockets have no punch or creators outside of Harden if Dwight opts out.

MDA hasn't shown anything new after his Phoenix days. He still has the bragging rights of being one of the 4 coaches who won 60+W in multiple seasons (Doc, Kerr, Pop), but that's about it. A guy lives in the past just like Doc. I actually think JVG adapts into the modern game better than MDA does, by listening to JVG on TV. MDA is just not a great basketball mind. Of course, anything is better than JBB at this point. My only hope now is if he can work something out and get our new shooters some good looks, we will have our 3pt game going at least. Dekker and KJ do have the ability to run the floor however I think they will still need time to learn MDA's system. Will see how the training camp goes. Regarding punch creators, we have Eric Gordon now since you wrote your post, so there is that. I can see a Harden+Gordon back court getting some heavy minutes, with Harden being the de facto PG.

Should be a very interesting season, though, as far as evaluating what MDA has as a coach. What can he contribute that the Rockets don't already do? Might he help Harden improve as a playmaker? Will he try to get Harden off-ball a little more? The addition of Bzdelik is also a little interesting, from a defensive perspective. It's nice that MAD is willing to work with what is pretty clearly a defensive assistant addition, since that's a thing he refused in Phoenix years ago. I guess he's looking for a little redemption after doing nothing of consequence in New York or Los Angeles.

Bzdelik on defence and Oppenheimer on shooting is a likeable combination. At the end of the day, it comes down to Harden buying into MDA's system because Harden is all it is about. I don't believe the defensive effort need to come from coaching - if guys get it going in a structured offence and enjoying their roles, the momentum will inevitably help with the defense. Rockets 14-15 season is the perfect example, top 10 defense + top 1 3pt defense, before slumping to bottom 10 + bottom 3 the next season (while magically maintaining a top 10 offense), with pretty much the same roster. For that reason, I am actually not too worried about Harden gives a damn or not lol.

Lots of questions, but there is this: they won't be worse, and there's some potential that they could improve. Morey's got some work to do, but this is a team that was a WCF squad as recently as last season. They don't have the stuff to compete with the Warriors or the Spurs (if San Antonio is able to repeat what they produced this season or last season), but they could be a second-round squad if they manage to sort out some of those details and if Dwight sticks around. Will be an eventful off-season and I'm curious to see what Morey does.

Don't know what y'all got, I think this is the year SAS drops off a bit floating around #4 #5 seed. Jazz replaces it. It might also be the year that a weakened SW division can finally gives us Rockets a break, with us ourselves weakened a bit at the same time. That NW division though is scary, might all end up with 40+W taking wins off each other without a clearcut superpower.