Has anyone thought that maybe Harden is playing a few too many minutes? Yes, I get it, he should play a lot of minutes because he's important to the team, but isn't there a point at which there are diminished returns to him playing more minutes? This season Lin has averaged 32.7 minutes, Beverley 14.9 minutes, Harden 38.6 minutes, and Anderson 7.9 minutes. Quite a few guard minutes went to Toney Douglas when he was here, so these numbers don't add up to the 96 minutes per game available at the guard positions.
Anyways, here's a hypothetical minutes distribution that I think might work a little better:
Lin - 34 minutes
Beverley - 16 minutes
Harden - 35 minutes
Anderson/Garcia - 11 minutes
The biggest increase is in the number of minutes for Anderson/Garcia. I understand people might be hesitant to see one of these guys playing more minutes but I think I mitigated the increase a bit by adding some time to Lin and Beverley. There's 2 minutes in there during which neither Harden nor Anderson/Garcia would be on the court, and during which Beverley and Lin can play at the same time (imo Lin is big enough to guard 2's, he's only about an inch or 2 shorter and about 20 lbs lighter than Harden).
I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to have any player averaging more than 35 minutes if you can avoid it, particularly guys like Harden and Lin who haven't started a lot of games yet. Furthermore, this team ranks very high in pace (1st?) so 35 minutes of Rockets basketball is NOT the same as 35 minutes of Grizzlies Basketball.
As far as why I think Harden's minutes should be reduced a bit, I think the main benefit is that he will be fresher when he's out there. Harden's offensive efficiency has been great this year, but there might be benefits to having him not be as tired in the 4th quarter.
Furthermore, he's struggled a bit on the defensive end and I think quite a bit of it has to do with him being just too tired to play good defense. A significant part of defense is, in my opinion, effort (this is an important reason why I think Lin has been a solid defender this year, and perhaps may be related to why Parsons hasn't been very good). Harden may not be an elite defender, but if he wasn't so tired I think he could be at least better than he's been because he seems to be gouged on that end quite often (sometimes by opposing coaches design perhaps, as they may want to either tire him out so his offense struggles or exploit his tiredness from having played offense).
Before anyone says "WTF LEBRON AND KD PLAY A LOT OF MINUTES HARDEN SHOULD PLAY THE SAME AS THEM!1!!", yes Lebron and KD play a lot of minutes, but I don't think Harden is quite at the same level they are (at least not YET). Furthermore, not all minutes are created equal, and Durant launching jumpers for 38 minutes may not be the same as Harden playing "high paced, run after made and missed baskets, and drive into defenders basketball" for 38 minutes. Also, even Westbrook averages less than 36 minutes.
I realize this is kind of a long post, so for those who will say TL:DR, IS HARDEN PLAYING TOO MANY MINUTES?
NOTE: I DON'T mean this to suggest that McHale is a terrible coach, or that I could coach the team better than he can or something like that. I'm just curious to hear if anyone has a similar or different opinion and why. Thanks
EDIT: Oops I guess I didn't include Brooks. I guess he can take a few minutes from either Beverley or Lin, but I'm not sure how well he's been playing. For me, the most memorable play I can think of this season that includes him wasn't so great for him, as it involved him being blocked by Lin and Lin throwing down a dunk on the other end
