Gordon has literally just saved Tilman a bunch of money now. In his mind we're more good enough to compete again.
This game is further proof that MDA doesn’t know what he’s doing. Clearly Gordon and Rivers are being underutilized. Eric can do more than just launch 30 ft shots. I see iHart logged 6 minutes tonight. Did he even break it sweat? The sad part about all of this is that MDA won’t change his system going forward. The only reason we saw this tonight was because there was no other option. Gordon will be back to jacking up long threes exclusively before long.
Bro....you are so clearly bias here. This is like 4 posts in a row blaming Dantoni and not giving him credit.
Kind of difficult to give him credit when we know we would have never seen this had everybody been available. This shows us that there is more talent on the roster than previously thought, it’s simply being mismanaged. Now I’ll give MDA a lot of credit if we see this same philosophy 15 games from now, that would show growth. I just have a sneaky suspicion that we don’t. Old dogs don’t generally learn new tricks.
I thought Mike D'antoni sucked as a coach? He designed a unique super small ball scheme featuring Eric Gordon, who was surrounded by a semi injured defensive role player, and a bunch of scrubs, fill-ins, and G-Leaguers. And the Rockets put up 126 points, while Eric Gordon puts up a cool 50, and we win against the hottest team in the league. Everyone please remember this game when reading the next "Fire D'antoni" post or thread!
Two words "James and Russ" Look, Eric did a FANTASTIC job tonight. Although, he's had games earlier on where he was pretty suspect. Unfortunately, our focus is James and Russ for the most part. Eric is a 3rd wheel on this current roster. Eric gets some plays called. But, what are you gonna do, make James and Russ defer to Gordon? Say "You guys stand back let him operate"? How would YOU go about scaling back James and Russ to give Gordon more shine? How would that conversation go?
Are you suggesting that an NBA level head coach is scared of his top two players? If you are right, then is it even worth keeping MDA around? An easy adjustment would be taking 2-3 shots away from Harden and Russ and giving them to Gordon. Or allowing Gordon to do more with the second unit than spot up and watch Westbrook iso (not his strength).
Where was all this innovation when Harden was clearly laboring on the court and going 1-19 from deep?
Allow me to be a bit petty, given it's the Jazz. Some of their posts: "I bet us moneyline. Barring a major injury, there is absolutely no way we should lose this game at home. I did $24,000 to win $2,000." "Bruh I'm doing the opposite... yall forgot about the Thabo and William Howard revenge games?" "Easy money bro" "And which one of these fine gents is going to guard Gobert? Tucker? Giving up like 7 inches?" "Easy win tonight. Plus we are at home. Isn't our record like 17-3 or something at home? And we are playing against the opponents bench all game?" "This is a game where Conley needs to come in and dominate. Not play ok, dominate." "This looks just like the Mavs game. Slow start from the Jazz offensively, poor inconsistent officiating, other team shooting well. Just like that game I expect we'll be fine." "Law of averages is going to kick in with our three point shooting like it did the other night, and we'll be fine." "Utah might want to notice that Eric Gordon isn't missing and maybe guard him. I dunno." "I'm not enjoying this game so far" "If we lose tonight, I'll actually be convinced that the Rockets could play their Cheerleaders against us and we'd still lose" "D'Antoni owns Snyder. Idk what it is." "Eric Gordon has 24 points on us a halftime. You have got to be kidding me." "Thabo getting revenge" "Yeah he set up for a pnr with gobert like 4 or 5 times then just... didn't. What the ****?" "I am sure a stare from Quin could fix things. No words needed." "D'Antoni is one of the very few coaches in the league that sort of seems to have Quins number. No matter how much we play them we just can't seem to figure out how to score against their switching defense." "It’s like watching 10 different James Hardens our on the floor. Awful dirty ******** basketball. Everyone taking turns going 1v1. ******** all over the court, **** this is bad....." "Can we sit Conley now?" "I can't stand the Rockets. Gawd damn it." "THEY CAN'T MISS" "Worst game we've played in 22 games." "Rivers has dusted just about every player we got in one on one situations." "Houston is playing and Utah is complaining. That's the difference." "For whatever reason we just don't matchup well with Houston's style of play. I would hate to see them in the playoffs again." "Eric Gordon reminds me of guys like kevin Martin, Michael Redd, and Michael Finley who always seem to kill us." Spoiler
In addition to allowing other guys to get better and gain confidence, playing like can potentially extend Harden and Westbrook’s careers (both are historically high usage and already on the wrong side of 30). The Spurs back in the day were all over this and that’s why they got so much out of their big three. We need to take a page out of their book (Front office and coaching staff. )
Selection bias. That's just picking out a bad game by Harden. What about that time this season he averaged 37 PPG on elite efficiency and the Rockets with the #2 offense in the league?
Difference tonight was 1 the Jazz played terribly. Couldn't hit shots and couldn't defend us, probably because no one has a scouting report on what to do if Rivers and Gordon are driving 30 times a night. And 2, we hit our threes. We also got 50 free throws...lol
