Game Day: Rockets (21-8) @ Suns (8-20), Wed 12/21/16

[TOO]

Just because everyone says it, doesnt mean Sarver believes it.

[Indy]

Just because everyone says it, doesnt mean Sarver believes it.

Especially if there is even a [juuuuuuust a bit] outside chance we get an 8th seed. That is $1M in profit right there, even if we get swept.

[Mori Chu]

I think what it comes down to is, coaches almost never coach for the long-term. They go out there every night doing what they think they can do to try to win that game, that night. A coach doesn't want to play some 19-year-old who will benefit from it 3-4 years down the line. Coach knows he'll probably be long gone by then. So he plays veterans and tries to win with the tools given to him. It's frustrating, but you can't blame a coach for this, because he correctly knows that he'll be the one to get fired when the team under-performs.

This is why your GM basically needs to force the coach's hand by trading away any such veterans and forcing the coach to play the kids. That's the only way to make it happen.

[LazarusLong]

I think what it comes down to is, coaches almost never coach for the long-term. They go out there every night doing what they think they can do to try to win that game, that night. A coach doesn't want to play some 19-year-old who will benefit from it 3-4 years down the line. Coach knows he'll probably be long gone by then. So he plays veterans and tries to win with the tools given to him. It's frustrating, but you can't blame a coach for this, because he correctly knows that he'll be the one to get fired when the team under-performs.

This is why your GM basically needs to force the coach's hand by trading away any such veterans and forcing the coach to play the kids. That's the only way to make it happen.

That may not happen until they are totally out of it. In spite of their dismal record, the Suns are only four games out of the eighth seed.
I'm sure that's what Sarver sees and points to with the big foam finger ...

[Split T]

How hard is it to get a coach and GM on the same page? I know the whole having the same person as coach and GM doesn't always work out, but having a coach and GM with differing agendas doesn't either. Why can't McD go to Watson and tell him his job is to develop this team for the future. Tell him that he won't be judged on how many games he wins this year. It's ridiculous that everyone sees that our young guys need to play, including the coach, but he apparently can't find time for them. I can only hope that we are trying to raise PJ's value for a trade. We're even starting to hear everyone in the organization talk him up as a DPOY candidate or at least All-Defense.

[sunshoopjunky]

How hard is it to get a coach and GM on the same page? I know the whole having the same person as coach and GM doesn't always work out, but having a coach and GM with differing agendas doesn't either. Why can't McD go to Watson and tell him his job is to develop this team for the future. Tell him that he won't be judged on how many games he wins this year. It's ridiculous that everyone sees that our young guys need to play, including the coach, but he apparently can't find time for them. I can only hope that we are trying to raise PJ's value for a trade. We're even starting to hear everyone in the organization talk him up as a DPOY candidate or at least All-Defense.

"The blame is to be shared from the top down," Sarver said. "Our leadership needs to communicate better. It needs to provide a better culture that provides for more accountability and more motivation. We have a lot of good, young players. They need to be playing hard, aggressively and on the same page whether we win or lose. That's what I expect going forward."


If that is true then nobody should have anything to worry about. My guess (and probably Ryan and Earls as well) is that its not. So everyone is trying to build their individual case for their jobs.

[Cap]

I can only hope that we are trying to raise PJ's value for a trade. We're even starting to hear everyone in the organization talk him up as a DPOY candidate or at least All-Defense.

We'll trade him somewhere he'll become known as "Almost All-Defense in the West."

[Mori Chu]

P.J. Tuck!!

When there's trouble you call AADW!

P.J. Tuck!!

"Let's get dangerous."

[Danimal]

Maybe they are trying to show pj is a truely valuable member of the team to drive up his value. To go from 2nd round pick to late first round pick is my guess.

I worry about earls optimism and the 8th spot still being mathematically possible. Like that is somehow worth chasing with our mediocre vets.

Ulis getting pulled immediately was just infuriating. I don't consider that a teaching moment. It's like Watson is trying to burn bridges with ulis and bender already. It's demotivating after a point

Chambers comment highlights something. After a while I'm sure attendance will decline if Watson keeps trotting out the same crap. I guess that's the only point the rest of the organization may whisper in Watson ear

It sounds horrible to say but a pj injury may a good thing for everyone's mental health
Dudley has shown in the past he has the selflessness to say when young guys need minutes ahead of him

[Mori Chu]

PJ and Knight need to go. I don't know how to reach our coach, but my guess is that our GM knows this. He's probably just waiting for the timing to be right, for a deal to come along that he is happy with. I will give him some slack and try to be patient because he definitely did a *great* job maximizing value on Markieff, who should have fetched us a stick of used chewing gum but instead got us a first-round pick. In McDo I trust.

[In2ition]

If we can get a 1st round pick this year, even if it's a late 1st, that will be a win as this draft looks like it's going to be deep and loaded.

[3rdside]

I'm like the drunk guy in the corner of the dive bar who still hasn't gotten over his wife cheating on him .. "that f****** c***" he said, arms flailing wildly, to no-one in particular, "that f****** c***" .... only i realise it's me saying that, to myself, about McD and the knight for lakers pick..."that f****** c***".


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[Mori Chu]

^ Especially now that the Lakers are falling off. They are 11-22 now and have the 4th worst record in the West, 7th worst overall. So currently it looks like we gave up roughly the 7-9th pick in a FREAKING LOADED draft to get assface Brandon Knight on our roster, who was going to be a FA anyway and his current team was unlikely to re-sign him.

[3rdside]

You got it - this one's gonna play out badly (and the beers actually were in the house writing that - that was blunt!)


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[TOO]

^ Especially now that the Lakers are falling off. They are 11-22 now and have the 4th worst record in the West, 7th worst overall. So currently it looks like we gave up roughly the 7-9th pick in a FREAKING LOADED draft to get assface Brandon Knight on our roster, who was going to be a FA anyway and his current team was unlikely to re-sign him.

Shout out to Luke Walton for not being the best coach ever.

[O_Gardino]

It's weird. McD says the kids have to play. The announcers say it. The fans have been saying it for a long time. Even Watson says it, he just doesn't do it. WTF?

That's the whole organization trying to reach out to Robert.