ATLANTA — Mike D’Antoni let out perhaps the loudest laugh he’s
emitted this season when I asked him if he had crossed over to
the world of resting players.
“No, no, no,” D’Antoni said, shaking his head. “Don’t even put that in my head.”
Fair or not, a certain narrative has been attached to D’Antoni over
his illustrious career, namely that he tends to play the guys he trusts
for way too many minutes. This trust tends to lead to injuries or guys
burning out. “Running them into the ground,” as one league scout
mentioned earlier in the season.
For example, when the Rockets flamed out in the 2017 playoffs —
dropping the series with the Spurs in six games — D’Antoni primarily
blamed himself, while others blamed James Harden. “He got tired that
series,” D’Antoni told The Athletic. “We wore him out all year and he carried us all year, he just got tired.”
Last season’s Western Conference finals were also telling of a
potential overrun during the regular season. The Rockets were so locked
in on winning every game en route to 65, it’s possible that future
success was sacrificed. Chris Paul’s services were lost to a hamstring
in the dying moments of a crucial Game 5, and we all know the story
about the 27 missed 3s. Perhaps tired legs had something to do with such
an unusual occurrence; it’s not out of the question.
When Paul aggravated his hamstring in late December of this season,
he had been averaging his most minutes in five seasons, hovering around
34 a night. Harden (37.3) is currently second behind Washington’s
Bradley Beal in minutes per game, and has dealt with nagging wrist and
neck issues as the season winds down. In fact, Houston has three
starters in the top 25 in minutes, factoring in 33-year-old P.J. Tucker
(34.9) and Clint Capela (34.1).
Against the Hawks, however, D’Antoni elected to give both Iman
Shumpert and Nene breathers. Wednesday he will do more of the same,
resting Eric Gordon and Nene. Does D’Antoni have a soft side? Is he
suddenly so passionate about player health? Or is he seeing a much
bigger picture, a long-term goal?
“This is all the quirk of unproven science,” D’Antoni added on the theory of rest.
“But, if guys need rest — if they’re
aware of it and want to do it — that’s what we’re gonna do. Now, this is
because Nene obviously is at the stage of his career when he needs it.
And every situation is a little bit different. Shump’s just coming back
and he didn’t play back-to-backs this year, even for Sacramento. He’s in
a good place, and we’ll keep him there. Everybody else, we’ll just see
when we need to do it. When we need to do it we will. But that comes
from the player mostly, how they feel.”
It’s a tough task getting a superstar to sit on the bench when
healthy, but D’Antoni’s making the best of it, attempting to forge a
balance between getting a breather here and there, and also staying
within striking distance of the Western Conference’s top spot. Entering
Wednesday, the Rockets sit 3 1/2 games behind Golden State (48-22).
D’Antoni wants to keep Paul’s minutes at around 30, fewer if
possible. Against the Hawks, he played 29, and even D’Antoni thought it
was a tad too much. For Harden, the coach would like to keep his playing
time at 32-33 minutes. “Yep, that’s what I want to do,” D’Antoni said,
smiling as he glanced at his backcourt’s minutes in the box score
following Tuesday’s 121-105 win over Atlanta.
“I mean that would be nice, it
doesn’t always work out that way. I was trying to get Chris to play 27;
he didn’t wanna come out, hits a 3 and then comes out. You go off the
way they feel and the way they feel the game. They’re professionals,
they know what to do.”
Paul is the ultimate competitor. After his crossover and step-back
jumper over Trae Young put the Rockets up 15 in the fourth, he thumped
his chest and yelled. A Tuesday night game against the lowly Hawks might
be seen as a wash for other teams or players, but Paul is wired
differently. So it’s easy to see why he wouldn’t be giddy about taking
some minutes off here and there. The only thing he’s thinking about is
how Houston is performing down the stretch.
“We just keep hooping,” Paul said. “I
don’t think we’re too worried about the minutes. We’re just trying to
make sure we play with the right spirit and the right way every night.
Most of the teams will tell you — whether it be Golden State or OKC —
those veteran teams, they don’t care what seed they are, and I think
we’re one of those teams too.”
To counter Paul’s approach, D’Antoni has tweaked his normal stagger
schedule to achieve his goal. After Harden returned to the court with
about eight minutes left in the second half against the Hawks, D’Antoni
had Paul check back in earlier than normal. Doing this allows Paul to
play longer with Harden on the court, and still stay under 30 minutes
played.
Getting Harden to take a breather will be the more difficult case, as
D’Antoni is well aware of. “He loves to play, he wants to play,”
D’Antoni said. “When I take him out, he gets antsy.”
To put things into perspective, the only times Harden has played 30 minutes or fewer have been:
- A blowout win over Cleveland 1/11
- A blowout loss in Utah 12/6
- A blowout win over Chicago 12/1
- A blowout win over San Antonio 11/30
Against Atlanta, Harden took a hard hit and fell after a drive. When
he got up, he was holding his right wrist, the same one that has been
bothering him for weeks. With the playoffs so close, that’s enough to
give anyone pause — whether it be a fan or front-office executive.
Houston needs its stars in tip-top shape in what is shaping up to be a
tough Western Conference bracket. Depending on the matchup, conventional
wisdom would say to give Harden a night off every now and then, similar
to what Toronto does managing the load of Kawhi Leonard.
That comes with problems, however. The Rockets’ brass knows Harden
wants to play as long as possible. Harden believes the Warriors are
catchable, and with only 3 1/2 games separating them, there’s little
reason to doubt that. This season has also been a hotly contested MVP
race, seemingly between Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paul George.
There’s a plan in place to ensure Harden stays fresh heading into the
playoffs. The Rockets know asking him to sit out games is almost a
non-starter. But what they hope to do, depending on how the first three
quarters go, is to sit him for fourth quarters. The Warriors did this
when they were blitzing the league in the early part of their
championship run, oftentimes the camera panning to Steph Curry or Klay
Thompson laughing away on the bench with their team up big already.
D’Antoni has tried his best so far, with 11 games to go. Harden has
played less than his seasonal average five times this month already. But
that’s not to say D’Antoni has stepped all the way into that field, and
he’s certainly not going to just give in to conventional wisdom and
popular opinion. There’s a certain balance he’s yet to find with trying
to win games and trying to conserve his superstars.
“Yeah, well they can say it. I don’t care,” D’Antoni responded. “You
try to rest when you can. I’ve always thought (while) playing, ‘If I
play one more minute it’s not gonna kill me.’ Especially when in the
first half we were kind of sleepwalking a little bit.”
D’Antoni would save the best
sarcastic response for the very end: “So they rested the first half and
played the second half, so that was good,” he said with a smile.
A rowdy section of Hawks fan chanted, “Sit down, Harden!” as the
reigning MVP strolled the baseline, cheering on his teammates and
dancing to the arena music. For most Rockets fans, and a little part of
D’Antoni, they kind of want the same thing.
ATLANTA — Mike D’Antoni let out perhaps the loudest laugh he’s
emitted this season when I asked him if he had crossed over to
the world of resting players.
“No, no, no,” D’Antoni said, shaking his head. “Don’t even put that in my head.”
Fair or not, a certain narrative has been attached to D’Antoni over
his illustrious career, namely that he tends to play the guys he trusts
for way too many minutes. This trust tends to lead to injuries or guys
burning out. “Running them into the ground,” as one league scout
mentioned earlier in the season.
For example, when the Rockets flamed out in the 2017 playoffs —
dropping the series with the Spurs in six games — D’Antoni primarily
blamed himself, while others blamed James Harden. “He got tired that
series,” D’Antoni told The Athletic. “We wore him out all year and he carried us all year, he just got tired.”
Last season’s Western Conference finals were also telling of a
potential overrun during the regular season. The Rockets were so locked
in on winning every game en route to 65, it’s possible that future
success was sacrificed. Chris Paul’s services were lost to a hamstring
in the dying moments of a crucial Game 5, and we all know the story
about the 27 missed 3s. Perhaps tired legs had something to do with such
an unusual occurrence; it’s not out of the question.
When Paul aggravated his hamstring in late December of this season,
he had been averaging his most minutes in five seasons, hovering around
34 a night. Harden (37.3) is currently second behind Washington’s
Bradley Beal in minutes per game, and has dealt with nagging wrist and
neck issues as the season winds down. In fact, Houston has three
starters in the top 25 in minutes, factoring in 33-year-old P.J. Tucker
(34.9) and Clint Capela (34.1).
Against the Hawks, however, D’Antoni elected to give both Iman
Shumpert and Nene breathers. Wednesday he will do more of the same,
resting Eric Gordon and Nene. Does D’Antoni have a soft side? Is he
suddenly so passionate about player health? Or is he seeing a much
bigger picture, a long-term goal?
“This is all the quirk of unproven science,” D’Antoni added on the theory of rest.
“But, if guys need rest — if they’re
aware of it and want to do it — that’s what we’re gonna do. Now, this is
because Nene obviously is at the stage of his career when he needs it.
And every situation is a little bit different. Shump’s just coming back
and he didn’t play back-to-backs this year, even for Sacramento. He’s in
a good place, and we’ll keep him there. Everybody else, we’ll just see
when we need to do it. When we need to do it we will. But that comes
from the player mostly, how they feel.”
It’s a tough task getting a superstar to sit on the bench when
healthy, but D’Antoni’s making the best of it, attempting to forge a
balance between getting a breather here and there, and also staying
within striking distance of the Western Conference’s top spot. Entering
Wednesday, the Rockets sit 3 1/2 games behind Golden State (48-22).
D’Antoni wants to keep Paul’s minutes at around 30, fewer if
possible. Against the Hawks, he played 29, and even D’Antoni thought it
was a tad too much. For Harden, the coach would like to keep his playing
time at 32-33 minutes. “Yep, that’s what I want to do,” D’Antoni said,
smiling as he glanced at his backcourt’s minutes in the box score
following Tuesday’s 121-105 win over Atlanta.
“I mean that would be nice, it
doesn’t always work out that way. I was trying to get Chris to play 27;
he didn’t wanna come out, hits a 3 and then comes out. You go off the
way they feel and the way they feel the game. They’re professionals,
they know what to do.”
Paul is the ultimate competitor. After his crossover and step-back
jumper over Trae Young put the Rockets up 15 in the fourth, he thumped
his chest and yelled. A Tuesday night game against the lowly Hawks might
be seen as a wash for other teams or players, but Paul is wired
differently. So it’s easy to see why he wouldn’t be giddy about taking
some minutes off here and there. The only thing he’s thinking about is
how Houston is performing down the stretch.
“We just keep hooping,” Paul said. “I
don’t think we’re too worried about the minutes. We’re just trying to
make sure we play with the right spirit and the right way every night.
Most of the teams will tell you — whether it be Golden State or OKC —
those veteran teams, they don’t care what seed they are, and I think
we’re one of those teams too.”
To counter Paul’s approach, D’Antoni has tweaked his normal stagger
schedule to achieve his goal. After Harden returned to the court with
about eight minutes left in the second half against the Hawks, D’Antoni
had Paul check back in earlier than normal. Doing this allows Paul to
play longer with Harden on the court, and still stay under 30 minutes
played.
Getting Harden to take a breather will be the more difficult case, as
D’Antoni is well aware of. “He loves to play, he wants to play,”
D’Antoni said. “When I take him out, he gets antsy.”
To put things into perspective, the only times Harden has played 30 minutes or fewer have been:
- A blowout win over Cleveland 1/11
- A blowout loss in Utah 12/6
- A blowout win over Chicago 12/1
- A blowout win over San Antonio 11/30
Against Atlanta, Harden took a hard hit and fell after a drive. When
he got up, he was holding his right wrist, the same one that has been
bothering him for weeks. With the playoffs so close, that’s enough to
give anyone pause — whether it be a fan or front-office executive.
Houston needs its stars in tip-top shape in what is shaping up to be a
tough Western Conference bracket. Depending on the matchup, conventional
wisdom would say to give Harden a night off every now and then, similar
to what Toronto does managing the load of Kawhi Leonard.
That comes with problems, however. The Rockets’ brass knows Harden
wants to play as long as possible. Harden believes the Warriors are
catchable, and with only 3 1/2 games separating them, there’s little
reason to doubt that. This season has also been a hotly contested MVP
race, seemingly between Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paul George.
There’s a plan in place to ensure Harden stays fresh heading into the
playoffs. The Rockets know asking him to sit out games is almost a
non-starter. But what they hope to do, depending on how the first three
quarters go, is to sit him for fourth quarters. The Warriors did this
when they were blitzing the league in the early part of their
championship run, oftentimes the camera panning to Steph Curry or Klay
Thompson laughing away on the bench with their team up big already.
D’Antoni has tried his best so far, with 11 games to go. Harden has
played less than his seasonal average five times this month already. But
that’s not to say D’Antoni has stepped all the way into that field, and
he’s certainly not going to just give in to conventional wisdom and
popular opinion. There’s a certain balance he’s yet to find with trying
to win games and trying to conserve his superstars.
“Yeah, well they can say it. I don’t care,” D’Antoni responded. “You
try to rest when you can. I’ve always thought (while) playing, ‘If I
play one more minute it’s not gonna kill me.’ Especially when in the
first half we were kind of sleepwalking a little bit.”
D’Antoni would save the best
sarcastic response for the very end: “So they rested the first half and
played the second half, so that was good,” he said with a smile.
A rowdy section of Hawks fan chanted, “Sit down, Harden!” as the
reigning MVP strolled the baseline, cheering on his teammates and
dancing to the arena music. For most Rockets fans, and a little part of
D’Antoni, they kind of want the same thing.
