[ESPN] James Harden's frustration near boiling point

He has 8 on the year and is attempting them at 1/3 the rate of prior years.

More evidence that his explosiveness from last year has diminished.

 

The rotation of 2013 play-offs vs. 2016 regular season:

Beverley / Lin
Harden / Brooks
Parsons / Anderson
Garcia / Delfino
Asik / Greg Smith

vs.

Beverley / Ty
Harden / Thornton
Ariza
Brewer / TJ / Josh
Howard / Capela

Talent wise, you would think the 2016 blows that one out of the water, but somehow I prefer that one way much over this one. Delfino was a stretch 4 and hit the 3, Parsons was still playing high level defense, Beverley was much better defensively, Garcia could defend and know down the 3, Brooks could still play. I actually think that 2013 team could beat this one.

 

The 2nd half of this seasons gonna be great. Rockets will have a1 week minicamp and win 10/12 after the break and get to the 5 possibly 4 seed

 

They WOULD beat this team.

 

Where have you been? Harden is a regular at Chipotle.

Chipotle with Khloe, Chipotle without Khloe, Chipotle before Khloe, Chipotle after Khloe.

How could you have missed this major news?

http://www.si.com/nba/2016/01/29/james-harden-chipotle-blake-griffin-punch-clippers-russell-westbrook

 

Dont post for a couple of days bro

 

Bwahahaha! Remind me never to play in a fantasy league with you.

 

If we lose tonight we'll be 1.5 games behind and Morey should just start resting Harden with mysterious injury so we can get a lottery pick.

 

you know the thing i don't like about harden... honestly?

his style of play

i mean, he scores a lot of points by deliberately running into people while he drives at the basket and getting to the line. It works. I get it.

but it just feels cheap to me. Kind of like how three point shooters now try to catch guys in the air and then they deliberately jump into them, not even pretending to be trying to actually make the shot.

I'm frankly, getting sick of this kind of stuff. The game wasn't meant to be played this way. Just like all this bull**** flopping.

I mean, when I think of Jordan, not one memory of him purposefully jumping into people, plowing into people, flopping... NOTHING

And it also means he spends a huge amount of time at the free throw line. So even when it works, I basically get to watch a game with a whole lot of free throws.

And last night against the warriors, I started thinking about it... couldn't anyone in the league do that? i mean, if you wanted to, couldn't you literally run into someone's side and then jump up and into them and shoot the ball? Every single time?

 

ClutchFans frustration past boiling point.

 

Morey will never get it right, houston hasnt gotten it right since hakeem.

This is a pathetic organization, no need to let sports rile you up. Seek God, only importantance on earth. Shalom.

 

I honestly feel like IQ level has a big to do with a teams success. Yes talent and athleticism can get you far in the NBA but its the players with the higher bball and overall IQ's who excel in a team setting. I think our players are kind of dumb. Low IQ team and these are the results you get.

 

Which is why a good coach is key.

 

If only he were frustrated that any team in the world can score 120+ against us, if only he were frustrated with all the wide open uncontested shots and with watching the backs of the other team as it scored in transition, instead of being frustrated that scoring 28 points a game isn't enough to win in the NBA . . .

 

There's no "FIRE" so there's no boiling point. :grin:

 

But is there vapor?

 

Harden's game is predicated around his driving to the hoop and drawing contact. There's nothing cheap or phony about this because the rules favor those who take the ball to the hole. Plus, he's the only player on this team who consistently attacks the paint. Howard is not all that great in the paint (save for alley oops) and the other players are spot up shooters who camp out at the 3 pt line. Now this is by design courtesy of one Daryl Morey. As such, Harden is the only player here with a complete inside-outside skill set.

Now where his frustration is boiling over has to come from the heavy responsibility he's been forced to carry on this team where he's playing two positions, responsible for initiating and facilitating the offense, playing heavy minutes and having to score 30+ points a night just to give this team a chance to win. Oh and let's not forget to having to play defense as well which means he expends an awful lot of energy at both ends of the court while playing all of those minutes.

Opposing defenses know all this which is why they key on surrounding and stopping Harden which should free up the others but doesn't always work in the Rockets' favor. Now Harden does his part by passing the ball to the open man and his assist totals confirm this - it's just that the other players are inconsistent and streaky and cannot fully exploit it when the opposing defense keys on Harden. And that's on Morey as well because he picked this supporting cast.

 

"I think all of us have been frustrated with how the season has gone. Not just James, all of us are frustrated. We know they could be better."

- ClutchFans

 

I'm guessing he is venting because the Rockets do often go into long runs of unable to create offense. I hear him on that but at the same time if he focused on defense then those runs would not cause us to lose W's.

I do think Morey should trade brew, Lawson, mc Daniels, and Howard. Let's see what we can get for those guys. This is the first time I mention Howard and Lawson. I've given up on Lawson.. He has had plenty of time to find his groove. He doesn't know where the players will be 1/2 the time which sucks because he can't run the offense that way. Howard unless he commits to long term lower salary he needs to go. Howard is just not worth that price. Far too often mediocre centers are having a field day with him.

 

Such sloppy, lazy reporting... Of course James is frustrated. Everyone is.

Calvin, or some other reporter in the scrum asked James something like "is this the most frustraiting year as a Rocket"

He responds:

"Yeah, because my first year was different. We weren't as talented and we still made playoffs, which was a big step for us. We have a lot of talent in this locker room, of course, coming off the Western Conference finals and being in the seventh spot right now. It's frustrating, but we still have opportunities."

ESPN being ESPN sees the word "frustrating" and decides to throw in "boiling point" into the headline.
- They left off the context - the question that James is clearly answering that led to the "frustrating" quote
- They didn't include anything in the article that mentions any sort of boiling point, whatever that's supposed to mean
- They ignored the fact his quote is forward looking and ends with a positive spin