This is the most unwatchable Harden has ever been. Haters and national media pundits are being verified night after night. It might not be a permanent thing just yet, but it is a glimpse into the future of what a declining Harden would be. It won’t be pretty. Like old Barkley, or 29yo TMac...
What is your suggestion then? Saying "don't do option x" isn't a solution. What specifically do you want Harden (who isn't the coach by the way) to do differently?
Exactly, Harden can do whatever he wants in this offense and does and we are seeing the rewards of that now more than ever ... if Dantoni is guilty of anything it’s not coaching James to take those other shots available, but he’s unfortunately bound by his own offensive principles with James. I’m sure he’s worried that Harden isn’t hitting threes reliably now but he’s kinda boxed himself in with the offensive philosophy he’s been preaching forever.
Plus they have more go to moves than Hardm does now. Harden is becoming a 2 trick pony and one of them (his floater/layup game) isn’t even working that well due to how defenses are playing him knowing he will respond a specific way to the way they defend him. Without the step back 3 falling in volume he’s become very easy to defend and looks a lot slower in beating his man quite often if he gets man coverage
If you watch Steph Curry highlights on his off dribble three point shots and Harden's it's amazing how varied Curry's dribble moves are to get free to get a shot while Harden has pretty much the same exact between the legs dribble move he does on every single step back. It becomes really boring to watch. He wasn't like this before. He used to do shammgod dribble moves and other creative moves. Now it's just that same between the legs dribble and step back.
This year he has become incredibly predictable and it’s the first time in watching him I am almost embarrassed at times because if I know more or less how he is going to react, these guys that get paid big money to guard him and scout him surely know what he is going to do. I know you take a lot of heat for criticizing his game, but I’ve always felt similar in that I love the dude and want him to succeed but he is far too flawed at this point in his career to be the guy calling himself the best player in the NBA at this point. There are legit arguments to be made that he doesn’t have enough roster help around him and there is truth to that but the fact is he hasn’t been playing winning basketball much of this season Because we’ve won more games with Russ being the decided difference than Harden who has often shot us out of or committed careless turnovers in games we might have won otherwise
He needs a redefining off-season. That I think can make him revert back to his 2017-2018 level of play. Just get really ****ing lean, work on off ball skills relentlessly, run a **** ton, eat clean as hell, work on the mid range. If he can just have an incredible off-season, I think he can get back on the right track. No alcohol the entire off-season. This next season is his last season to attempt to get a ring as the best player on the team I believe. It's a do or die off-season for him. A 2017-2018 James Harden and this season's Russel Westbrook can win a ring I believe.
he can't refine or change things up this is his >10 year in the league and 30 years old. The best we can hope for is a wade type role
I think he can at least get back to his 2017-2018 bf% by just eating really clean for an entire off-season. That by itself will do wonders for him. I think there is still hope. 30 isn't the point of no return. Wade had severe knee issues throughout his career. His prime was cut unnaturally short.
Capela was traded to better utilize Westbrick..... Who the hell do we have to waive / release to get HARGOD back??????
Playing shape and stamina aside, getting into the offense quicker and simply being more aggressive would help a lot. Being willing to take mid range shots. Mixing up his offensive game more. There’s literally hundreds of things he can do besides walking the ball up the court and then dance around at the top of the three point line for 20 seconds to shoot contested step back threes. And him not being the coach is not even relevant. Harden has a say in everything this organization does. You dont think he can go to Dantoni and say, "hey let's try this"? I'm pretty sure Dantoni isnt gonna be like, "screw that....dribble for 23 seconds then do that cool step back thing"
If you guys really believe we cant win a championship with James Harden, stop watching. Youve already made your opinions known. And dont come back when we start winning.
Currently yes, but it is still a TEAM game. Our "supporting cast" is not consistently supporting. They need to lock Head in the head before games. He is as close to worthless as you can get. The bottom two thirds of the Western standings are tight. We could be in Memphis territory in a hurry.
Harden's making 50 million dollars a year. I'm not going to blame the likes of Ben McLemore and Austin Rivers for Harden being garbage for months now.
I didn't mean to suggest that it is all on the supporting cast. Harden has been awful of late, but the role players are on and off, and the bench is also very inconsistent. The Rockets are not a championship team. Maybe Harden knows that and has essentially "given up."
That would be nice at 30 he is still capable of doing it, I mean Lebron seems to be doing it .. I’m not sure James has that level of commitment in him though tbh. Th bigger issue may be the surrounding cast, where does that go again ? The argument that he’s never had s stellar group of role players (except possibly in 17-18) has always been a legit concern and with this owner and the lack of assets and unwillingness of this owner to go all in I wonder if we are in the same boat again next year. Other than Russ I’m not certain most of these guys will be back, and frankly I’m not sure l want any of them back save Covington. All that said I have very little faith this team is going anywhere the rest of this year. The winning streak after the trade almost had me on the edge of thinking we may be right there, but this 3 game losing jag has told me a lot more of what I feared might be the reality, we just aren’t that good when Harden is playing very average ball like this.
