Harden disinterested and at half court when Chris ran the offense

If Harden is indeed tired as you claim, then the solution is not to ask him to dominate the ball 99% of the time. We are paying Chris freaking Paul 40 million a year to play point guard alongside Harden. Let him initiate 15% of the plays and have Harden stand at the 3pt line and wait for a catch and shoot. THAT would fix some of your fatigue problem.

 

Rocket culture?

Do you know how long it took Hakeem to get through the Jazz and the Sonics?J

You are the one who has no clue of Rockets history.

 

Yes.

 

1. is the only issue to outpost the warriors.

2. Has no bearing on anything when it comes to defeating the warriors.

 

This is a blatant lie.

Harden is not camping at the mid court and his defender is not disengaged from him.

We never play 4 on 5.

 

That MVP doe...

 

This is my last reply unless you address the post. Otherwise you're just going to snatch partial phrases and keep moving goal posts.

Again - and I'm finding this a common occurrence - the argument is based in myth. Chris Paul orchestrates 22.5% of the offense. The average in his pre-Rockets career is around 24%. If he is on the floor orchestrating while Harden is on the floor, then he is not going to be able to do it for the bench too as he does now. He is already breaking down constantly. No one can make a reasonable argument that Chris Paul can carry a heavier load.

Further, is he going to play Harden's minutes? Because Harden is an all-NBA level iron man. No he's not. So we cut down Harden's minutes too.

So now we take the ball out of Harden's hands - where he's the best in the NBA - and we cut his minutes on a team which finished 4th in the West. Where do you think this is headed?

You can re-arrange the pieces however you want. It's not going to end in the Rockets winning more. There is no secret reserve of energy or efficiency that is going to magically appear.

The solution to achieving a higher octane defense and offense is to get better components. Every year with our components, we output more than anyone predicts. When they say we have no chance, we take them to 6. When they say we're close, we take them to 7 without Paul for 2 games. When they say we'll win 50 we win 60. When they say we can't recover from 11-14, we finish 4th.

This is not an internal efficiency issue. I do agree that some off ball movement can and should be incorporated and can bring some help to the team.

What you don't understand is that the Warriors move the ball, score in iso, pass it well, rebound well, shoot well, defend well, score among the best ever just like us ANNNNNNDDDDDDD they have Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

If you think that moving Harden to the corner for a few plays is going to change our destiny and make him a ball of energy, doesn't that mean Kevin Durant and Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are essentially more well rested than Harden no matter what we do?

You must address the big picture. We should not win the title. Plain and simple. We should not win it. If we won it, it would be a miracle and James Harden would be hailed among miraculous champions like Hakeem and Dirk. It's not reasonable to run your organization like a lottery. You don't base your strategy on miraculous things. TILMAN has flat out said this roster is not good enough. Morey said at the beginning of the season not to judge him till April.

The problem is not James Harden, even if James Harden makes mistakes. You just continuously repeat that James Harden makes mistakes, and virtually no one disagrees with you. That is not the reason we don't win a title. We are all well aware that if Harden put in an all time, Jordan-shaming playoff performance we could win the title. That's not how strategy works. It is someone's job to build a championship-worthy roster which can include a James Harden with flaws, and there are GM's in this league who have built championship rosters with flawed players. The minuscule difference between James Harden's flaws and Kevin Durant's pre-Warrior flaws is not the fulcrum you make it out to be.

 

Uh that is how you win titles. With your best player dominating all other players. Hakeem, Jordan, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, bird, magic, Kareem, LeBron now Steph.
Harden hasn't been able to play at that level.

This is why Morey is focused on stars. Role players are replaceable.

Lol at Durant. he went to golden state to be a role player because he knew he couldn't be Steph. Almsot took all the credit too.

 

New age? Dude I actually remember Hakeem's rookie year, and don't play " NBA 2K".

SO when Harden loses he didn't "try hard enough" . But every OTHER STAR IN THE WEST OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS loses, I guess those poor stars tried hard but Golden St.was just too good. Whats stupid is that it's easier for people like you to blame one guy than to acknowledge that Golden St. Has been the class of the Western Conference for the last 5 years. Can a " Die Hard " fan appreciate the greatness of another team? The Warriors are a stacked bunch who've we've playe better than anyone but fell short. That's competition man, the Rockets just cant get over the hump. Its not just one guy.

 

Looks like someone helped me with this post. Literally never said this

 

" if Harden put in an all time, Jordan-shaming playoff performance we could win the title. That's not how strategy works. It is someone's job to build a championship-worthy roster which can include a James Harden with flaws, and there are GM's in this league who have built championship rosters with flawed players. "

 

Mr. Clutch , At the end of the day, if we could win the chip by trading Harden then I'm all for it. But that would mean a massive rebuild and taking your time to build a roster. Morey and the Rockets will have to commit and accept being irrelevant while you do it right. The Barkley Suns, Payton Sonics, Webber Kings and the Malone/ Stockton Jazz all had to concede their window at some point. They all fell victim to greatness.

 

I'm not saying trade harden

I'm saying harden should listen to cp3. He should improve conditioning. He should be willing to move off the ball and limit turnovers.

I agree with you he has the talent to win a chip as the #1 guy. Where I disagree is that he shouldn't work on his flaws. I'm not asking him to shoot 40% from 3 or to try to dunk 5 times a game. I'm asking to just work on stuff that's actually not hard to fix

 

you summed up everything ; thanx

 

Neither are truth.

Harden’s man, most of the time, is noticeably away from the play. I do think the offense, most of the time, gets a pretty good 4 on 4 look. Not every time.

But I do wonder about the other areas to consider. Just gut feelings... I think it gives the opponent a much easier opportunity to get the rebound on a miss. It also leaves Harden as the first man back on defense. If it so happens to be a fast break coming back at him, he’s gonna get some steals and stops here and there but generally it’s gonna be a layup line whether it’s from lazy defense or not wanting to foul.

 

I get that. See where you coming from.

 

The entire offense stands still all the time.

James is disinterested when the ball is not in his hands.

The biggest difference in the Warriors offense is that the ball moves so well because the team moves so well.

 

Mathloon out here writing the next Lord of the rings book.

 

All stats aren't created equal. Go to the 5:55 mark when CP3 came out. Watch that sequence of possession by Harden.