LOL can you give harden the benefit of the doubt? I mean you think Morey is thinking the same thing as you?
He looks a little out of shape to me... He's either not as well conditioned coming into the season or not yet adjusted to the occasional faster pace of play. Either way - it'll work itself out.
It's just 3 games in, but PJ Tucker is straight up FEASTING off this new Harden-Westbrook combo. #1 in the league by faaaar in TS% with 86.6%! #2 is Moritz Wagner at 77.1% and that doesn't really count cause he doesn't see significant minutes. Montrezl at #3 gets at least 30 minutes a night and he's at 76.1%.
Harden is a good shooter who like Kobe his idol takes the hardest shots possible. His ability to get to the rim is off the charts only person on his level is Lebron James imo. That fact that he can hit 37-38% of his 3s taking the volume and the difficulty is pretty incredible. Sometimes I do wish he would settle for easier looks because I think his efficiency would go up to around 40% from 3 but everyone knows that’s not going to happen and it’s what makes harden a special talent. Their is no way he couldn’t hit 3-8 on threes if he took only the easy ones. I do like him driving to the hoop more that’s what he did his first year in houston and he was a beast. Either way harden is going to end up shooting 44-45% overall and 36-38% from 3 and be his normal 60%+ true shooting. He’s a offensive monster his shot will fall and the rockets will won a Ton of games and we’ll just have to see how this works in the playoffs. Harden has had some monster playoff games but he’s had some duds. He needs a dirk run to get that monkey off his back and win the chip. Let’s see if he can do it. Dirk was labeled the Same as harden. Great regular season won mvp teams finished high in seeding yearly, but couldn’t get it done when it counts. He’s got a real superstar next to him now so I will say their really is no excuse for the rockets this year. They have just as good a chance as anyone to win it all this year. Theirs no GS anymore. Clippers getting a lot of love and rightfully so but their still not the GS warriors of the last few years especially after KD arrived.
the fact is, last year he shot 13.1 threes at 36.8% thats around 14.46 points let say he shot just 8 of those and hit them at an improbable rate of 38% (his 3rd yr in OKC 7 3PA at 37.5%) that's around 9.12 points 2 and he magically shoots the remaining 5 shots in the midrange at another improbable 45% rate that's another 4.5 pts for a total of 13.62 pts only that doesn't take into account the extra FT he gets when fouled and the rockets basically just sacrificed the spacing needed for not only for Harden but also WB, house, and capela, etc to drive and score at the rim
it’s pretty crazy how high expectations can be Harden hasn’t had a 12 for 17 night from 3 yet and people need it I guess, to me that’s the intro to anxiety. Like, not even being able to enjoy sports just always expecting a little more. And why?
Not even that it's just we don't like when great players are stubborn. Like Lebron early in his career would settle for jumpers rather than not drive which he's gifted at. Harden the same way ...sometimes it can look a little lazy. He wold have games last year where he shot over 20 3's ...like that should never happen lol. Even go back to the end of game 5 against SA and Game 7 of GS series in 2018. At some point if your 2-12 from deep you gotta go in a different bag.
No he didn’t.... he did while he was hot and then percentages dropped off significantly later in the season and in the playoffs. That’s why he finished at only 36% from 3 overall. I am not saying completely change his game but his shot selection could be a lot better. Don’t bail the defense out by just continuing to forcing up 3s when they aren’t falling.
yeah people here think that harden and the rockets and mda are shooting all these threes just because they're lazy or selfish its pretty much math and common sense and pretty sure Morey has some analytic what-if models on the benefits of shooting threes vs consequences of taking midrange shots
I just wish that the math took late game, final 2-3 minutes, i need a basket in order to win the game into consideration. Also shouldn't it depend on who is shooting those shots. There are other variables that should be considered. For instance if i need a bucket in the clutch, season on the line, would i prefer a Kawhi mid range or a Harden step back. Over the course of a game the step back i'm sure would be the optimal shot, but if i just need a basket i'm throwing out the math and getting the bucket. It depends on who is taking those mid range shots or even posting up that make the math a little fuzzy for me. in 2017 - 18 in late game situations i would take a CP mid range over any other shot. He was great at shooting them, and it kept us from going into those horrible prolonged shooting slumps. His mid range game along the the 3 point math is what helped to make that team so special, and why we were able to maintain leads late in games. Sadly i think that he was the only person in the organization that realized it. Surprisingly(for me) I think Russ gets it too. There has to be a balance throughout the course of a game in order for this style to win a championship.
BS. Harden is great because he is stubborn. Like while all the folks have something to say about uh...yeah basically everything he ever does, he just believes in himself and does it anyway. Can’t play defense, but led the league in steals. Not mvp caliber, 6th man only...finishes 2nd or better every year. Illegal steps, affirmed by league. What else? His team is 2-1, he had a 40 pt night already yeah? Westbrook looks integrated already. What else? Oh yeah, that’s right I remember, one time he played against a dynasty and didn’t abandon what got him there, that’s why NOW folks dont have to act like this his his 11th god damned year in the NBA. He drives 20 times a game and that just “looks lazy” to some lol fknwow. You don’t enjoy sports. Either that or you only enjoy the failings of a great player. Either way, I’m not sure why you keep watching.
i was specifically talking about harden in general over the course of a whole game of basketball because I responded to a person suggested Harden should reduce his per game 3's from 13 to 8 also u still need math you need to see how many possessions you still have and how much the opponent is up or down to figure if you take a 3 or 2 or if you're on the defense foul, stop them from taking the three, etc. the whole game even in the final minutes you still need some math you can't simply throw it out of the window
