I was thinking basically this as well. Russ is playing great, and the new small ball spacing is really good for him. But tonight, for instance, he had a ~56 TS% which is just a bit above league average. This is roughly his efficiency over the past month or so since he stopped launching so many 3's. When teams double Harden, I'm not really sure there is a great solution. Although our 3-point shooting is OK, it is almost certainly worse than whatever James Harden can cook up on his own with iso-dance moves. I think teams are content with Russ, even with his new play style, attacking on a 4 on 3 and/or dishing out to 36% 3-point shooters instead of letting Harden generate his own offense.
Though I will say that this game our bench, or lack there of, really killed us. Other than McLemore, and I don't even really consider him a "bench player" as he's started a number of games this season anyway. Moreso the fringe of the rotation, like Sefolosha and Rivers, were a combined 1-7. This is where Eric Gordon would've been nice as he could've given the starters more rest and we don't have to necessarily play Austin 20 MPG either then.
Also another interesting stat, Russ was barely even more efficient than James was this game. And Harden was 2-13 from 3. Even on a really bad shooting night, James generally takes so many good looks that he can scrap together a reasonable game as he was 9-10 on 2-PT shots.
No doubt, Harden is the better player and playmaker, Russell is the more vocal and apt leader. I still think we would have needed an Allstar in the front court......
THIS! Bench and role players need to be upgraded. Rockets need better scoring and perimeter defense. And having 4 unplayable guys on bench just exacerbates the problem. Morey must upgrade our depth - need longer, more athletic, 2 way players. Younger would be good too since we are dead legged on back to backs.
Pretenders keep pretending. 1-2 with your small balls & "savior" Bob Covington LOLOLOL 10 playable players my ass! Boston next, another loss. Then their daddy, the Warriors after the ASB.
The Jazz Offense with Clarkson has improved to the point that they can hang with the Rockets at times. But they are still one top player away from ultimate contention like the Rockets.
Have you considered the players around him? We have guys who average 10 pts or less a game on ave. There are nights they score 6 pts or less. Russ can't rub off his magic on them, and gift them with an ability to take it inside and score, without being blocked. Now we are missing Clint's 13 pts and 13 rebounds a game, and the alley oops passes from James. I just think James just slows it down too much, and allows defenses to get in position. Playing small and fast will wear down the bigs faster, and since we don't use bigs now, it's our best defense against them probably. Heck, I don't know. I just know I love watching Russ and the speedier style so much more than putt putt, put me to sleep ISO Harden ball. He was doing that last night and I hated it. Again, it's because we have OK shooters surrounding Russ and James. They can be hot and we beat great teams, but when they are off anyone can beat us. Most have no inside moves, and get hammered half the time trying to make a layup. You know when we lost to Phoenix we had eight guys go 3 of 32 from the arc? I mean, who does that? We depend on OK streaky shooters to throw 3's all night long and hope for the best, while Russ and James take care of the rest
that beginning head-scratching with eyes-wide incredulous has possibilities for later @Jugdish @don grahamleone @topfive mash-ups