Jalen Rose: James Harden is playing like Russell Westbrook isn’t there

It doesn't work like that if you want to win championships. Both have to adjust.

 

You can't just ignore Harden just shutting down as a NBA caliber player when he doesn't have the ball in his hand. It's definitely a glaring hole in Harden's game. I wish people would acknowledge it here. An accountable coach like Pop wouldn't allow Harden to stroll up the court while the team is in the middle of running an offensive set when it's someone else bringing the ball up.

I'm sorry but this team needs to rely on more than just Harden putting up 35 ppg. He needs to learn how to play within an offense when he doesn't have the ball in his hand. Other teams have ways for non stars to get easy buckets and one of those ways is guys with gravity due to their knock down shooting ability such as Harden and Steph running off ball to confuse defenses and miss switch assignments because they are chasing down a great shooter who needs to be accounted for which can often free someone like a PJ Tucker to cut to the basket for an easy deuce. That is the number one problem this offense. It never confuses defenses. Defenses know what's coming with the offense. It's easy to read.

 

Because you have to make fancy passes like Jason Williams, obviously.

 

Harden is going to play the way he plays.

Until he starts to decline and the torch is passed that's the way it will be.

Westbrook is the 2nd option. He's a really good second option but nevertheless, as the 2nd option it's his job to fit in with Harden.

I thought they looked good last night and showed improvement in naturally taking turns in situations that were more suited for their games.

But tbh I'm not worried about the offense in the grand scheme of things. Sure I'd like to see more consistency and better execution in some situations but the barrier between the Rockets and a ring is their defense and rebounding.

 

He has moved more off ball this preseason. Having said that, James Harden isn’t the problem. He has drastically improved defensively. He has improved offensively every single season and he has been pushing the ball more. People will always find something a player needs to do better. Jordan and Kobe did not move well off the ball and even LeBron mostly stands around on the perimeter.
I am far more concerned with the changes Westbrook can make and Capela and House.

 

Jordan and Kobe were excellent off ball ag guards. They were excellent also and juking their man and cutting to the basket. They would run around off ball in the mid range area all the time.

 

Chris Paul and Dwight Howard didn’t see their shot attempts decrease joining the Rockets. That doesn’t even account for Paul getting older and Howard being hurt.

In this offense there is certainly room for another high scoring player.

 

Edit

 

The next and ultimate step for superstars is to figure how to be leaders and sacrifice part of their games to make it work for the overall team.

Time it that they peak right before the finals and during it.

Both are all round talents, can do it all except for diverse defensive ability.

Need to figure how to complete each other best because Harden can do whatever Brodie can do just better except running and dunking.

 

poor capela, ego, tucker, house, rivers all stuck with selfish harden

good thing ariza got out

 

Everything is funny until we lose another playoff series we should've won, because Harden's inability to play competently

 

so the rockets should have kept kmart and jeremy lin right?

who would have led the rockets to a chip all this years?

and if harden stayed with okc you're absolutely sure they still haven't won a single chip LOL

 

Jalen ain't lying.

Harden talks about how excited he is to play offball every year in the offseason dating back to Ty Lawson. But its the same song over and over again.
But i dont blame him or the coach. He's too good of an offensive weapon to be a decoy.

Every year Morey tries to team him up with another playmaker to ease his workload but Harden doesn't need another playmaker. He needs an allstar mate who is a rock solid finisher, shooter.

 

I feel like this goes hand in hand with Morey’s mediocre (at best) track record in drafts — when it comes to caps and dollars, he’s playing chess, but when it comes to the player/human side of basketball, he’s playing (not even) checkers.

 

Two guys who like to dominate the ball will play beautifully together?

lol

 

would another eric gordon do?
imho he needs to be paired with someone that can playmake if harden is double teamed, that can dribble the ball more than twice without it being a turnover

 

And whose fault is that? Isn't Dantoni's job to integrate Westbrook?

 

The consensus from many sources including Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe now is that these Rockets will be formidable in the regular season, like top 3 seed guaranteed. But come playoff time, because of the lack of innovation of our offensive sets, we will fizzle out fast once other teams take away easy transition baskets and force us pretty much into all iso situations.

 

do you think harden and russ will keep many of the most effective sets secret during regular season to unravel them in the playoffs?

 

deleted