bullish passes* First off.. James has been giving much better effort on both ends lately. Rockets been winning. Wow the correlation! Just saying, his stellar offensive game's only real problem is careless passes. These plays OFTEN lead to easy, easy baskets because they're mostly live ball. James isn't the only culprit as we have plenty other players who make similar foolish passes, but since James wants to be PG, he deserves the brunt of the blame. Heck, maybe if he made smarter ones, his teammates would care more about theirs. He's been doing a better job feeding Dwight lately which pleases me. It shows unselfishness and more leadership. Despite the flaws other posters talk about.. things I don't care about... "too many 3PAs?, Klhoe?, "poor 3PT%, ISO?, which club he chilled at?, coaching (as far as an excuse for his play)?". He just needs to continue playing hard and limit his poor passes, and the Rockets can ball. Dwight needs to keep playing well too. He made a niice move 3rd Q around 10 remaining. H&H ballin is a KD-Westbrook level duo. *includes desperation ones to teammates with 2 seconds
I noticed he always tries to bounce pass between two defenders to split the defense, when I feel like he'd reduce turnovers passing over their heads. Usually the reason they take it away is not that they predict the bounce, but it strays and hits the defenders' legs or tip of their hands.
He was hot garbage in the 1st, I was ****ing praying for Thornton to be subbed in. Even if Thornton misses a lot of shots at least he doesn't turn it over and play like a total ******* one defense. But that second half, that second half saved Harden. MUCH better in the 2nd half. I'm still for giving Thornton more minutes though, he's such a ballerrrrrr.
I like Thorton but I don't understand how he gets a pass defensively. He's a scorer and a average passer but that's it. There was a sequence in which he yelled twice really loud at Dwight for the screen you could see Dwight didn't like it but he set the screen. Thorton then took a tough jumper that missed horribly. During the timeout you could see James telling him to move the ball and Marcus kinda blew him off. Marcus is a gunner and has his place on the roster but to say he plays defense is laughable. You're not going anywhere if Marcus is playing more minutes than Harden is that simple.
I'm not saying Thornton should be playing more minutes then Harden. I'm saying Thornton simply doesn't turn the ball over, he doesn't pass much(but like u mentioned not a bad passer) but he doesn't turn it over. He also rebounds well for his size. When Harden is playing awfully, turning the ball over 5 TIMES in one half while only scoring 10 points, im in favor for subbing in Thornton because he will give you a offensive threat without the ridiculous turnovers. Harden was really bad on defense in the first half, so bad that Toney Allen was draining jumpers because he was simply ridiculously open. Thornton isn't a good defender, but when Harden is pouting and clearly giving up on defense playing like trash even Thornton is a noticeable upgrade on defense. His attitude I can't really comment on, iv never seen him act like that in any other game and he was hot tonight so maybe he was just in a zone and was hyped up? Maybe it explains while he was benched for no reason often though, perhaps he gives attitude behind the scenes but he seems like a melow guy usually.
Other than the turnovers... it's the forever to get the ball into play when harden brings it up... its just a momentum killer... James gets tired I guess and slows the game down and everybody stops moving... For gods sake, if James wants to take 10 seconds outta 24 to get to the top of the key - fine - but then let somebody bring the ball up then... quit giving the defense a 10+ second breather after every score... let somebody else bring the ball up, test the defense and keep them honest... then you can always give james back the ball at the top of the key when he finally makes it there... but c'mon hustle needs to start from the time the ball goes into play! get the ball upcourt quicker, limit the turnovers and decent d... that's all I'm asking... On the plus side, he has been doing a much better job distributing - gotta take care of your bigs. If we could put Thornton's motor into James it'd be downright scary - lol!
Also the whole go around a pick and do nothing except look over your shoulder and pick up your dribble waiting for the defender to get back in position is kind of VERY annoying.
his problem in offense is the incapability of playing off the ball - even if he wants to. most stars have to have the ball in their hands all the time to be effective. harden is of no exception. but his incapability of playing off the ball is kinda extreme, imo.
This. Just takes forever to bring the ball up the court. PB brings it up much faster but then usually passes to Harden immediately. I wonder how good Harden could be under Pop sometimes.
Good point. James also could play better off the ball (i.e. more movement). He's a stature without the ball in his hands.
thats his patented move. dribble down the clock then pass it to..6'11 240LBS NO JUMP SHOT WHATSOEVER CLINT CAPELA NEAR THE 3PT LINE?!?! not bad. unpredictable play and pass was executed to perfection
I've noticed him just fall down and roll around a few times this season. Always leads to a turn over. He should stop that too.
Since the second half of the Pacers game Harden has been playing decent defense and more dominant offense. He's playing like the MVP again. Yeah he's a bit sloppy with the passes but that's a result of his playing style, he's never just frolicking to the basket like Curry. It's fine, when guys actually receive those passes with a decent amount of clock left, those are great shots. The only thing I expect is that he gets back on transition defense ASAP instead of watching the shot or whining to the ref. No referee or player or fan actually believes him anymore because let's be honest, James Harden milks the rules and the refs in order to be the offensive monster he is. I feel like he's on an upswing now. I noticed when the halftime buzzer sounded in the Pacers game a couple of players including Dwight gave Harden a disappointed look and some frustrated words. I was hoping they were telling him they need more effort from him on defense because at the end of the 2nd quarter he came in and wasted away so much defensive effort again. Of course I have no idea if that's actually what they were saying to him, but he came out much more motivated on defense in the 2nd half so there's hope.
Agreed with everything else, but what does "nature of his game" mean? Turnovers from drives to the basket.. getting fouled but no call.. and ball goes out of bounds are one thing. I can also accept the occasional ISO with a bad dribble, then turnover. But many of his passes are prayers.. when it's not even desperate times. It's like the part of his mindset that leaves his opponent wide open on defense sometimes. Very frustrating some of the obvious things he does.
As soon as I saw the subject header, I thought, "turnovers". Yup, I agree with this post. He handles the ball a ton and averages 2nd highest minutes total in the league, so it's expected that his turnovers will be higher than an average player. However, those passes are killing us, leading to turnovers, fast breaks, and free points for our opponents. Smarter passes from him should cost our opponents 8 points a game on average.
