I really hope they make definitive statements about how nothing at all will change the fact that we will never ever win a championship if Harden doesn't reduce his TO's a bit. Even if we acquire a defensive paint protector PLUS an excellent distributor of the ball who is not otherwise a liability PLUS yet another excellent 3&D perimeter player on top of what we have right now, we will not win if Harden turns it over this much and doesn't hand over distribution duties to someone else, essentially putting him in his weakest role - a Klay Thompson clone. lol It's funny when you think about people making these statements haha
"The Rockets are winning despite Harden's terrible defense (shows 3 videos from last year of Harden losing his man, with laughing agreement). But how are they going to stop GSW in the playoffs. (Shows 5 videos of Curry and GSW, heavily praising him/them). And further, how are they going to get past SAS. (Shows videos of Harden turning the ball over in the last game.)"
So if the Rockets acquired hypothetically LMA, Rudy Gobert and Jae Crowder - again completely hypothetically ... here guys who offensively won't need high usage with ball in their hands as creators... younstill think the Rockets couldn't win a ring unless Harden is relegated to a true SG role?? Should Harden reduce turnovers? Yes. Clearly. Can Houston win with Harden as a PG? Absolutely. They need better talent and Harden needs to eliminate 1-2 turnovers per game and everyone needs to lock in defensively. Then they can win a ring. As is they have good wins against good teams as well as good losses against good teams.
Screw ESPN and Calvin Watkins. You know they are waiting and hoping for us to go on a loosing streak so they get a story about Harden.
Wow, acknowledging Harden's turnovers really hurts you. I don't know why the turnover issue is so divisive on Clutch fans. Reduce turnovers = good. Harden isn't some deity that needs us to choose sides in a moral war, lol.
"We will never win a championship as long as James "Pistol Pete" Harden is our primary playmaker and refuses to accept a primary playmaker who is a more efficient and creative playmaker than he is." - Basketcaseholic, Ricky Rubio Fan Club President
Harden does need to reduce his turnovers, he is far too careless with the ball and when teams lock in on him in the playoffs it will get harder for him. That being said, this is the FIRST time he has been the PG, he is still learning, and he is a very smart player, you just know he is aware of his carelessness in the San Antonio game - so I suspect his turnovers will drop over the course of the year to to a more respectable number...as long as he is 2-1 Assist to turnover we are good. DD
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...eless-media-coming-crawling-back-yall.278458/ You heard it here first
With his high assist totals, he should be aiming for ratio closer to 3:1. To average 12 assist per game and only have a 2:1 ratio is a big problem
My bad. I ignore everything bballholic since it seems to take over this board too much. Which is what he wants.
I missed the show. Did they also mention that Harden is such a me-first player and ball hog that fans that only care about a ring are disgusted with him?
Reducing turnovers is always good for all players and teams. If we take a very useful term from tennis called "unforced errors" we can understand this issue better. This team makes a bunch of unforced errors. The way to go about reducing unforced errors is to prioritize them with a number of factors: most avoidable, impact on +/- points, etc. Harden's TO's are not an issue to this team such that it is an oft cited issue. It is no more of an issue than Harrell's rebounding, Brewer's 15 mintues of horse ****, Capela's inability to beat players in the post, Ariza's 10% drop in FT%, etc. Tons of things you can cite that can theoretically be better. Harden is MORE than making up for his turnover proneness by leading the best league in the world in assists, and close to leading it in scoring, and putting effort on defense. Maybe the guy has an ADD problem I don't know, but I what I do know is he is perhaps the only guy in the NBA who will win more than half his games no matter who the F you put around him. When you generate so many wins single handedly, surely you are already at the very peak of right choices on the court. The best way I can describe this to people is like an overclocked CPU or a souped up car. Right now, we are getting a toyota to drive like a ferrari. It would be nice if we could get it to be even better. Theoretically, I'm sure there are engineers and mechanics who can think of a way to make it happen. However, sometimes the risk extends beyond what you were expecting. The way Harden plays - loose and flowy - does NOT only contribute to turnovers. It also contributes to assists and I would go as far as to say it contributes to a few FT's a game and open drives to the basket because he uses that style to get his opponents to lazily reach in. The idea that you can just change the way Harden plays to reduce TO's and magically hold everything else constant is a myth. We can have 12 assists to 5.5 TO's or we can have 7-8 assists to 3.5 TO's. WE CAN NOT HAVE 28 POINTS AND 12 ASSISTS TO 3.5 TO's AND 8 REBOUNDS AND EFFORT ON DEFENSE. He can not do it, and he is one of the best basketball players in the world despite that. And it is totally ok. So ok that the owner and GM are literally begging the league to let them pay him more money. People who are obsessive over Harden's high turnovers are making a hidden base assumption - that we have as much room for improvement as any team in the league does. This is totally false. We have maximized the F out of this team. We are not better than a handful of teams in the NBA not because the players are not committed, or they don't work hard enough, or because Harden can't average 12 assists to 3.5 TO's. We are not better than those teams because our roster is not very good, not even top 10. The other MVP candidates in the league are playing with superior 2nd and 3rd options and as much depth as we have if not more. Harden is leading this team to an insane record and it has a LOT to do with how he consciously made himself into a better leader. The team is working hard, working well, being creative. This is an unfathomable position for this team to be in. So if you want to nominally have a conversation about reducing turnovers being a general good thing, then yeah. Cool. It is a good thing. But Harden's TO's are neither the most damaging thing we are doing right now, nor are they getting in the way of the team excelling. This team is excelling and it definitely annoys me that fans have the nerve to focus so much attention on Harden's TO's and to even say he can't win it all this way. Yes he can, just get him better teammates. He has done his part. It's on management now to do theirs.
