Westbrook: "I don't give a f*** about (my stat) line."

Remember when the Rockets would sit Harden and the offense would undergo an epic fail every single time? We experimented with a thousand different times to sit him, none of them worked.

Again, I'm not like everyone else here. I don't think Westbrook is actively stat padding, but I do think he has zero faith in his teammates. None. Not one ounce of faith. Eventually it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Harden two years ago was the epitome of Westbrook right now. Hell, you could even argue Harden last year had little faith in his team too. Again, the change in perception for Harden is dramatically underplayed by the media. You don't give Ryan Anderson 7 shots from 3 the other night if you don't have faith in him. James set him up with a ton of looks, and Ryno missed every single one of them. After the game, do you think James ripped Ryno a new one? Probably not. I guarantee WB wouldn't have the same reaction.

 

There were times last season where OKC's offense was a work of art. It was off the charts incredible. They really seemed to have it all figured out.

But after a few consecutive games, WB would stop following the script and would revert to holding the ball. This back and forth happened a few times during the season. You could see KD's frustration grow. He was pretty ticked off by the time the season ended.

If KD & WB had 2 years together with Donovan as coach, I think his offense could have become habit and stuck.

This season is all about WB and Donovan has no choice but to cater everything to him. He will never have the authority to challenge WB.

 

Disagree. Harden still passed when the Rockets were a woeful 3-point shooting team. He passed and they missed, but Harden continued to pass.

 

Kenny Smith came to Houston and dumped the ball to Dream and stood outside and shot jumpers

That dude is one of the best NYC pgs eva

He came here and excited the most conducive game plan for success

Harden wasn't the pg two years ago

It doesn't matter they maximized their potential two seasons ago

They lost to a 67 win team

 

I remember the reverb of "Harden needs to quit it with the hero ball" a LOT more back then. Harden was always a good passer, but I think he is a lot more likely to pass than shoot now.

 

Oooooookaaayyy....

He's about to win an MVP based on an empty statline.

 

By now, we should all recognize the reason for 'hero ball' had more to do with McHale's absolute failure as an Xs and Os head coach.

The man was the pinnacle of offensive ineptitude.

Clap, clap.

 

I see it as milk hair enabled Harden the way Donovan is enabling Westbrook. D'Antoni isn't an enabler. His metaphor at the beginning of the season was perfect. He and James are holding a rope, sometimes he tugs, sometimes James does, but no matter what they can't drop the rope. D'Antoni stays on Harden to be his facilitator, not his one man show.

 

Harden has matured this season. He's always a good passer. But he was not always a good decision maker. A good passer is not exactly the same as a good decision maker. You need to know when to involve your teammates, and when to be aggressive taking over the game in scoring.

 

Generally agree, but we have to admit it's much easier to facilitate within a real system.

I see it as D'Antoni instilling confidence in Harden to execute a winning Xs and Os strategy.

 

Oh definitely. The maturity of Harden this season has floored me, and that's definitely MDA's influence.

 

Harden has pretty much been pg since he came here. He way not dribble the ball up the court, but he had the ball in his hands a majority of the time.

 

got to give it to WEstbrook. Hate the guy but he deservers it. triple double first half while on 2 occations Haren just watched a loose ball.

 

He was awesome for the first three quarters, he did the same thing in games 2 and 3. If he played that way for the full game he would be a clear MVP IMO, and the Thunder would have won 50 easily.

He really is an astounding combo of effort and talent. But he inevitably goes into chucker mode and ignores his teammates in many close games.

 

WB was 10/28 (35.7%) from the field in game 4. The rest of the team was 32/57 (56.1%).

 

At the same time, the team was +14 in the Westbrook's 38 minutes. They were -18 in his 10 minutes the bench. That's beyond horrible. That's a pace to lose a full game by 86 points. To put it in perspective, OKC could likely have dribbled the shot clock down to 1 and hoisted up 3's on every possession and ended up doing about the same during those 10 minutes. TThe rest of the team only shoots well in conjunction with Westbrook orchestrating that.

In game 2, it was even worse. +11 in Westbrook's 41 minutes, and -15 in his 7 minutes on the bench. That's a pace to lose a game by 103 points. Again, they could have just had shot clock violations in all the possessions when Westbrook was off the floor and done as well.

 

I wonder how much of that was just McHale being a complete r****d unable to draw up any plays?
In any case you do kind of have a point. Harden's first two playoff series against the Thunder and Blazers were chuckfests.

 

He definitely was fibbing.

 

Logical conclusions: WB should take fewer shots when he is on the floor which would increase their efficiency when he plays and may improve their ability to score when he rests.

I'd like to know what happens to OKC's defense when WB is on the bench. Is the +/- so terrible because their offense crashes, their defensive intensity disappears or a combination of both?