1) I'm not sure what the deal is with Harden. It probably is a combination of many things but perhaps we underestimated the toll a full season and several playoff rounds took on his body. That toll and the realization that it may take a greater toll this season maybe weighing down on harden. Mentally, I'm just not sure about harden. He wants to be the man but his body language doesn't match his desire. 2) I was hoping they would come back with the killer instinct after last season but it looks like the team still can't get on the same effort page. 3) I suspect after such poor team shooting, harden is having a hard time trusting teammates to make shots and finish. Lawson seemed like a good guy to have the roster on paper, as I was really expecting to have elite playing/passing for 48 minutes per game. However, Lawson will never succeed here unless harden fully buys into playing off the ball when they share the floor. We need a 6th man type of scorer off the bench who can play the 6th man role and be able to play off harden. In conclusion, we need a 6th man trade and we need the law of averages to swing back in our favor in regards to shooting percentage.
I saw Elvin Hayes returning rotten sausage to Whole Foods on Monday. Hayes looked good, the sausage looked terrible.
Dumb is not the reason - GMNot said it very well, the lack of chemistry, cohesion and desire to play as a team is. But let's not forget that they came into the preseason ill-prepared and out-of-shape, lost their coach due to their poor performance as a team and are now trying to learn JBB's system of coaching and play-calling. It's apparent they are still in disarray.
It was a high-order fluke, just like the Astros' World Series appearance followed by their years of not making the playoffs. Everything aligned in an unrepeatable fashion in both cases, and it's not happening this year for the Rockets. I had that same sense of dread all last year that I did with the Astros: "We're winning. Woo. This is not sustainable, though. It's going to get ugly when reality catches up." Reality caught up this year.
I've been reminding people about the Clippers series. We all remember the awesome comeback. But we seldom mention how awful they played in those losses, getting blown out time after time, quitting before half time. This team simply cannot play good basketball for a long stretch. That is exemplified by their best player. Harden's poor performances are clearly not because of fatigue. Look, he just played a brilliant game at the tail end of a B2B, in which he played a total of 75 minutes. The irony is that this game kind of gave him away. He can't use "too tired" as an excuse. He has proven that he can be elite even under heavy load.
b,,,b,,,but,,, but if you lead the league in minutes played, its kinda hard to maintain focus on the floor, tho...
I can't believe Harden would let a pounding buddy like that go and want to be with Khloe.. I just can't believe it.. I guess he's bored of the too ****able.
But can he play heavy minutes, have high usage and be elite for consecutive seasons? Look, Harden may not just have the killer instinct and other attributes that the greats have, but all games aren't equal. It's cliche, but this Rockets' team and their issues are complicated.
The team problem is complicated. Harden's lack of effort is not. Fact: He had 3 days off before last night's game. He had no day off before tonight's game. Fact: His effort was much worse last night than tonight. Conclusion: His effort has nothing to do with how tired he is.
I have trouble believeing that's it. I'm rather new, so be gentle, but if I look at the stats of the last three seasons 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016 =>The major difference is that 2014-2015 was consistently less shots allowed for the opponent and those that were made were clearly less optimal. It's likely not a fluke as this improvement translated in a better playoff run. Now we swivel the spotlight to this year. Team wide the stats haven't been regressing dramatically (FG% is worrisome)... untill you see that the opponents are being allowed much more shots and having franchise high shooting % against us. That must be the system/effort, right? Players individually aren't shooting that much worse and even block/steal more per game (which is logical considering the other team has more play against us, so no silver lining there). It's not the athleticism that somehow disappeared. This also makes me very cautious concluding trading roleplayer XXX for roleplayer YYY would really make a difference. There seems to be something structurally wrong with the team/tactics. Unless this can be directly attributed to one player (Harden certainly comes to mind) trading roleplayers does not seem like the solution here. My hesistant take: Harden is making horrible personal decisions (dating a reality star with the name Kardasian is imho a huge distraction) which is affecting his gameplay and this is breaking the system. The guy needs help from someone who can snap him out of this side-show. This is conjecture, but I simply can not imagine why a professional athlete would enter such a relationship. I also can not imagine this isnt a huge distraction. Added problem is that when things go pearshaped (which they often do)JBB is sawing the stirrups whith lots of rotation changes which makes the system implode. Result: lots and lots of ISO, one on one and a lot of hesistation. Who to pass, when to pass, where to go, who to follow. If you need to think about every decision you are losing time. My suggestion? Try to fix the Harden problem. Hard or soft? I'm not a coach so I'm clueless how, but it needs to be done. Stabilize the system. Even if we go down, less panicked rotation changes. Don't trade players unless you improve morale/discipline/chemistry. Don't trade thinking it's a question of getting better roleplayers.
That is what it seems to be, his partying is getting in the way of his effort in games. No proof, just conjecture. DD
Quick question. If Addidas is paying James $200 mill and we're paying him nothing close to that, where is his loyalty going to be? Do you think he's gonna sacrifice like he should for the Rockets? From the looks of it we know the answer to this question
Yeah, when Brewer dribbles off his leg definitely blame the coaching and the "system" for those mistakes.
