Bro, have you ever watched an entire season of basketball? Its a season of stretches that even the great ones will struggle sometimes. The good thing about Harden is that he's still a factor with his elite passing every night.
It's past and what makes you think GS can get past the second round this year? They're soft as can be. Zero wins against top teams.
An entire season? Of basketball? Hm... What is this basketball you speak of? And where can I find an entire season of it? His passing isn't elite when he's getting 6 turnovers, it's being forced at that point. He's been entirely too careless with the ball, and I know that because I've been watching the games. I know how basketball works, I'm not confused about basketball because I make a negative post about Harden. I'm not disappointed by bad shooting and turnovers, it happens.... but it's the way he's been doing it, three consecutive games of extremely careless turnovers and horrible shot selection. We have had 3 consecutive games of "ugly wins" mostly due to Hardens play down the stretch, I used to get hyped for "Harden time", now it's become " **** please quit dribbling so much... god dammit don't you take another contested last-second contested three with no ball movement, ****". I love Harden, I know it's a shooting slump, I know we still got the W's, but it still pisses me off because sooner or later it's going to cost us some games.
Ugly wins? You have a very short memory, man. A season ago this team couldn't buy an "ugly win", in fact they would simply mail it in when playing teams like Orlando. Now, they're winning most of these games and beating the teams they're supposed to beat and beating elite teams too. The team is on pace to win more than 60 games this year which would be a first in franchise history. What more do you want?
He's a lost cause. Some people just HAVE to find something to complain about. I expect him to break out of the slump pretty soon. It's very unlike Harden to shoot this poorly over the course of more than a few games. In fact, I just did some research and the longest James has ever gone shooting under 50% from the field is 5 consecutive games. He's done it a few times, but it just shows that he tends to bounce back after a week or two. Additionally, he tends to do pretty well against Toronto, so I'm sure he'll be back in form by Sunday night.
[COOL STAT] Just saw on ESPN that James has had 30 games this season in which he collects more than 10 assists. That is 10 more than the next-closest player!
For Harden to cut the ridiculous shot attempts and dumb turnovers down a bit? This has nothing to do with last season, I'm very happy with the team's season, way beyond my expectations, same goes for Harden's season for the most part. I don't know if he's really gassed or what, but if you watched the recent games you can tell how poor his play has been at times. Hoping for a nice game against the Raptors this Sunday, we're probably going to need it.
Don't put too much stock in this slump. Everyone goes through it. Harden has been as good as anyone in the entire league for the whole season and a few bad shooting nights doesn't affect that status. He'll be fine.
well when you start bev and ariza around harden, 2 non threats offensively, and a hit or miss shooter in anderson, teams can send multiple guys at harden to wear him out. Like i said before what i would do is make a trade for a combo guard like brandon knight( include bev in the trade if need be). and trade trevor and corey for rudy gay( just make the trade). I would also shop anderson around, and see what players i could get for him. And give wiljter some run in andersons place( as a backup to dekker),, i would have dekker as my 4, and rudy gay as my 3, with knight as my 2 and harden as my pg, with ego coming off the bench. If we can somehow get willie cauley stein from the kings in the rudy gay deal that would be perfect he could start or backup capela
I'm hesitant to trade away guys who have been key contributors to our success. Bev, Anderson, and Ariza have done everything that has been asked of them and they are not players we should consider getting rid of. This isn't like a video game, where team chemistry doesn't mean jack. Harden loves all three of those guys (Bev and Ariza more so probably) and how he feels about players carries a lot of weight, as it should. Additionally, Rudy Gay has never made a team perform better. Every time he has left a team, they almost instantly get better. If we're going to be targeting anyone for trades, it should be bench guys. Package Dekker and Brewer for a veteran wing is about as much as I would be willing to do.
Dude you underestimate how good James Harden is, put him on the 76ers right now, and they are the 3rd or 4th seed in the east you may think these guys that i named suck, but i have grown to learn that nobody in the nba truly sucks, others are just more talented than others. and then you have talented players who can make other talented players even better. Take Harden off this roster, our best player becomes eric gordon. Look i love eg, but if he were asked to carry a team it wouldnt work, i have nightmares off seeing him trying to dribble and go into the paint without turning the ball over, teams would harrass him like they do harden. we need talent, morey loves flexability, but we cant waste hardens prime years this is the best year or chance we have to win a championship. And morey needs to makes some moves to get us over the hump, i wouldnt have minded morey getting javale mcgee or another tall shotblocker that harden can run the pick and roll with, harrell is too short, and nene is to old morey is love with d-league, which is ok. But why draft a guy like nanu, why trade for ennis. These moves were pointless. Harden is asked to do way more than the average player. He might be burned out
But dekker is better than ariza. You see differenate talent when its right there in front of you, dekker is a better ballhandler, slasher, dunker, defender, and is a much better rebounder than trevor. Ariza is like a poor mans tayshauns prince
Worrying stat: James Harden is currently on the longest streak of games with 6+ turnovers in NBA history. Old record was 5, his current streak is at 8. If we bump the threshold down to 5+ turnovers, he's tied at third (behind Magic and Iverson with 10 each).
The team would be worse with that trade. Bev is better than knight. Especially when you factor in the money. Bev is getting paid 6m for two more years after this one. He's a much better defender and rebounder than knight and avg more assists. And he shoots better from three and two. Rudy Gay first of all is a FA who wants as much money as Anderson in sure and he's def not worth 20m. Anderson brings 42% three point shooting from a PF position. I don't think you understand how much he means to this offense and just his presence on the court even when he's missing shots opens up the court for harden. That would not be the case with dekker and gay out on the wing shooting 33%. Ariza since again like Bev is locked in for one more year after this one at 7m. Knows his role and shoots 38% from three and guards the other teams best player every night. Somthing that gay can't and has never done. The rockets are 30-9 and 24-4 since the 6-5 start. This team is elite and has been top 10 in O and D for over 20 games now. This is no fluke and you don't break that up for two guys that are habitual losers in terms of the teams they have been on. I don't doubt that harden would make them better but when you factor in money and fit what we have is better than swapping out for those guys. Willie caullie stein would be interesting but I don't think you have to trade much to get him maybe trez and a 2nd but I still don't know if I do that. But I would def think long and hard about it.
