Nobody is telling him to neglect his midranfe game, comprende? How many mid range shots did Cp3 take last year, comprende? You think Morey or any other person will tell the MVP how to shoot his shots, comprende? Harden is not a child who will do as he is told so he can be a good boy, comprende? You have no clue exactly what you are talking about, comprende?
I'm not arguing that at all, I'm saying you don't take what the defense gives you cuz what they give you is the worst. Your argument made 0 sense the moment you tell the Rox to take what the defense give them. It's funny you talk about circle jerking because you need to meet up with Biggredd. I think the 2 of you are 2 peas in a pod.
What they give you is a open mid range shot that a elite shooter would hit at a high rate, higher rate than a contested step back three and a difficult ass floater over the outstretched arms of a 7 footer while crashing to the ground. Occasionally take those shots to keep the defense honest. Just like elite passing offenses in the NFL still run it up the middle occasionally to keep defenses honest.
I'd love to hear your explanation as to why Hardens midrange game so conveniently left the building at the exact same time the Rockets were publicly trying to eliminate that part of the game from their offense.
I quoted your entire OP. It was not out of context. Anyway, I would be interested to see the box scores from games where Harden scored 40+ using primarily his mid range game. I don't remember those. Please provide a link.
Meltdowns at the beginning of the season after 5 games in the GARM? It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Nothing’s changed.
So.. assuming Russ too will eventually ask Harden to change his game a bit.. how many players do we need to change alongside Harden to admit that OP is right?
See Carmelo Anthony. The biggest scapegoat in Rockets history. Remember how all of our defensive problems were because of him?
Harden is 32/56 from 2pt attempts this season, which is pretty good. It's just his 3pt shots that aren't dropping. He's 14/70 from the 3pt shot. We all know his 3pt shots will start dropping, so I wouldn't worry. I did notice in the final quarter last night that he barely shot the 3pt shot and starting attacking the basket more.
On offense: four guys standing around watching one guy try to draw fouls or hit impossible shots. On defense: four guys standing around watching PJ Tucker try to guard five guys.
This new crop of nba fans with the “they can’t hit it at a high clip” makes the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard. KD shot it down in that twitter argument with that one guy. These are nba players, a FT is a midrange shot when the game is stopped. Players can hit that shot easily if plays are run.
at some point, we need to rethink some of our sets. It's the exact same as last year, with little movement besides one handoff into a pick n roll. James is going to continue shooting until he shoots himself out of the slump. It's just what he does. For better or worse, he will not take different shots. And that's what having him as our franchise player affords. Been saying for years that there are easier ways to get himself going besides relying on foul calls which have proven for the last 5 years wont be called in the playoffs, but if the rhetoric from him and the coach is that "he's an mvp player, you can't change anything about mvp players," then what can you do? It's just frustrating, because he's shot us out of winning the only two losses we have (hunting for the 3 for multiple possessions when we had a 12 pt lead on the bucks heading into crunchtime), and last night, but he'll win us some games with the exact same shots so to him and the coach, they'll just say "he had an off night, he's an mvp, mvp's are mvp's for a reason" and then we'll see if this year in the playoffs is any different. I will say, his postseasons have been better overall each year, but his stubbornness to not go for baiting fouls or choosing other scoring options is what has limited his/our ceiling. He has the tools, but it's just his decision-making in those moments at this point.
The thing that makes it "ok" is that while I'm very publicly championship or bust, most everyone else even if they don't admit it is as well. Not that the Rockets have won a championship, but in recent years, the season's that started poorly, ended fairly poorly, relatively speaking. The McHale firing year. Last year resulting in a second round playoff loss at home and ultimate offseason roster moves. The slight difference here is that while the team isn't playing well, really, 3-2 isn't exactly poorly. Not relative to 0-3 turning into 4-7 and 5-10 like in 2015/2016, or last years' 1-4. Certainly would have hoped for the win last night, but they still have Heat, Grizzlies, Warriors, Bulls and Pelicans coming up before the Clippers. They can play poorly and still go 4-1 to be 7-3 and be doing well, despite what we all see. The test will come after that then - Clippers, Pacers, TWolves, Blazers, Nuggets, Clippers, Mavericks, Heat, Hawks, Spurs, Raptors... if they don't improve defensively that's easily a 4-7 stretch or worse. The above doesn't fall into "meltdown" mode... but is prudent analysis. We shall obviously see. That said, offensive oddity of the system aside, there is practically ZERO chance this team sniffs a championship outside (1) defensive and rebounding upgrades or (2) Russ and Harden both being at absolute peak performance throughout an entire playoffs. Harden's 20% three point shooting on insane volume.... well, better now than the end of the season!
