It will be interesting when their old role players get even more older and they can’t draft decent players.
Rockets picked the exact right moment to trade Harden. He's still elite, but they picked the right time. Stone is savvy.
Nah, Harden does more unnatural foul drawing move than anyone in the league. There were a few pet move of his that were specifically targeted by the NBA. The overwhelming majority of fouls were initiated by him. Players in the nba have learned not to reach for the ball after his 3rd year with the rockets. 1 such example is that hook move. He would look for an extended arm, hooks it and goes up for a shot. Thats no longer a foul. Harden used to get atleast 6 FTs a game from this one simple move alone. Another example is the stop and pop during a pick and Roll. Harden would go to a pick and roll, if he feel a defender trailing him close by, he would stop dead in his track, lean into defender and go up for a shot. Easy FT trip to the line. Refs dont call that anymore.
The only thing I miss less than hoops conversations in which I find myself defending Harden's foul-drawing is explaining to people why T-Mac is misunderstood. By all means, feel free to ardently discuss those topics if you must—while I make my exit.
Oh man. I'm not even sure that half of those guys aren't already washed up. I'm not sure Milsap or Aldridge have anything left at all at this point. So that will definitely be interesting to watch.
Didn’t realize the hook move was part of the changes. I heard it was more abt three point shooters drawing fouls. The hook move was always a foul though. Harden has a right to go up for a shot. And if your arm is in his arm pit, that’s your fault! I forgot abt the slowing down or jumping back into a player, I did hear abt that play and do know that harden used it — as did every offensive star. Heck those were the types of plays Devin Harris used to kill Yao with. And I disagree that harden draws fouls unnaturally more than anyone else. He was legitimately fouled more often than not. I hope your tune didn’t change when he left Houston.
I'm still a Harden fan and i was vocal about my disdain for that hook move as far back as 2018. It just wasn't basketball. Guys on this forum were like noooo its not true..... you're just haterz
Points for consistency then. Still, I disagree that he got lost his fouls illegitimately. JVG and others used to vehemently deny that claim in broadcasts too, defending Harden and his FT attempts.
I mean it depends on your definition of legitimacy. It is legitimate in the sense that there is contact. But most of the contacts were created by James. In 20 years of basketball, i've never seen anyone get tangled in a "hook" like James Harden.
But it’s a foul. Allen puts his right arm in the path of Harden and harden goes through it. Being a left handed player he has no choice but to go through Allen to get into a left handed shot. Now he’s obviously doing it to get the foul, but it is a foul. Allen can either get perpendicular to Hardens body or he can get parallel and in front. But he can’t split the difference and reach in front of harden from the side.
