Harden must make adjustments

I agree. But Harden was attacking the basket confidently earlier in the season. In this series, he picked up his dribble early too often and just through those soft floaters, reminiscent of what Kevin Martin used to do.

Maybe its fatigue, the ankle. Maybe its OKC knowing how defend his drives better than most. But he needs to be more aggressive in actually getting to the rim.

I'd like him to develop his post game a bit more as well. I expect him to be a better player next year.

 

So true, when you play against OKC at their home floor, refs are not going to call those fouls. It could be his injury or fatigue; he was doing it more later in the season. Since he is not elite athletically, he can't just drive to the hole, has to become more versatile.

 

Was going to comment about adding a post game but someone beat me to it. That will really take his offensive game to another level, I think. And for the love of God please come back a slightly better defensive player.

 

One important facet to his game that everyone fails to realize.. James Harden is arguably the best pick & roll player in the league right now. Problem is, Omer Asik was the one setting picks and rolling to the basket. I love Omer but his hands were made of butter all season. Defenders just sagged off of him and closed out on Harden all season on P&R's.

 

He should try and watch tapes of himself this off season and see which plays wherein he was effective and which ones were total duds. He should know by next season that running down the shot clock and jacking up a step back 3 is not a very efficient play. He makes some of those but more often than not, they end up as bricks.

I agree that adding a post game will tremendously help him be more of a force but I think that should come later. He should focus more on defense because his late close outs and ball watching has really hurt our team. I'm hoping he gets a second option this off season so he doesnt have that much responsibiliy anymore on the offensive end and can spend more energy on defense.

 

He does. He needs to play better D, his passes need more zip on them and needs better decision making.

The fact he was a role player in OKC and came off the bench became evident as the season went on. He's not good enough to play the role of a PG and run the offense and also needs to hone his skills as a SG. Right now he's good at both, but not quite there at either. Needs to do better in crunch time under pressure.

But one can only imagine how much pressure he felt this year as well, although no one ever really talks about it. I think we saw some cracks at the end of the year but all in all he handled his role better than anyone could imagine.

Evident for this being the only time I even thought about him probably having to deal with pressure of his own was now. So he's handled himself like a pro but he's probably not at pro-level upstairs yet and needed at least 1 year in the role of that #1 guy.

This was a great learning experience for this young team. Watch out next year.

 

Maybe just because of getting those fouls called so often earlier in the season, he thought it could be better to draw them all the time. And I think those floaters are because he gets blocked often when a good shot blocker is on the opponent team. And he is getting his shot blocked because of his lack of athleticism... But I think he'll be alright after working on those things in the offseason.

 

Harden is awesome but he has flaws in his game that can be changed easily with some work. Things I can't stand and like him to improve on.

1. During iso he does all these dribble betweeen the legs stuff...killing time then passes out forcing our players to take a quick ugly shot. The passes are usually off because of all the unnecessary dribbling.

2. Settles for jump shots when we're leading...which is fine but when you're shooting bricks stop it...and look for hot hand or just drive.

If he can improve on those little things I would be a happy.

 

Put this in perspective:

This is Harden, Lin, Parson, and Asik's first full season as starters......

 

He needs a post game big time. Huge size and speed advantage versus Fisher yesterday when he was posting him up and he got stripped once and lost the ball the other time. Just so frustrating to watch all that talent and potential not being utilised

 

I agree wholeheartedly, Harden has to stop trying to draw contact and go in to finish. He seems strong enough to ignore most contact but a lot of times you see him run in a flail his arms to exaggerate and try to make the refs give him the call. A lot of people said it before, in the playoffs you can't expect those types of calls at the same frequency he got them in the regular season.

This also lends to his high turnovers, because you can see half of the time he gives it up he is expecting a call and the other time he just makes really poor decisions with the ball trying something unnecessary. He is someone that will eventually be a superstar but right now, he has ways to go.

 

I might have sold Omer short in terms of his hands. He was effective enough to where most national TV commentators were actually saying his ability to catch and finish was a strength, not a weakness. Could he actually be above average in this department?

 

You're right, that was very frustrating.

 

He needs a deadly mid range shot...

Its been mentioned by others he should also get a good post game because Harden is much stronger than people think. Its a good thing that I have seen him try to back down and post up lately even before the playoffs. I feel like thats a good indications hes trying to improve his game.

 

He can definitely improve that weakness in his game. One thing we have over the commentators, i watched all 88 Rockets games of the season, the commentators didn't. And based from this season, Omer had terrible hands. It's also one reason why you hardly saw alley-oop baskets for him. Harden and Lin were often times hesitant to pass him the ball because one awkward bounce or passing angle, it'll be an turnomer err turnover. But i love Omer in general. One of my favorite on the team. Just telling it as it is.

 

Nuff said. Need to realize this and know that with a full Summer and Pre season to get the chemistry solid this team will tougher next year. Harden and rest will learn to add new skills to their games. This team is just starting out. Next season will be a fun ride to the finals.

 

He needs to know to pass the ball when theres a 3 on 1 fast break instead of trying to draw a foul

 

Spot on! That and the ISO step back threes are what makes Harden so frustrating to watch sometimes.

I hope he will improve those things AND his utterly pathetic Defense (if you can call it that). I really believe he has a chance to become a superstar like KObe, Lebron, Durant... but he's still got a long way to go.