With harden on this team, no hope to win a championship

Way, way, way WAY too early for this kind of thread.

Harden's awful in terms of defensive effort, but we need to remember a few things.

1) Harden is Young. He's 24 years old. The hope is that he will get his head together, work on his defensive fundamentals and improve to at least an average NBA defender.

2) Morey isn't done with this roster. Harden will be an important piece to a championship team, but I think it's apparent that we need another piece. This is what we believed last year and during the off season. This team isn't supposed to be a championship contender this year. Find another impact player or hope one of our other young guns develops into an all star caliber player and we're mostly there.

3) McHale of today is probably not what we'll have in the end. Depending on where you fall in terms of McHale, either McHale will grow into a solid play off caliber Head Coach, or McHale will be replaced by a solid play off caliber Head Coach. Either way we'll have a better Head Coach than we're seeing right now.

Wait until next year or the year after before we start saying that Harden can't help us win a Championship.

 

I have same feeling like OP's title.

Harden is nothing but keeps trying to pad his stats by no defense, or keep shooting the ball until he got certain points.

 

That is so true. A lot of the posters are not even Rocket fans in my opinion and many have a personal hate for Harden even before he became a Rocket. I feel no matter what he does, similar to Dwight, these people will always bash. They could give a damn if the Rockets win or lose.

 

Yeah, sorry is right. As Houston, the mistake is in having higher aspirations. We should be thankful for what we have. I absolutely agree.

 

Pretty dumb statement from the OP especially considering on a team with Durant and Westbrook, Harden was really the guy with the ball in his hands almost every game in the 4th quarter who took his team all the way to the finals in just his 3rd season in the league.

The guy is a special player any way you look at it. Does he have flaws... yes. Does he currently have a young-superstar ego.... probably.... Doe he take possession after possession off on the defensive end... yes.

But saying a 24 year old star player who has already been a major piece on a MUCH better team cannot win a championship is just plain stupid.

Nobody is counting on this guy to do it all himself. He's going to get plenty of help throughout the remainder of his tenure with the Rockets, and guess what... 24 year old players get better with time and experience.

 

you are incorrect. t-mac played with a lot of heart. he was injured all the time and played through his injuries all throughout the playoffs putting up insane numbers. watching harden now makes me realize how awesome t-mac is.

i wish harden could lead like t-mac did.

 

Nothing wrong with having high aspirations, but there is something wrong with having high aspirations about this team right now. People need to use logic alot more when thinking about where this team really is. All they are is two star players, two really good supporting players, and then a temporary team in flux.

Other than Harden, Howard, Parsons, and maybe Lin, the remainder of the team is essentially temp employees trying out for a position with a start up company.

This year is essentially trial by fire for everyone... including McHale. The good news is they have at least 3 years to figure it out. I dont think it will take longer than this year, but the whole first half of this season at least should be viewed as nothing but an exploration period. The only thing we are finding out is what kind of talent the Rockets have, and where their weaknesses are with the Harden/Howard/Parsons core.

Change WILL happen regardless.

 

Coach should try to limit his time on court, and limit the time when he is holding the ball. Insert a real PG in the lineup, don't let him do the PG job. His ability to attack the rim is also the decline, partly because he is holding the ball, not allowing other to create better opportunity for him. His playing has become worse partly because of the coach letting him do what he wants, also, I suspect he didn't workd hard off-season. He looks slow and over weight.

 

Terrible thread

 

the way he played the last 2 games, hell yes.

 

Harden just needs to mature, he is still very young in the game of basketball and I'm hopeful that the switch comes on sooner than later that he needs to play both ends of the floor. Asik, Jlin, and Harden for Paul George and filler space.

 

lol its gonna be all good when we get kd 2 houston in a few yrs

 

Hustle doesn't take time, PBev, Chandler, etc... hustled from day 1, they rotated out to shooters on the perimeter, they helped on D for a couple of steals, blocked a couple of shots. Aggressive on D all day... I would prefer Harden score 16 and avg 6 rebounds and 6 assist and play D all day. The put up 30 plus and no D.

Harden is increasing Chandler's (love when fellow Gators get paid) value by the minute. Because without Chandler, Harden cannot relax on D.

 

Well said.

 

I agree with what you're saying for the most part but Chandler's D is also average at best. His D has regressed every season as his offense has improved.

He was an above average defender his first year, an average defender last year and now slightly below average which mind you is still way way better than negative on D Haren

 

Be grateful. We had Kevin Martin and Chuck Hayes as our starting center a few years back.

 

Kevin Martin D > Haren D

Chuck Hayes heart, courage and fight > Haren + Dwight heart, courage and fight

 

Enough with the harsh criticism on Harden, It happens here in the forum way too often.
Harden is still young and also human, he is not a machine which produces 30 points in perfect percentages every game, he can stumble from time to time, it's normal and again it's human, James Harden is far from fulfilling his potential, he is still young, he still needs to progress in his young career.
Right now he is sort of struggling but it will fade soon, he will get back to his rhythm, after all he is one of the best this league has to offer nowadays.

I do believe and agree Harden has a lot of things to improve in his game and it's mostly defense and than be less selfish with ball and find his teammates more, but come on this onslaught is a little over the top.

From what I deduced in this forum after a felicitous game from Harden then suddenly he is our savior and will lead us to the promised land and one game after when he struggles a little bit he suddenly becomes a scrub and lazy players.

I agree about a lot of things fans here wrote about Harden but I think the way most of the fans here are commenting is inappropriate.

 

man I wish Hayes was still here. No matter how short and how aweful his offensive skill was, he always tried his best. Right now what we have are a taller Chuck Hayes with less heart and a muscular Kevin Martin with no heart.

 

Not me.