No for two reasons. 1. There is no reason to have Harden bring the ball up while being hounded everytime. That's what Dallas would do and love it. To tire him out. If you can take away Hardens ability to get assist by keeping him working in the backcourt, you're playing into Dallas's hands. 2. Harden would end up having to defend the opposing point guard. As bad as Prig is you don't want to put a sg on a pg unless that sg is corey brewer or someone who thrives defensively in the open court against quicker players by being able to grind them down. Trying to put Harden on Barea or Rondo would only serve to tire Harden out and exploit his weaknesses in D.
Prigioni is miles ahead of Papa and only slightly above Bev. He can actually run the offense well and find open players. He's also got pretty good ball handling skills.
1. If they double him, he can pass it to the free guy. It's not some herculean ordeal. And like I said Brewer's a decent ballhandler himself. 2. But the other guy who moves into the starting lineup is Brewer. lol
Having prigs anchors the offense. Gets players moving around.. he is more set minded, feeds to howard/post and gets everyone involved.. when that breaks down, give it to James. Plus it gives Harden rest during plays. Prigs also helps keep turnovers down. If it aint broke....
Slightly below Bev. The man can't hit his damn shots. It's almost Rondo level. He's a great playmaker but that's only because teams don't play him like they play Rondo.
I don't think Harden's conditioning is up for this. I'm sure his defense will suffer for it. Also, I don't know if his ballhandling skills are ready for speedy pgs to harass him all game while he brings the ball up.
I'm hoping we keep Prigs around next year to facilitate the offense when Harden sits, re-sign Brewer, and draft a long, athletic point guard that already has great defensive skills and a developing offensive skill set. Prigs is an ideal backup playmaker if surrounded by 3&D players that would be even cheap enough and humble enough to move into the 3rd/emergency point guard role and help mentor/coach the youngsters while still being ready to play at a moments notice.
This PG / SG notion is almost irrelevant in the NBA Almost every team has a primary guard and a secondary one or a main guard and an off guard. Harden is main guard for the Rockets and Terry the off guard. I think what we have is working fine simply because Harden is great at finding the open man and Terry is one of the best 3 point shooters the game ahs ever seen. Opposition still have to respect his 3 ball or he will burn them. Same can't be said if you insert Brewer into the starting line up.
So, basically, another Brewer? Which is really one of the points of this thread. The whole "Harden's gonna get tired chasing PGs" argument is ridiculous because Brewer's moving into the starting line-up. Brewer will be the one defending the PG, if need be, and let James defend the other SG like he does now. Why search for a playmaking PG like Dragic or another Brewer when you already have the players? Of course, this is under the premise that Papa's is good enough to be the backup swingman, which has been under-discussed. I seriously think people are highly underestimating Pap here. There was even a suggestion that Prigioni is a better player, without respect for position, which is baffling. Papa was really good during the start of the season and still very young.
Dei, I slightly agree with your "lol" on the 1st sentence. However I noticed that you didn't comment on the last 2 sentences about Prig's running the offense well, finding open players & good ball handling skills; which are spot on. Harden already is the pg. He just doesn't bring the ball up all the time. IMO, having multiply players who can bring the ball up court is a positive.
You can't move him. It will invalidate his promotional video for MVP here: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=264735
No dishonesty on my part. I didn't feel the need to because my other points already address that. I said that Prig is, by far, the weakest link in the starting lineup. That's just a fact. That Harden pretty much runs the plays most of the time magnifies that even further because he's not being used as a PG, which makes his skills redundant. Cue my other points about subbing Brewer instead and moving Pap into the rotation.
Actually a better, younger Brewer. A player that is still young enough to develop more offensive half-court game and playmaking skills than Brewer has but otherwise just like Brewer. Long, athletic, fast, and already a quality defender.
Terry isn't even in the starting lineup. I do agree that a backcourt of Terry/Harden has great value and that is simply because Terry is a great shooter. Terry's effectively an SG. Prig on the other hand, is not. If you're gonna have Harden be PG, why bother playing him with Prig? I'm not saying that there isn't any value to Harden playing with Prig. If you're talking outright about taking care of the ball, getting better ball movement then sure, Prig is maybe a little better than Brewer. However, consider that Brewer's also the better shooter, overall offensive player, and defender and what that brings, in the context that Harden's already playing PG anyway AND that the Rockets have an SF that's an overall better player than Prig too. Essentially, compare: PG - Prigioni/Terry SG - Harden/Brewer SF - Ariza/Brewer vs. PG - Harden/Terry SG - Brewer/Harden SF - Ariza/Papa/Brewer
Andrew Wiggins last Summer was compared to Corey Brewer by some analysts. Of course he's going to be a much more complete player offensively, but athletically, that's pretty much what you see with Brewer. He's elite, and extremely underrated just because it took him several years to find his role.
