I still think many of our guys would play better if we played team ball and not Harden pg/iso ball... Rhythm and flow is needed for many players to get into the groove.... Very few players can run up and down the court for 15-20 minutes without touching the ball and then drain a 3... The whole Harden as pg is rubbish! Using Harden as we do is going to get you a decent amount of wins against mediocre teams, but to compete for a championship you have to have most everybody firing on all cylinders... and I'm sorry, that's just not going to happen with Harden monopolizing the ball as he does... Also JBB's rotations suck ass... how can you expect someone like a Beasley or DMo to play well when they get 6 minutes in a game? Outside of garbage time, if you're putting somebody on the court for 6 mins - it's a total waste... Guys should get a minimum of 15-20 minutes or they simply shouldn't be in the rotation... We have to lose the whole 'hero ball' mentality and play a team oriented game... sure Harden is probably your best option on nearly every possession... but that''s not going to prepare the team for real competition.... This team put together a great run to stave off elimination against GS last year - with Harden on the bench.... let the rest of the guys play meaningful minutes with enough touches and the team will be better... and maybe James would have the 'energy' to put forth a consistent effort on the defensive end... and for god's sake... quit running guys that have played like crap for months (ie Corey Brewer) - use the minutes to develop somebody...
Yes, I do feel the same. Unfortunately I feel other people have fallen into the "Harden has always sucked" camp or the "Harden is still playing like an MVP" camp neither of which I think are true. People are acting like he wasn't a legit MVP last year, which is just false. Looking those ratings, I think going from +15 to +7 is pretty huge. I mean if you look at the top and bottom teams by net rating, they are separated by 20 points, so a drop of 8 by one player is big. Now Harden is still our best player. 3rd team all nba. This has exposed how poor offensively the rest of our guys are. I do agree the rest of the team is pretty awful at creating.
The problem with this argument is that it worked last year. It worked having Harden as PG and ISO and PnRing all game long. He got more MVP votes than LeBron and Kawhi last year doing that. The players just arent executing it properly this year.
Another thing is I'm not saying RPM is the end all stat. OP used it to say Harden is havinga great year, but the stat doesn't show that.
30.6 points, 8.3 assists, 6.5 rebounds, 1.9 steals, 45.9/39.0/86.3 (61.8% TS) What are Curry, Kawhi, LeBron CP3's corresponding number over that span? What is their TS% (on much lower usage/volume)? It must be very high, if he's far behind. Like 70% or more. I look forward to reviewing your research. Wrong, just ask Mr. Clutch... That's how you get a ranking that tells you that Nikola Jokic is better than DeMarcus Cousins, has Anthony Davis ranked 71st...etc. .
as a reply to Mr Clutch... I'd have to say that guys have lost interest in doing all the 'grunt' work if they're not going to get a chance to be more involved... I think thats why D12 is in the crapper... guys were probably more willing to do the other stuff when we're winning... not so much in a losing effort... Also, teams now know how to better gameplan against us now... And finally, we didn't win a championship last year - so, no, it didn't work...
I hate how people say that this Harden ball dominance "worked last year".... let's be honest... It worked well enough to beat Dallas... We should have lost to the Clips (being down 1-3) and then we got smoked by Golden State... like I say - it's Iverson basketball... with the right guy you can win a good number of regular season games and maybe even have some playoff success... but its not going to win a championship... If your goal is to be an above average team - then stay the course... If you want to win a championship - things need to change... Look at the last team to win a championship for the Pistons... was THAT team full of superstars or a dominant guy playing hero ball? They won because they were a team!
numbers/stats indicate performance (to a large degree, but not 100%). and performance is not totally dictated by talent alone. i'd be curious to see the same stats for the mavs starters this season. does anyone here think they have equal amount or more talent than this current rockets roster? yet that mavs team has achieved a better regular season standing and won a playoff game on the road.
The problem, I think, is that across the board most of our talent has gotten worse. Howard, Ariza, Motiejunas, Jones, Brewer, Smoove - they are all notably worse than last year. Beverley is about the same (still not at 13-14 Wolverine form) and Harden has slipped a little on both ends. So either this is truly a decline in talent related to something like age or health - or it's bad coaching. The former may be the case for Howard, Smoove or Motiejunas, perhaps even Ariza. The latter is likely the case for Jones and Brewer, both of whom can be useful in the right situations but can't carry a heavy load due to their flaws. The one player to improve has been Capela. That's encouraging given how unlikely it is that Howard would stay. KJ and Montrezl get an incomplete - can't really rely on advanced stats unless you have consistent situations that players play in and a decent sample of minutes.
It's not a talent issue, it's a chemistry issue . This team has underperformed big time this season. They are not playing with any cohesiveness at all. You can tell they have all types of issues going on in the locker room. They can not put away their differences for the betterment of the team. It does not have anything to do with Howard and Ariza getting old either. Honestly stats does not tell the entire story.
Could be chemistry or coaching but performance has slipped across the board. Stats won't readily reveal why this is, only that it is occurring.
I also think both Howard and Ariza are at a stage in their careers where age becomes a factor. Not sure if that's what's going on here or if it's chemistry or coaching, but it's certainly a consideration.
Their performance has slipped because there is no cohesiveness, chemistry, or team ball. They look like they don't want to play with one another. Yes we can toss some of the blame on coaching. But let's be real JBB the interim, wasn't going to fix this dysfunctional group of millionaires. When your leader is playing and acting selfish, the troops won't play hard for him.
This is a case where the eye test is more than enough to know we lack talent.....don't need rankings.
That's true but in Howard and Ariza's case, could you rule out that the lack of chemistry might be covering up their own decline? Howard hasn't been the same player we had in 13-14 - he's slipped significantly, except for an upward tick last playoffs. Ariza is notably worse this year and has slipped defensively - he is no longer our perimeter stopper. Hard to pin those on chemistry.
We had talent last season. Seems like this year everyone on our roster significantly regressed and to top it off everyone was apathetic from day 1 for whatever reason. Talent level regressing and not playing hard = bad combo.
It was an accident. I got fooled by the "Similar Threads" section. But I stand by what I said because that person's a good poster.
