He is averaging 44% from the 3pt line whilst taking 8 three point shots a game. That is insane!.He is just shooting the ball at a pretty handy clip right now giving us a huge boost during crunch time of games. He has bailed us out of some big games. For example in the Warriors game he hit some massive shots. Last night hit a huge 3. It's been clutch performances one after another this season.
Given the respective income tax situations(not to mention cost of living), the Rockets deal might wind up being the better paying one in the long run.
It's all the more impressive if you consider that his career 3p attempt per game is 5, and he's "only" made 38% of these. What a perfect fit for the new system!
I mean we all knew this man could shoot, but who really thought he would end up being the most dangerous and prolific shooter on this team? He has been far more prolific than even Ryan Anderson and personally, I am totally schocked that it's turned out this way. That guy is a THREAT. Anderson has been good from deep, but these are the types of numbers I was expecting him to be throwing up and Gordon to be about where Ryan is. I love how after we went down three points he came in off the bench and immediately took advantage of Harden's gravitational pull and casually drained that long straight away 3 pointer that stopped the bleeding. You can't rotate off that dude right now. His release is quick and effortless, he doesn't need much time or space to squeeze them off, and he can convert them even when the passes aren't right in his shooting pocket.
What's impressive is how he hits most of his shots about 3 feet behind the line. And it's not like he winds up there off of a broken play or late in the shotclock. He's intentionally camping out or pulling up that far away from the 3-point line. He even did that on the 3-pointer he hit last night to tie the game at 116.
This team's best lineups are going to wind up being Bev, EGo, Harden on the perimeter with one big and either Ariza/Dekker at the 4. I too, am somewhat surprised at Bev's playmaking, and I'm still skeptical of it frankly, since a good percentage of those assists is him simply throwing it to Gordon or Anderson for the 28-footer. But......barring a trade that shakes up our perimeter or an injury to one of them I do expect that all three of Harden-Bev-Gordon will be on the floor at crunch time as we wind down the season and into the playoffs. They're closers.
I expect his shooting to come down to earth at some point, hopefully then Ryan/Harden will pick his up. It's nice having multiple shooters. Someone is going to be hot.
That will be a death lineup for other teams if they try to go small ball against us for sure. But as you mentioned, I'm not gonna call Bev a playmaker, and I definitely don't think he's a better playmaker over Gordon. Gordon has good handles, can beat his man off the dribble, finish at the rim, or dish for a nice assist....not to mention a pull up threat at any time, so you have to guard him way differently and closer than you do Bev. As you also said, most of Bev's assists are not great passes, but still good decisions. Many are also when he passes up a good shot and the defense is then running at him and he passes it out. He consistently passes up an open 3pt shoot to drive to the rim, only to pass it back out. But the way he does those, most likely they will get picked off in playoff time when teams have scouted that because they know he won't try to finish. What Bev does bring consistently is INTAGIBLES and HUSTLE and ATTITUDE. His defense has picked back up, but of course we are all waiting to see if he can sustain it for the rest of the year, without getting to wear a suit. Many people seem to be worried about Gordon playing too many minutes and getting into a suit again, but I am just as worried about the same thing with Bev, as he has also proved over the last few years...even this year. It's more with the way Bev plays too...so hard and full out, which is a good thing and a bad thing if you end up in a suit. I would love his minutes down under 20 per game so that he can go all out the way he loves to do. Gordon will have some turnovers just like Harden does, but given the PG duties enough when Harden sits, I bet he would still average 5 to 7 assists per game consistently while still scoring 20+ if he was playing 36 minutes per game. His array of weapons puts a lot of pressure on the defense and opens up other players for him to pass to. Most of the time when EGo runs the point, they just isolate him. With my eye test, when they PnR him, he usually scores or hits an open man. I would love to see him run the show with Ego/Ryno or Ego/Center PnRs nonstop like Harden does. He would be our mini Harden light.
Turnovers are the key though. Gordon is a shooter, a finisher, and a scorer. When you put him in the playmaking role where he is supposed to create for others besides himself, his turnovers skyrocket. He's even more turnover prone in that role than Harden is. And Harden is too turnover prone in that role to win a championship. I'm still of the opinion that we won't win a championship without adding a great playmaker that doesn't turn the ball over while making all the sensational passes that Harden makes. Harden has tho drop his turnover count down to 4 or less a game. He can get by with throwing the ball away during the regular season because he's a great player. But in the post season when we go up against other great teams and great players this won't work. Gordon, while I love him in a scoring role and I agree he's been sensational for us just like I knew he would be when I suggested we trade for him a year ago, is simply a worse Harden as a playmaker. To get past LeBron/Kyrie and Steph/Livingston/Draymond/Iggy were going to have to acquire a primary playmaker that can limit his turnovers while directing this offense for stretches of the game. Or else James has to finally figure out how to do it, which I am highly skeptical of.
Of course there is a big difference between Harden and Gordon, and he is a "worse" Harden as a playmaker, or as I put it "Harden light". But your insistence that we can't win a chip with Harden as the PG I don't agree with, and is not able to be proven, unless of course we win a chip with him as PG. But ANYONE that is a better play maker than Harden, we are NOT going to get on this team. Save your Rubio quotes because that MF sucks! I would rather have Lin starting with Harden than Rubio, and even I don't want either of those. The difference between Gordon as a play maker running the second unit, verse Harden the play maker running the team, is that Harden primarily looks to set up his teammates, where Gordon would be primarily looking to score, and passing once the defense cheats/helps on him. We are not going to get another Harden on this team, but very few players in the league have what Gordon have. Deadly 3 point shooter as a spot up or off the dribble, quick first step to be any man guarding him off the dribble, the ability to create space and finish at the rim against almost any player, and the ability to pass it out when contested at the rim. GSW have Curry/Klay/Livingston/Clark as their 4 guards. We basically have Harden/Bev/Gordon....so I think we need one more to compete with them. Put Gordon in Klay's role, and I will take Harden/Gordon over Curry/Klay everyday, even though it's close, and call me a homer if you like. Now Livingston/Clark becomes our problem to match up with. I would love Bev/Tyreke Evans to match up with them, not necessarily directly. But I feel we are one backcourt player away from being elite. I'm also good with Harden/Bev/Gordon against Irving/Smith/Shumpert. Now GSW then has KD/Green/Iggy, while Cavs have Lebron/Love/Jefferson we have Ariza/Anderson/Dekker. GSW and Cavs clearly have the advantage there, but if you add in a 4th player like DMo if he can play healthy, or we get another player via trade, and get Sewer out of the rotation, I like our chances better to match up and take away "some" of their advantage there. In the Center department, I like our Capela/Nene/Harrell over GSW's Pachulia/Varejao/West or the Cav's Thompson/Anderson/whatever. So ultimately, I think we can compete for a championship this year, IF Morey makes one more great trade this year by the deadline without giving up too much of our chemistry. It's a long shot, but if DMo ever comes back and plays good (a big IF), and we make one GREAT trade, we would be right in the conversation for contenders IMHO. And while Harden's turnover numbers are even too high for me right now, he is still learning the PG position with only 20 something games in. There is no reason for me to believe that he can't average 4 or less turnovers in the playoffs and lead this team to a championship as the PG if he continues to improve on being the PG throughout the year.
There is no reason to believe Harden can average 4 or less turnovers a game in the playoffs since he's never done it while starting and we're now playing at even a faster pace with him handling the basketball 44% more than last season. Come playoff time there is going to be a ton of moaning and groaning here about his turnovers when we exit the playoffs. Then we'll spend a good part of the summer trying to figure out how to solve Hardens turnover issues. Meanwhile another year of his prime will be up in smoke. This organization has given James too long of a leash. When he finally hits the end of it I hope he doesn't snap his neck.
Let me guess, you are predicting a tornado, hurricane and snowstorm for next week's weather in Houston as well. You are so optimistic. Earthquake for Xmas and New Year's?
This is the only team I care about winning. This team needs another great playmaker in order to win a championship. Some people are entertained by great regular season play and are satisfied to watch tremendous regular season performances. I want championships. We're not going to beat the Warriors as is. We may not even be able to beat the Spurs as is. We'll have trouble with the Grizz in a seven game grindfest. We'll be lucky to get past the second round. And God forbid Harden gets hurt. We'll fall into the lottery in 2 weeks time. You have to be basketball ignorant not to understand that.
First, I don't think a fan on this site believes that the team as is can win the chip this year. You are projecting. Everyone knows, believes and expects us to make a trade for some type of upgrade by the trade deadline if we are going to compete for a championship this year, even if we go on a 22 game win streak. This issue is that you don't believe that we can do it no matter what as long as Harden is the PG. Probably 95% of the fans on here disagree with you on that issue along, not to mention so many other issues....especially that extra playmaker that you think we need being Dubio. For example, if we only gave up Capella, Brewer and KJ plus prospects and picks for Cousins, and then got Tyreke Evans for a 2nd pick and overseas prospects, many would believe that this team with a healthy Dmo could compete this year: Harden/Evans Bev/Gordon Ariza/Dekker Anderson/DMo Cousins/Nene/Harrell I would go to war in this year's playoffs against any of the supposed great teams with that roster and believe we had a great chance to win. That first unit would almost be unguardable, and the second unit would be the best in the playoffs. Can we get those players for those deals? Probably not, but who knows what other tricks Morey has up his sleeve for the deadline.
