[ESPN] Hollinger: Evaluating the James Harden Deal

Remember, Hollinger's Lin+Harden stats are from when Lin was shooting poorly (probably due to a weak knee).

Lin's has scored much better the last two games; if he becomes a steady shooter, Hollinger's numbers will look a lot different by season's end. At that time, I am sure that Hollinger will change his tune about Lin and Harden being a poor fit.

 

WTF is this crap? What's with people already trying to ship out a promising new player 14 games in on a surprisingly decent team? For Aaron Brooks? Seriously? Wanna trade Harden back for Martin too? I'm not sure what kind of sick nostalgia you have, but it's not in the best interest of the team.

As for our team fitting together, if Harden can manage to play with Westbrook, I'm sure he'll fit alone fine with Lin given a few bit more practice and experience.

 

Lin will improve, but he's never gonna be the ideal guard to pair with Harden because "spotting up" is just not one of Lin's strengths. If we had done things in reverse (getting Harden first) perhaps we would have paired a better shooting PG, like Dragic, with him. But no one could have foreseen the Harden opportunity, and we had to jump on that regardless of how the rest of our team was set up.

I agree that coaches need to make it a priority to get Lin 10 Harden-free minutes, and visa versa. Either way, one of the two should be on the floor at all times. I'm very interested to see if Lin plays out his 3-year contract in Houston given the poor fit with Harden. Harden certainly isn't going anywhere, and i think it would be very hard to move Lin knowing what a turn-off that could be to our growing Chinese fan-base.

Are we stuck with this mismatch for the long-term due to external influences, or do we eventually make a change for "basketball reasons"?

 

It's too early to tell, even hollinger himself mentioned a couple times its a small sample. Let's wait and see, give them time to develop and improve, thats the only reasonable basketball perspective at this stage.

 

Westbrook can play role of elite off-ball slasher and is by far best pick setter at PG position. Lin doesn't have that in his skillset.

 

I dunno about this. Lin is playing starter minutes while Harden plays almost the entire game. When Lin sits down, the opponents' starters also sit down. What that means is Harden is playing against the opponents' 2nd unit and is depended upon to score and make plays.

It's true that they're both facilitators and PNR players but I don't subscribe to the idea that just because Harden is better at it, Harden should be doing all of it. Have you ever heard of a football team that only passes or only runs? They both need to find their game and balance within the system.

Another truth is that Lin needs to step up on his 3pt shooting. In the Knicks system, Lin was the facilitator passing to Novak. In this system, he's going to be the Novak more often than not and he needs to bury those open jumpers.

 

I wasn't suggesting we should move Lin for Brooks. Lin has more value than Brooks, not because he is a better player, but because he is a cash cow.

I just think Lin would be better with a player like Brooks, whose strengths are spot up shooting.

Although.....

To Houston:
Courtney Lee
Aaron Brooks

To Boston
Chuck Hayes

To Sacramento
Jeremy Lin

 

We already have spot up shooters in Cook and Douglas. There is no ONE SIZE FITS ALL solution here. Lin needs to get better at his 3pt shooting percentage and the other players need to get better at making plays.

Dragic wanted to not just be a starter, he wanted to run his own team. I can't imagine Dragic being happy with Harden dominating the ball and making the PG plays.

 

Yea I really think they both should get more solo time but I think the Rockets had Parsons and Harden takes turn playing solo. Whenever Parsons sits down, Harden is in the game and when Harden sits, Parsons is playing.

So that way, whenever Harden sits, Parsons is the 2nd best player on the team and they need at least one of them to be on the court at all times.

 

Instead of having James Harden initiate the offense and relegating Lin as an outside shooter, which he gives us a zero in, why not have Lin initiate the offense and let Harden play off the ball? I think that will work a lot better because Harden isn't an absolute zero as a spot up shooter or an off-the-ball threat.

 

What are we 14 games in, this is a brand new team. It takes years to jell for max potential. Obviously no one seen last nights game. I wouldn't listen to what espn wrote even if it was in gold. And for those saying a.brooks, well that shows how ignorant you are to basketball. The only ones in danger of leaving this team patterson, mchale at the moment. It is a great advantage to have 2 primary ball handlers on the court at the same time and tie will show this.

 

Douglas time without Lin/Harden is around 70 min per 82games. Lin without Harden is 48 minutes per Hollinger. In these situations, I don't see why we shouldn't have Lin/Cook or Lin/Delfino rather than Douglas. He would definitely do a better job running the second unit.

 

It's pretty early to make that call, Lin is a smart player maybe we should give him a chance to see what he can do. The stats don't mean that much yet anyway, just think all of the changes the team has been thru in this short season.

 

After the first 2 games, this is what all LOFers were clamoring for. I think the coaching staff has achieved a better balance in the last 3-4 games though. We're seeing the ball in Harden's hands less maybe a 60-40 split between him and Lin - pretty good balance.

 

Hollinger appears to right on all fronts. That said, there's value to NOT pidgeon-holing your young players. Being on a rebuilding team allows all our players to try to develop all their skills as opposed to squeezing maximum productivity while hiding their weaknesses. Thus, McHale's repeated emphasis - "we gotta be better basketball players" in general.

Thus, Parsons gets burn as a handler and has polished up his outside shot (we're not commenting enough on how amazing his outside shot is right now), Lin gets to work on his outside shot and moving off-the-ball, Harden gets more experience running an entire team offense, Asik gets to work on his offensive skills, etc.

Young players - let them develop - they'll add to their current skills/strengths, shore up weaknesses, develop chemistry, etc. No need to pidgeon-hole players into limited/specific roles.

 

A good read. I think the last two games show some promise that they can work together well.

Try to work it out for a year or two. Aside from staggering their time a bit I think that Harden can play a little more as the traditional spot up shooter playing off Lin, since I think Harden is also pretty good at doing that, too, though it is not Hardens most unique strength. Harden may improve further on this skill.

I think the jury is also still out on whether Lin can shoot well enough to coincide with Harden. Having two well rounded guys who can both drive and shoot would be very effective.

 

Nah, Brooks is about to turn 28yrs old... if the purpose is to get a score first point guard...

Why not, Brandon Jennings? He is a free agent this summer, only 23yrs old, and has a similar game to Aaron Brooks.

 

I enjoy reading Hollinger, but before reading too much into his column, how about we see what happens over the next several games? We're on a 4 game winning streak, and considering the makeup of this team, easily the youngest in the league, with 11 new players, that a remarkable achievement. How about we see if we can win another game tonight with the same team? If the Rockets lose the next 4 games, and look disjointed doing so, then maybe a change is worth talking about. We're hardly there yet.

 

who would be willing to take on Lin's contract?

 

Concur - no guard has stamina to be man every play. There definitely need to some some kind split that keep both player fresh.

That said still hate seeing Harden iso taking contested 3pt or long 2pt. That least efficient shot and he really not hit those very well. If he can't get Euro step move or create enough space for open jump shot, I prefer he try kick it back around.