[ESPN] Hollinger: Evaluating the James Harden Deal

I'm surprised there are still fans of Jimmer around.

 

Especially since he can't stay in the rotation of arguably the worst team in the west

Poor Chuck... Watching Kings games is painful

 

Douglas was awful the game before , and McHale decided to cut him off the rotation in that game. it was Mchale last game in charge . after that, Sampson took over and decided to give it a go with Douglas again.

 

I wouldn't mind Jimmer as a scorer off the bench, but I don't think he's by any means a starter in this league. I'd rather stick with Lin.

 

If you could pry Jimmer away for a 2nd round pick, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Not sure if that is possible yet or not. He has played pretty well this year, when he has been in the game. Playtime is very sporadic though. I think he could be a real spark playing with Harden for 15 min or so per game.

 

Why does everyone like Jimmer so much? Everytime I watch him I think he's the chucker of all chuckers.

 

Jimmer is the Mormon Jeremy Lin.

 

When you said Aaron Freaking Brooks is a better player than Lin, it is hard to not believe you've got a hidden agenda. Did yoiu watch enough games in which Brooks was freaking humiliated by the opposite PGs on defense? This is the biggest joke of the day.

 

Great read.

 

I loved both the Lin signing and the Harden trade, and think the Harden/Lin backcourt has lots of promise... but I hate the way they're both being used right now.

It's almost always a mistake to take a team's best player and just use him as much as humanly possible on offense. Basketball is a team game, and "give the ball to player X and have him try to make something happen and either score or assist on nearly every play" is just not a good strategy. Outside of the first two games, Harden is shooting under 40%... and he's a great shooter! Other options, along with a real offensive flow, need to be established.

Ever since Michael Jordan, teams have been taking highly skilled wings and basically trying to make them the focus of the entire offense every time down. It's a horrible strategy (and not even really what Jordan did... Pippen played a very important role on those Bulls title teams, along a few other players who also were very involved offensively in their own ways).

When Kobe played this way with the Lakers, they were a borderline playoff team... it was only when they had either Shaq or Gasol/Bynum and really spread the offense around that they won titles. T-Mac/Yao should have been a title-level pairing on Houston, but the 00s Rockets never got close. Sure, the supporting players were not that good, but I think a big reason for this was that McGrady just dominated the ball WAY too much.

Harden should be a star player... but he shouldn't be both the PG and the SG and the only guy on offense who really controls what happens. Run a real offense, trust Lin and Parsons and Asik, and I think it will be great for Harden, too. Everybody plays better within the flow of a team game.

 

Can we at least see the young guys

 

My dream is that Sterling goes cheapo again and we can S&T for CP3, giving up Lin.

I didn't realize Harden had the 5th best PER for wings. I'm not a huge fan of PER but it's a good sign.

 

Not anymore.

 

You are seeing them. Who are the old guys you think you are seeing on the court right now?

 

Don't worry. That won't happen until Lin is 38. Then they will give him a 4 year contract.

 

Go pull up some 1994 dallas mavericks game tape and tell me you opinion then.

 

Lin is a (super)star potential clearly...no doubt about it...its clearly visible even when hes not having a good night..and except in case of some major injury hes gonna reach it ..this year, next year or in a few years it doesn't matter..

 

You are one of the worst evaluators of talent on this board. You're up there with CXbby.

Smh, go and check out Jarret Jack's numbers from last year... slightly better numbers than Lin pretty much across the board... and that was during Linsanity.

 

Kwame likes black players. We all know it's true...

(Except Kyle Lowry and Shane Battier, two fantastic players...)

 

Fredette IS playing well this year in limited PT though. He would be an upgrade over TD, not that it's saying much.