Harden is tired, dinged-up, and trying to do too much. We will be better if McHale rests him more each quarter, so he can put in more effort on the defensive end-- like Garcia and Delfino have been doing. Might be good to give Anderson a few minutes.
that just mean all those 40 min games are eating him up... he's playing on his last wheel and almost outta gas. definitely needs to work on his conditioning instead of hitting the strip clubs over the summer.
Harden is a great a player....I think the problem with him is he got use to the seasonal type games....he expect to get to the line with the cheesy foul. I think that made him lazy and develop poor habit from it. He needs to drive in with the mindset of finishing strong instead of looking for the foul. Also need to take stop taking those lazy jump shots when leading....and the terrible passing arghhh...that need to stop also....
wow, that's some ignorant homer shiet there... have you watch curry played in the playoff at all? They lost Lee and he still single handedly beat the team that swept us in the reg season. GS would laugh their ass off if you'd trade harden for curry straight up. Let's just say harden might had a bit better regular season than curry, but harden can't even touch curry on playoff performance.
Do you only look at box scores? If OKC would be so kind as to have their worst defender on Harden 90% of the time, it would be much appreciated. He's playing on Ty Lawson 90% of the time, who happens to be the worst defender on the entire Denver team, because he's too small to play on anyone else. Denver has been trapped on rotations caused by it, leading to why for example, Bogut was Curry's defense is also on par with Steve Nash, it's not even from lack of effort, he's just plain ****. He might be the best 3 point shooter ever, hell of a skill to have that one, but beyond that he's mediocre to poor at everything else
Curry averaged 7 assists on the season, and is averaging around 10 so far in the playoffs. Also shooting 45 percent from the field and from three.
That's some ignorant sample size shiet there. The regular season consists of 82 games. The playoffs, thus far, consist of four (and against wildly different opponents, in the cases of Harden and Curry). You take your four-game sample size in the playoffs, and I'll take my 82 games. I think every GM and executive in basketball will agree which standard is more appropriate. By your logic, Harden is a clearly superior player to Durant, Westbrook, Duncan and Parker. After all, Harden was the difference maker (especially in fourth quarters) against the Spurs in the WCF. For six games, at that!
Assists are a small component of what "gets a team involved". The bigger factor is your ability to collapse defenses, command double teams and promote ball movement. Harden is far superior to Curry at this, and usually it doesn't result in assists (especially against a team that rotates on defense as well as OKC does). Most of you seem not to grasp what a good defensive team OKC is and what a tough matchup it is for us. They are excellent. Their overall numbers don't show it, simply because of the pace they play at. But they're terrific (particularly without Perkins). They have a stud wing defender in Sefalosha. They have crazy length everywhere except PG. They have Ibaka protecting the basket. Making matters worse, against us, they know Ibaka can play ultra aggressive help defense on drives because Asik takes too long to gather himself around the basket (and that's if he doesn't fumble it away). Denver has Igoudala in the role of Sefalosha, but other than him, it's night and day different. The PG defense up top his awful. The wings are mediocre. And other than McGee, who is too braindead to play significant minutes, there's not a great shotblocker. Apples and oranges.
The ring is the size of the pacific ocean for Jarrett Jack right now, 23ppg @75% since Lee went down.
Harden is not overrated. He just needs to buckle down. He HAS to stop the unforced turnovers. Those are killers and result from a lack of focus and discipline. And he HAS to start attacking the basket with intentions of putting the ball in the goal. Create more and-one opportunities and give his team the opportunity to tip in misses or get the offensive board. Flailing his arms and just tossing the ball up to get the foul has not worked in over a month for him. Attack the basket with strength and purpose and the foul calls will take care of themselves. He'd have Ibaka in foul trouble in no time. Forcing Perkins and Collison to play more. A five or six minute stretch with thos two on the floor garuntees a 12-15 point run by the Rockets.
Yup. He's trying. We're just overmatched right now in halfcourt settings against elite shot blockers. James is clearly in a slump from 3, which happens to everyone from time to time, and it's fine. He's usually adept at taking the ball to the rim and making things happen. But against Howard/Ibaka, he can't get the inside looks he usually gets, and they're athletic enough to also hedge on Asik and prevent the drop pass. Big picture, this is why we need Howard or Gasol or any big man that can quickly flush it inside. In the meantime, I think the biggest way to help James is to stop the emphasis on time, and that's where McHale needs to step in. Harden frequently gets in trouble when trying to work the clock, and it makes sense. He isn't a guy that just elevates over you or blinds you with quickness, like Durant or LeBron. His game has a lot to do with savvy and deception, and when you bleed the clock down, defenses don't have to respect his ability to drop it down low or kick it out. They know what's coming. James has had some good late-game possessions recently, even in the halfcourt. We're barely over a month removed from his winner against the Spurs, for example. This series, his drive to the basket with 1 minute left in Game 3 (the hard fall he took) resulted in FTs that cut it to 1. His drive to the basket with 12 seconds left, down 3, was decisive and worked beautifully. His bad ones, though? Almost always, it comes back to the clock issue. The two possessions last night, he started his movement at 6 seconds. The late turnover in Game 3? Out of control because he was desperately trying for the 2-for-1. The heroball shot against Phoenix (that worked, thanks to Jermaine O'Neal)? Holding for the last shot. Bottom line, for me, is that it comes down to three issues: he's cold from 3, we lack a big-man finisher and he's playing the clock too much. The first we'll have to hope for the best, the second is Daryl's job this offseason, and the third is an adjustment McHale and Harden need to discuss today.
dammit if he would just play off the ball that would be terrific... this is way too predictable....i also think hes injured or just plain tired of too much minutess....even parsons is better than him at atacking the rim now...not to mention regie jackson...and at least 50 other nba players... and he was almost the best at it at the start of the season....
I wish a mod could put "(opinions of temporary Rockets fans)" in every thread hating on Harden in case they ever saw it.
