hahaha. brilliant. so looking back, it was really a breakdown of communications at the time b/w harden and morey. lol.
Harden is a player who will find excuses all the time, regardless of what it is. He's being a pain in the ass and I rather play Thornton over him.
How many times do Rockets get rebound or steal and as the fast break starts ...Harden is jogging with hands out looking over his shoulder like gimmie gimmie gimmie , instead of running full speed - filling a lane for a layup
Harden wanted the COACHES to devise a NEW offense that incorporated Lawson with Harden. The offensive system did not evolve. Same offense as last year, Lawson go stand in the corner.
I so hope it happens just to prove to you it's a great fit. I'm going to keep saying it.....Harden IS NOT a great playmaker.
This is accurate and true. The Rockets system takes away Lawson's strengths and he's a rhythm shooter NOT a stand and shoot player like Beverley.
We need a Lou Williams/AB type of PG who can play off the ball (shoot) and create if Harden isn't going to effectively play off the ball consistently. I think this should be the team's priority with a defensive wing/pf as the next one. I believe our defensive issues are personnel, effort, and IQ which won't be fixed with 1 trade deadline. Here's my optimistic trade deadline roster: Bev/Lou Williams/Terry Harden/Snell/Terry Ariza/Brewer/Snell DMo/Tarik Black Howard/Capela
careful, pretty sure the Linsaniacs used to make the same argument about Jerry being banished to the corner. :grin: History does seem to repeat itself.
at the same time your offense cannot evolve if the "best" player isn't willing to evolve either. We've seen the adjustment Howard has been willing to make. On the other hand what has harden accepted?
There has been plenty of times, specifically at the start of the games, where Harden has been very passive and the offensive is clearly trying to be more team oriented. It fails almost every time. Even when Harden goes to the bench, Lawson and company can't put anything together offensively. Teams with all that motion have a much different team makeup, with guys up and down the roster who can drive, dribble and shoot, heck even the bigs can pop out for a mid range shot. We simply do not have the personnel to implement a system like that. The Spurs, Hawks (last year) and Warriors, all the teams known for their brilliant passing, have bigs who are mobile and great passers (Diaw, Duncan, Bogut, Green, Milsap, Horford) and they don't have guys on the wings who can't dribble attack well like Ariza / Beverley (Parker, Leonard, Thompson, Barnes, Iggy, Teague, Carrol, Bazemore) Even in the earlier days of Harden, we had guys on the wings who when they got the ball with space were actually dangerous (Delfino, Parsons, Lin). Right now, we just don't have that. When Ariza gets the ball, he will drive five or ten feet, pick up his dribble and any momentum the play had created is gone. Same with Jones / Dmo, same with Howard, and so on. The only elite offensive sets we have is a Harden pick and roll. That is it. We had a great moving system back in the Lowry/Dragic/Martin/Lee/ Budinger/ Battier/Patterson/Scola days, but despite being "great teamball", that team was incredibly easy to stop and went nowhere. Fans were clamoring for a "star player". If you want to go back to team ball, you are going to have to dismantle this team from top to bottom and implement almost all new personnel.
This is just not true. This roster has some great passers and cutters. The problem is Harden and lack of a system. Adelman could do wonders with this roster.
J.R. is right Perhaps at the time he was sincere about it Since then he got his Adidas contract and I'm sure his contract with the Rockets also has incentives built in for him to average a certain number of points, FG%, minutes etc So, he changed his mind
Agreed. Harden has to meet half way. I would say again it gets back to the coaches to be able to find a way to teach/motivate Harden to make the adjustments. Be able to show him the way. I'm not there, but it feels like the coaches (more McHale than JBB) don't offer a stricter hand and Harden freelances.
Don't bother trying to explain , people don't actually watch the games. It is so obvious that at this point we have underlying x's and o's issues. Some will try to blame James for not " accepting" a lesser role. Those people haven't really watched him play the last 3 or 4 years. Sure effort and variance in shooting can explain some of our losses this year, but there is no system in place. Our best offensive year was 2012-13 when we had Asik setting huge screens and playmakers like Lin and Parsons on the floor with James. Sure that team turned it over a bunch and sometimes got cold , but I almost wished we had kept that squad together and let them grow out of turnover issues. granted their ultimate defensive potential was not great. The main thing James can do better this year is just put his head down and attack the basket. He shouldn't try to draw fouls, he should try to score and if he gets fouled that just bonus. He needs to go back to full-steam euro-steps.
not so sure where the great passers and cutters on this roster come from? Before Lawson when he's actually able to create, Harden is houston's best passer and he's average to solid at best. Other than that I see no playmakers on this team. Cutters is one of Houston's biggest weaknesses so classifying it as great is very surprising.
