Definitely. PAUL Had - 16 pts 13 assist and 7 rebounds Harden would have had at least 30 pts 8~9 assists and 5 Rebounds The biggest issue is that the other players have to make shots Rocket River
We are fitting in 3 guys who didn’t play during our winning streak with significant rotation minutes, and it shows. The Rockets are a middling team, at best, with the guys they have playing right now, even if Harden and Paul swapped places.
That sounds like an excuse. Aside from Harden, we have healthy starters and our 6th man. We shouldn't lose our identity when Paul is on the court, which is what has happened so far. I agree with others. Maybe our starters and EGo just are more comfortable with the system as run by Harden...and the huge difference in the effect Harden's gravity has on the court, which Paul just doesn't have. I have faith in Paul to adjust the team to him, but I'm scaling back my expectations in the near term, and just praying Morey and MDA do NOT let Harden come back too soon. Let Paul experiment in the meantime. I'm so down for that. Note, Paul was running against then opponents second unit a lot, or playing WITH Harden. This is the 1st time the ops can focus on Paul with their primary defense and game plan for him solely, without Harden's Gravity on the court.
Against the Pistons: w/Paul in 67 possessions 74 points 110.45 actual offensive rating w/Paul out: w/Weber in 21 possessions 25 points 119.05 actual offensive rating w/Weber out (and Paul out) 4 possessions 2 points (this was a 1:49 period in the third quarter where we went "pointless" and were -4 in that time frame) Total actual offensive rating without Paul 108 (27/25).
We had Harden through the whole 5 game losing streak, but not Paul. We are 2-2 since Harden went out (if you count the over time win over the Lakers). In the blowout loss to try Bullets, both Harden and Paul played, Capela and Mboute did not. So I think the problems starter earlier than Harden's injury and may have to do with the rest of the roster. Since Mboute went out, Rockets are 16th in net rating. With him out combined with other losses they have been forced to play some pretty marginal players. It also seems like Paul isn't quite 100% .
This can't be overstated. Say what you want about his attitude, his "softness," his style of play, his reliance on contact and drawing fouls, whether or not he's clutch, etc., but the fact is that Harden is a disruptive force of nature on offense. When he's on the court, whether or not the ball is in his hands (which, let's face it, it usually is), every other Rocket out there has more room in which to work and a defender whose attention is split about 50/50. In that regard at least, Harden is what Kobe was for the Lakers. On this team, his absence is going to be felt much greater than CP3's absence. Sure, CP3 is a legendarily sharp passer who almost always gets the ball to a teammate right when he needs it and right in the perfect spot. But just by virtue of his presence on the court, Harden distracts defenders in to a degree that nobody else in the league does right now.
You seem to want to turn the topic of this thread into why we are losing. Aren’t there other threads for that. I appreciate the effort of this thread to simply track how well Paul can run this MDA system, as if the team never had Harden. It should help us, but imo, as always, offenses have an adjustment period. Paul hasn’t played the system by himself. I will enjoy watching him adjust the team to him, which will probably involve MDA rolling out new plays from his playbook better suited to Paul. He looks like he’s improvising maybe a little too much for the team to keep up with his thinking. I think OPs prediction could come true, but maybe we unfairly expected it instantaneously, leaving us to start down a road of divisive excuse-making. Let’s save that for other threads We either will or won’t run MDA’s system at high efficiency with Paul alone, but we will be a great team again when Harden returns and Luc and everyone. Please don’t bring Harden back too soon
Also might not be an exact comparison since the roster Paul is working with is possibly worse than what harden had.
and OP assumed that Harden's passes were so bad they caused RA not to shoot and shoot bad (but RA was perfectly fine with harden's passes last year) and by simply replacing harden with cp3's passes RA was gonna start shooting and making alot more and cp3's assists will go magically average 15 a game.. and turnovers stay at 2 a game even nash didn't have that much assists before. cp3 was able to be efficient at turn overs and shooting because he was able to play-off ball against starters with harden as PG. and Harden was drawing the starter's double teams. cp3 at best was only drawing the bench's double teams. now Cp3 has to encounter double team's from the starters so that will surely negatively affect his turnover and shooting efficiency and last year he had blake, reddick, and deandre with austin backing him up now he has RA, ego, and capela with webber backing him up so he has to play more minutes and work harden which again negatively affects his turnover and shooting efficiency and Hardens ISO and driving ability.. that's another conversation as well
Exactly correct. This is what I want basketballholic to come to terms with. Slay his demons. Fact of the matter is, you need closers to beat the good teams.....and Harden is one of the best. Depending on how defenses execute, can determine how much iso Harden is giving us. CP3 use to be a good closer. Not so much now. Still a very good player though. Rockets still seeking that 3rd star......preferably a closer as well.
That's all true. Unfortunately, Harden waters down his own greatness with too many turnovers and forced shots when left to his own devices for too long.
any superstar by himself doing as much playmaking as harden will have more turnovers and forced shots because the focus of the defense is on him and the burden he has hacing to do everything on offense CP3 without Harden 4.3 turnovers per game and seriously? think you can get anything better than 1.29 Pts per ISO possession from someone else? Rocket's offense is not as good lately isn't because of Harden.. but because of $20M of our capspace is averaging 5pts a game and a -10 to -20 a game and cp3's 40% shooting from the three is not that far off from harden's 39% considering harden's scoring 30 plus a night against starting defenses
I think it's very easy to sit behind a computer and say this. It's easy to pick on the guy when he makes the wrong decision. But when those shots go in and or he draws that foul - no one seems to complain. Fact is that he doesn't have a lot of clutch players besides Paul on this team to pass too - in crunch time it is on him and MDA and Morey want the ball in his hands.
I never question Hardens greatness. I question his tendency not to trust his teammates enough and to be overconfident in his own abilities when it's crunch time and the opponent is ganging him to take him out of the play. What I just said here has been Hardens greatest flaw, much more so than his porous defense.
he did trust them last year that's why they won 55 games. and he trust them this year too that's why they won this much considering all other circumstances believe me harden's "lack of trust in teammates" ain't holding back from the rockets from winning last year and this year you need an example of a superstar not trusting team mates then look at WB
No, I'm sorry. He didn't trust them last year. That's why the Spurs wiped him out in the last two games. Just another example. They ganged him. And he kept stubbornly trying to make it happen.
LOL I thought he passed to much and not too aggresive. So Cp3 could have carried the rockets farther last year? because harden's "selfishness" held them back last year?
