You might be expecting too much. That's enough to top 17 of the last 20 season of scoring champs, including multiple seasons of Durant, Iverson, Bryant, LeBron, McGrady, and Jordan.
EIGHT-****ING-TEEN!?!? We lost that Portland game by a hair -actually, a no-call - by the end of regulation and fatigue in OT. We're 2-1. 2-1! What the **** do these people want?!
My intuition says Harden will average ~30ppg, just because he is free to shoot, and he is capable of scoring that much. But I'll hold my predication until I see how he reacts when other teams start to jam the lane, force him to score outside most of the time.
Muhahaha............ Rumor confirmed: It was Durant who was holding back Harden from a scoring title!
For a team who was rank in the late twenties, eighteen is not bad at all. A decent rank for an uprising team. Will find out where we stack in the middle of the season. Regarding Harden, I see him scoring more than 20 points a game but no more than 40 a game consistently.
Not one for taking a risk are you? I think its safe to say (considering he averaged 16-18 ppg off the bench with Thunder) he will score more than 20.. and I've never seen someone score consistent 40's I feel like he's on track for 28-30ppg, it'd be nice to have someone step up and take some load off his shoulders though Looks like mook might be the man, who would have guessed that??
Here are the ranks from NBA.com, ESPN, and Yahoo!. NBA.com - 18 http://www.nba.com/powerrankings/ ESPN - 16 http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings Yahoo! Sports Power Rankings - 16 http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--nba-power-rankings--lakers-drop-05021909.html
SI power rankings for week 1 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...t-los-angeles-lakers/index.html?sct=uk_t12_a0 1) Miami 2) Spurs 3) New York 4)Clippers 5)OKC 6) LA 7) Dallas 8) Boston 9)Memphis 10) Nets 11) Houston up from 27...
its not an issue, hardens production. He missed alot of shots he would very normally make. the main concern is where the help can come from, even if Lin rediscovers some magic we need more consistent relief from somwhere.
They key for Harden will actually be the emergence of a second legitimate scorer to take the defensive pressure off of the Beard. Because if one DOESN'T step up, then any decent defensive coach will just jam him all game long and take their chances with the other guys on the floor. Lin could do it, but he has his own issues to deal with, and we really need someone besides Lin to be that additional guy. I keep thinking it will have to be D-Mo. Of all the the guys who have not seen the floor yet this year, he is the one who could light it up. It was going to be Lamb, but Harden made Lamb redundant anyway, so now it has to be one of the big fellas. It's not going to be Pat, and it is going to take a long long time for Morris to earn genuine trust, instead of just showing occasional flashes. Jones COULD be it, but it seems to me that D-Mo's game of slick inside scoring as well as (hopefully) solid outside shooting is tailor-made for taking the heat off of Harden, especially when he penetrates, he can dish down low or kick it out high, D-Mo can set up either way, depending on what the defense gives, and Harden should be able to find him. So you have Lin and D-Mo on the floor, this opens things up tremendously for Harden. Jones MAY be able to fill the same role, depends on how reliable his outside shot becomes. As for White, I really would ideally like to see him groomed as the back for the 'big playmaker' role that Harden occupies now, so those two will probably rarely share the floor. Now if Parsons can get himself rolling as well, then this offense could end up being legitimately scary for any opponent.
Yes. We need a third legitimate option and the 4 is where its likely to come from (or needs to?). I hope very much Dmo and Jones really progress well to earn minutes and can be a post as well as a medium range jumper threat.
Honestly, I'd feel really good about this team if Lin becomes our 3rd option. This means someone else steps up and contributes in a big way. Lin has tremendous vision and does a lot of things well, but relying on him to consistently score enough for us to win every night might just be asking too much from him.
