You do realize the team around him, no? What exactly did you or do you expect from a guy who had "2 practices" before the first game, McHale instead of throwing a new play book at him, runs some of "James' comfortable plays", and is going to watch, and see, and slowly get the "Finch" off. Scheme down-which is similar to Rick the Ruler's O, supposedly.... So Harden has prob. Had a few more practices, but a tad overreaction for game 7 of the regular season...and he looks pretty darn good....and I watched him before his Rockets days as well.... He's playing a totally different role
We got Harden for 6 years, might as well find out sooner rather than later what he's made of. Wins and losses aren't that big of a deal right now, just want to see progress and evaluation of performance. Thus far Harden is trying to do too much, but I can live with that for now. He'll learn as he keeps playing. Lin however, seems overwhelmed and struggles at times when playing off the ball, and he'll have to learn that if he wants to play with Harden.
Uh... no *****. But if Harden's going to scrub the play he should have called for a screen. Going fowards though, there are going to numerous instances where the team is going to rely on Harden taking the last shot. My advice would be to at least set a screen for him. The contingency plan, no? Harden -> Lin -> Parsons play was scrubbed then Harden -> Delfino play was scrubbed then Harden-ISO w/ LBJ <-- someone should have set a screen. blame the coach.
Imo I think the turning point was when Harden just shot up a three when we had the lead early on the playclock...for no reason at all..then right after Heat score with a dunk.
There's 7 seconds, how could they do that when they aren't even close to him with that limited time when they are all expecting him to pass the ball right away for the play. He obviously didn't call for screen because he just wanted to throw up the hero ball, just like he tried to do at the end of the Portland game.
Or they should have Lin play on the ball a lot more than he has been thus far & Harden play off it a lot more than he has been thus far. This would likely work out a lot seamlessly & take less time to figure out than forcing Lin to be something he really isn't. Honestly, we are forcing Harden to be something he really isn't. But that is just me.
so what ur sayin is.....let's lose a crap load of games for a few years so that harden can hone his superstar skills and one day become like lebron?
I think we should make more threads in outrage that we lost a game to the best team in the competition. It's essential we find out who to blame for this.
I do miss Gogi. I wonder if Morey would have given him the contract he wanted if he'd known we would land Harden. But oh well, what is done is done.
Couple of mistakes by Sampson: 1. He should of had Asik in to box out Bosh and grab that rebound. 2. He should have not used the timeout to get Lin back in. The team should have gone for two instead and then fouled a Hat player, and thereby playing their luck that the Heat would have missed one FT. Then use the last timeout for a tie or win by a three ball.
In his post-game Sampson said he may have made an error NOT bringing Asik back into the game during Wade's FT's, and if he had to do it over again, he would have made a few changes. 20/20 hindsight is always great, but like anything with a young team it's a learning experience. Honestly, I don't know why Asik wasn't in the game for the final 2 mins. Going with a super small lineup made very little sense to me when you're 8 points up. Stops are far more important than leaving the lanes open for easy shooting by a team like the Heat. Not to mention Asik was completely abusing the size mismatch on the offensive end. Even though Asik can't do a PnR roll to save his life, his ability to exploit his size at the Rim was yielding significant dividends.
The problem is that Harden is more talented than Lin, that's why the 80 mill contract he got. Lin has to fit his game around Harden, that should be obvious to everyone. Morey didn't tell Harden "Hey here's 80 mill, fit your game around Lin cause we're building around him." If Lin can't mesh with Harden, guess who will be expendable.
but not for the critical Wade free throws. The Heat's rebound off the Wade miss was the deciding factor in the game. We should have had Asik out there. We were getting killed on the boards all night, and it was absolutely imperative that we come away with the ball in that situation. Instead we gave the heat the game winning opportunity they needed.
Wasn't that the same argument for Jeremy Lamb? If your goal is getting from A to Z, doesn't it make alot more sense to start with a player who is ALREADY partway there?
