Yes. Good chemistry. I like how Papa has been passing, Ariza has been taking good shots. I see I.Cann and Papa are developing. Man, I love this.
No matter how you spin it, Parsons was a sore disappointment defensively after his rookie season. I still do not know if Harden's new found defensive intensity is due to commitment on his side or being surrounded at the one and three by serious defensive players. Would it even matter?
I don't want to be a downer. But I'll wait till Ariza's shooting cools off a bit and see how things go. He is not going to shoot 60% 3pt average the whole season long. When the shooting is not there, will it still be a happy family? We'll see. On the defensive side, Ariza is obviously superior to Parsons. And Beverley is Beverley. What I want to see is whether Harden's apparent new commitment to playing defense will last. If he goes back to last two season's form, will the blame game rear its head? As someone has said, winning cures a lot of things. Ariza's shooting will inevitably come down to earth. Harden's defense may or may not continue. I see these two things as major keys to team chemistry. One definitely positive ingredient is the emergence of Papa. He is a better play maker than Parsons. He actually solves my biggest concern about our offense: A second play maker after Harden.
What came first, the chemistry or the good play? I think it was the chemistry. Ariza and Harden are really cool with each other and I think they were excited with the idea of playing together. I dont doubt Ariza will cool off, but that's still going to probably be close to 40%, which is still great. The blame game is the petty stuff I was referring to. It's different when you're playing with guys you're cool with on a deeper level. Rather than blaming and pointing fingers, you can go directly to them and work it out.
Don't forget about Jason Terry either. The guy has been a huge presence off the bench, and in the locker room. He's been fantastic so far.
Point well taken, but the team is only shooting 44% from three, which is still high but not off the charts. Papanikolaou will bring his average up, and Daniels is only at .175 right now. Ariza's 60% only equates to seven extra threes above 40%; imagining this season minus seven threes from Ariza is not so horrific.
I think team composition is part of it on both sides; Harden on offense isn't going ISO 1 on 5 as much, he's taking his shots when there but also distributing to his more reliable three point shooting team mates, so he's perhaps not expending as much energy on offense, allowing him more energy on defense to go with his vow to step up his d-game.
Doesn't matter, being a dick is good sometimes, though I hope things are not going well behind closed doors because we need a lot of changes, from top to bottom!
But he didn't say to whom.... My guess is, to the media or in general, not necessarily to his teammates
At least Ariza hates to lose. Maybe he was pissed off at Black for taking that last shot. And he knew that Harden iso at the end of games that McHale drew up is no good.
