I have to question if the Rockets need more than one shot creator on the floor at a time. Last season I thought that having Harden, Parsons and Lin on the floor together muddled the offensive focus, when it was obvious that Harden was far superior to the other two players with the ball in his hands. With just Harden every player on the floor knows his role. Just MHO. It cannot be assessed properly until we get some starters back. When Harden sits, Canaan is the on floor creator. What a luxury, having Bev and Canaan for under $2M a year. I, for the moment, am happy with the PG position.
Again, you're focused on putting Harden inside this pseudo point guard box that you are failing to see the potential in having a player like Butler next to him in the backcourt. Remember when Harden was with OKC and how much time he played the facilitator role during crunch time while Westbrook played the shooting guard position? This is similar to that of course I'm not saying Butler is on Westbrook's level but you should get the idea. Is Butler a bona fide play maker? I argue as much but for a guy to shoot more than 8 free throws a game you have to think he at least knows how to get to the foul line and/or create scoring opportunities for himsef.
That's what I'm alluding to. Harden CAN and HAS shown he can be the ball distributor and score. Will he score 25+ a night being the full time ball handler? Probably not but that's most likely because he has competent running mates on the floor that helps him in the scoring the department.
im not into putting players out of their natural positions where I believe their strengths aren't able to succeed to its highest potentials. harden's first priority is to score the basket. that's what he does. his ability to create for others is definitely a plus but in spurts. your reference to okc was done in spurts. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. big fan of butler but don't see that as a full time backcourt as far as fit
I agree 100%. I believe having Bev, a monstrous defender, out there next to Harden probably helps out Harden more than having a true PG. And Bev shoots the 3 well, and is more than competent taking care of the ball. And how many guards are out there in the NBA who are better with the rock than Harden? Few.
Those numbers are a big jump and sample size might be too small to make any conclusions. But if he is able to sustain those numbers even with a slight down tick, wouldn't that mean that he will be demanding Parson like salary? Are we willing to pay that much to upgrade our seemingly not so bad backcourt? Everybody seems to agree that we need bigs. It would probably be better for us to invest in those positions.
in reference to the backcourt situation now, eventually people will see as the season goes on, if harden has to keep handling the ball at the end of games and close out games as well, it will catch up. this problem will become evident as we get later in the season. said this before but I agree beverley is at his best as a 6th man and backup pg where he can go all out like he wants to.
If we offer Butler the max this off-season I would be excited but Chicago most likely matches in a heartbeat even though they go over the cap limit.
I've wanted Butler on our team before his emergence. But now I realllly want him. If we have Harden, Butler, and Dwight the other teams bigs will never play a full game due to foul trouble.
I definitely agree that we need an upgrade at the 4 spot and Butler's surging numbers will get him a big payday. That being said, I think there is a good amount of us that would rather get someone that is good to very good rather than wait around for that "3rd Superstar" or "elite" player to play alongside Harden and Howard. If this was the game plan this past summer, we would probably have a Lowry and Harden backcourt by now. You are speaking as if this is Harden's first rodeo is being the primary ball handler. He averaged 6 assists per game last year and was tops among shooting guards in that category. "But his shooting suffered in the playoffs!!!! Too much pressure on Harden's shoulders!!!!!!da;fkja;dfjk;!!" I guess you can correlate his shooting woes to his responsibilities as a play maker but I'd argue that other factors (coaching, defense, inconsistent shooting from his teammates, bad matchups, etc etc) played a bigger role.
Would they? I guess at first glance they have no choice but to. But with their heavy investment in a broken Derrick Rose, coupled with them investing almost half of their salary cap to 3 front court players, and their penchant for not paying luxury tax...I'd argue that they would look long and hard at matching offers for Butler.
Yes. Butler's salary is going to go hypersonic soon. I believe he is a RFA next summer and a UFA in 2016. Either way he is going to be earning 7 figures a year soon enough.
again it's a plus that he's able to do that but it all been done in spurts. all of those factors play a role which is what im alluding to because he has so many responsibilities.
With all due respect, YOLO, you're making it seem as if "so many responsibilities" is something Harden isn't supposed to have as our best player. Dwyane Wade routinely led his Miami teams pre-LeBron in points, assists, steals, shots per game, free throws per game. One of those seasons actually led to an NBA championship. In the first championship year, Hakeem led his team in points, blocks, rebounds, shots per game, free throws per game, THIRD in assists per game, SECOND in steals per game. And, again, I'm not asking Harden to do more than what he's already doing. In fact, I'm indirectly expecting him to score less if he had a teammate like Jimmy Butler shouldering some of that responsibility.
Why is everyone trying to replace Beverley? HE is the perfect fit next to Harden, and he has really really improved this year. He just needs to stay on the floor.
I agree with all of the above. Personally, I am not a fan of the idea of getting the best player available but rather the best fit. I think our only disagreement is that I would prefer that we spend the money on bigs wether it's for starting or backup role instead of Butler. The restricted free agents just from what I recall are Paul Milsap,Brandon Bass, Jeff green, brook Lopez, Kirilenko, Verjao, Arthur, West, etc. I am sure I missed a lot. These players look they would fit fine and upgrade the position for either backup or starting role. Some of them might be a pipe dream for us but so is Butler. He is restricted FA, which means Chicago can match any offer. We would have to do a Cuban to get him. Signing him would restrict our ability to upgrade the 4 because good ones cost more pennies.
