ancel, You're off topic. There's other Rubio threads for discussing Rubio's fit. He's the only non Rocket with muliple active threads in the GARM. Here we are supposed to suggest a trade. Since it doesn't sound like you think he's a good fit, you should vote No Trade
Disregarding B_allholic's hard-on for Rubio and since this is a pure speculation thread. How will Rubio make us better? Assuming this would be our lineup: Rubio Harden Ariza Anderson Capela Most half-court sets are going to be a disaster as we try to find a way to get Harden the ball. It's going to be a repeat of last year as defenders are going to try to deny Harden the ball and when he finally gets the ball he'll be 3 feet away from the 3pt line and/or will have 6-8 secs left on the shot clock. Rubio has been in the league long enough that most scouting reports will say he struggles to finish at the rim, so what is that going to do for us? No good team will leave Harden/Anderson to help on a Rubio drive. So you're left with Rubio trying to make a play at the rim or finding one of Ariza/Capela. Either that or God forbid we're left with him trying to get a 3 pointer off or some kind of mid range shot off. Now we're back to Harden bringing the ball up. Whoever is guarding Rubio will most likely have the tendency to watch Harden and help as soon as they can and Rubio will be nothing but an afterthought for him. So now Rubio will be forced to hit 3's at a decent clip who is a 32% career 3pt shooter.
Here's another vote that this is a pure speculation thread, and so one of the forum rules, rules which basketballholic says mandate the mods to follow in his "Why" thread in the feedback, appears not to apply to basketballholic vs everyone else. basketballholic is a hypocrite who whines about threads he doesn't like then does a complete 180 and ignores the rules when it pleases him.
Rubio would be nice as a backup or for depth.... An extra playmaker.... Start? No... Starters minutes? NO
So you think MDA is so dumb that he didn't realize Harden has been the de facto PG for the last 3 seasons?? Believe me, I have my doubts about him as our coach. But there's no way he's that dumb. To me the interview is obvious, MDA wants Harden to move over off the point and accept another playmaker. Don't know how anybody can interpret it otherwise.
I'm pretty sure he was talking about moving Harden to the point. He started off by talking about how Harden has played mostly off the ball. He then made the "move him over" comment which resulted in all the #PointBeard nonsense and people thinking Gordon would start at SG. Of course as we know harden already played on the ball most of the time. Edit: I just listened to that part of the interview again and he clearly says "James has always played off the ball" after talking about moving him over. I'm pretty sure Dantoni thinks Harden is a traditional SG like Kobe, at least he did at the time of the interview
Two different interpretations. "James has played off the ball" was a reminder of his Thunder days when he was effective playing off the ball in OKC alongside Westbrook. There's no way MDA was so stupid not to know James hasn't played off the ball here except for possessions when he took a break while Lin was here and they were on the floor together. My interpretation of that statement is, "James has played of the ball in the past and now that he is maturing and wants to win I believe he can move over and make room for another playmaker. It's simply a matter of balancing his minutes with another playmaker so he still plays on the balk some but we get to accentuate ball movement by adding a great facilitator." If you listen to this interview with the understanding that MDA isn't a blooming idiot, but rather he's a very highly intelligent, media savvy, veteran coach and you interpret what he said based on this premise along with understanding MDA's love of ball movement and his statements indicating the tightrope of balance between James needing the ball versus the ball moving then it should be obvious MDA is referencing moving James off the ball more. Because it's impossible to move him over onto the point when he's already there all the time. MDA is not that stupid.
First of all Harden played on the ball a lot at OKC. That's why they brought him off the bench, so he didn't have to play off the ball. Secondly, listen to it again. DAntoni clearly says harden has always played off the ball and he wants to move him over, perhaps to a hybrid role. That's when everyone got excited for Harden at PG and #PointBeard
I disagree. Harden cannot be moved over to PG when he's already been there. And MDA knows it. MDA was being intentionally ambiguous. To believe your interpretation you have to assume MDA is stupid.
Then he's stupid. There was no ambiguity. Of course by this point I hope he's seen enough tape to know harden already moves over and plays a hybrid role. It just strikes me that he hasn't really been watching a lot of NBA or keeping up with stats
LOL. MDA is a lifer. I guarantee you he watched every minute of Hardens play multiple times while he was in the interview process with us. Get real dude. You actually think he's sleep walking through all this. LOL
You know all this Harden is a PG or not talk has like 2 or 3 other threads...and they all contain your Rubio talk already. Even though this is a trade speculation thread that shouldn't even be a thread (according to Forum rules that you flaunt and abuse), least you could do is stay on topic, and stick to who you'd trade. Everything else is just you transparently using a new thread to keep talking the same talk, because you're annoying ppl in all the other threads. basketballholic is a hypocrite about using Forum Rules and boring
