Ppat plays small at times, that's why a lot of people want to see Jones. Morris should play back up 3. They told him all this time that he was a 3 then just changed their mind and he's still not playing bad. Put him there, now he's bigger than his matchup and can use that against them. Jones should get some burn, he's a good finisher too and guys can throw it up to him for the oop. It's insane that he's not playing, just insane.
Yes! He is the only player who I saw set a pick & roll hard to the rim. How do you invest so much money into two elite PNR guards & not play the big man that looks like he can at least roll to the rim. I get that Jones is a rookie but he really deserves playing time. Patt had as many rebounds as James harden & less rebounds than Lin. I struggle to wrap by head around that.
His defense is farsical. guys are blowing by him like there is no end in sight. He cant stay infront of a ant right now. His shot looks flat and his turnover to assist ratio are almost on par. Terrible.
But....but....Jones is making mistakes in practice. Don't you understand anything about basketball? (dramatic pause) (and the sarcasm bell goes BONG! BONG! BONG! (As if Ppat and Mmorris are just tearing it up in games. Maybe McHale's giving them their chance to fail as players as he is failing as a coach.)
Give Harden a year before we evaluate whether he's a superstar or not. He's going to have his ups and downs though.
still early in the season. rockets are asking harden to do too much right now, especially with no post/inside threats. they need to insert jones, run more p&r with smith/jones, and for the love of god, stop telling lin sit in the corner all game long.
Yeah, I agree with this to an extent - with a coach who knew how to use our players we could definitely be a playoffs team, but at the moment the doesn't we're too sloppy. Harden's struggles, I think are probably the same as the team's struggle: young, new team, and poor coaching.
NO NO NO. Harden is 23 years old and he's going to screw up and struggle a lot. But we don't want him to be a role player - we want him to be a super star. And you don't become a superstar by passing the ball off in crunch time. No - you do it by trying to carry the load and succeeding sometimes, and failing a lot. That is the trial these kids have to go through. They have to be put in those situations and win some to build their confidence. To believe in themselves. To bring out the ice-water coolness it takes when someday it's going to be the NBA finals. They need to be in those high pressured situations. And to succeed a few times, and fail a lot. And by failing they will realize that at times they have to carry the burden, but at times, they need support. It's a balancing act. The Super star is your key weapon. He's your number one option. The teams will adjust and try to contain that weapon. There are three counter attacks to that. 1. The superstar has to evolve their game to diversify it so that when option 1 is taken away (the drive) and option 2 is taken away (the long range jumper) then there is option 3 and 4 (mid-range shots, post ups, etc). This is key because even if you find a good defender to put on him, he can still find ways to score by exploiting a weakness in that defenders armor. 2. The superstar and coach has to learn how to make his team mates better. This is more than just passing them the ball. It's setting them up for success. It's not passing the ball when he can't get the shot he wants and has to find something as the shot clock winds down - or tossing it out to the perimeter - it's finding them the ball in the places they like to get it. It's about finding the places to go to when their teammate has to ball to bail them out if they get in trouble. That puts a lot more pressure on the opposing defenses. 3. Get better teammates. Simple truth is that you can't double a star player when the other guys are capable of burning you. Right now, we don't have another guy like that which makes Harden way too easy of a target. But if you want Harden to completely play within the system right now - you will turn him into a role player and not a star. He's a young guy, and needs to be molded correctly. He needs to feel like he is the star and can do what he wants without the team/staff coming down on him too hard. And yet learn how to play a team game when it's necessary. Just like Kobe did.
He struggles cause he is getting all the attention from the opposition now. Whereas with OKC Durant had all the attention, so he got a lot of slack from opposition defenders. He is not a natural num 1 go to guy. He just cant handle it.
Why don't we give him more than 4 games before we state this definitively. Hmm kay. He isn't being pad as the natural go to guy until next year anyway. This year will be a transition year for him to get comfortable in that role. Something people aren't mentioning is that Harden NEVER expected to be traded like this. Happened spontaneously. So he never had an off season to really train for this number 1 option role. Have some patience.
