Exactly, Harden kills us in transition, said it in my other post. The team can't help in those situations, he's responsible for not letting his assignments drive past him. This is not about team defense.
If these aren't the right players to fit around Harden and Moreyball, I would love to know exactly what that type of player is. Morey brought these players in via whatever process he has, and had enough confidence in this team to compete, as did many fans. What exactly is going to guarantee the next set of players are going to work out better. And if you're a player outside looking in, why would you even look forward to playing for the Rockets, seeing what's happening to the current role players right now.
Sure, we could have better shooters around Harden, but that doesn't change the fact that he is sloppy, and he always will be. He CAN NOT handle the ball as much as he currently does. He CAN NOT play point guard. This team is functionally broken until Harden gets off the ball.
In my opinion the ideal fit to play Morreyball around Harden is smth like that 1.A tall defensive low usage with good ball skills combo guard who can shoot 3s and is elite rebounder. (he must be tall and not small so he can guard 1-3 so we can hide Harden) 3.A tall defensive low usage 3+D wing with athleticism and elite shooting and good rebounder. (He must be able to guard 2-4 to hide Harden). 4.A stretch four that can rebound and defend. 5.A low usage shot blocking elite defender five and elite rebounder with good hands and athleticism. So pretty much good luck getting all those. I can tell you that the 1 needed is pretty much non existant. The closest is maybe George Hill. (Smart i.e can't shoot and isn't a good ballhandler not to mention extremely injury prone.) Other good defensive pgs are either high usage, and or not able to guard up to 3.
what does that have to do with judging Harden's performance in tonight's game? no one in their right mind would argue Harden is a good defender. he has been slightly better as of late, so that's an improvement. btw, pretty much all the rockets suck at D now, so why single out one player? if you think when Harden is not on the floor we play great defense, then yeah you are truly delusional.
Harden is the only player along with Capela in the current rockets roster with positive on/off court margin, but yeah it's totally Harden's fault that the other players can't hit wide open 3s.
Nobody is being delusional when they're calling exactly how they see it. Yes Harden is amazing and we are extremely happy he's a Rocket. But you can not tell me his lackluster effort on defense and his selfishness on offense hasn't cost this team quite a few games this season. Now today we needed every bit of his 50 points to beat this horrible 76ers team. Bickerstaff and his rotation caused us to have to fight so hard to beat this bad team. This should have been a blowout but all those boneheaded turnovers( mainly from Harden) kept the 76ers in the game. And one more thing hoop, it's ok to criticize your Superstar players.
Yung-T and I was talking about specifically today's game. when did this become about the whole season? Harden was unwatchably terrible at the start of the season and even up to 5 games ago. I was bashing him all along man, but I do see some changes in him, but some people just seem to never give credit where credit is due and get off on bashing their best player. guess what, Morey is not trading Harden anytime soon, so better to root for him than be against the guy. i know, crazy idea.
Dude needs to make a big change defensively. On offense he really needs to sut down on his turnovers. And Yung T is right, +/- is a misleading stat. It doesn't tell the complete story at all Hoop.
incomplete or inadequate stat is still better than coming up with nothin' man. btw, spouting your subjective opinion based on personal 'eye-test' is not misleading? lmao. what a wild coincidence that Capela and Harden recorded top two ratings +/- wise and Brewer came in dead last. so misleading and does not match what I saw at all (totally being sarcastic, lol)
Klay doesnt have good playmaking or ballhandling skills like a combo guard. Barnes isnt an elite shooter at all. (Majority of his shots are wide wide open ,hes just capable). Bogut doesnt have elite athleticism.
The way you cure the logic of blaming Harden is to ask yourself if you would take two Hardens or two Ariza's? Would you rather have two Hardens or two Corey Brewers? Two Jason Terry's? Two Terrance Jones? Two Ty Lawsons? How about two Patrick Beverly's? If you answered yes to any of these questions you're drunk stop posting, if not just admit to yourself you were wrong and stop posting.
The way to "cure logic" is to hypothesize about the possibility that you have 2 of the exact same players on your team? And which 2 you would take? Would you take 15 Harden's? Put the bottle down son.
I said two. Not "15", two. You seem slow so let me explain. When I say "Two Hardens" I mean Harden plus another guy with his exact talent or skillset. Does that clarify or do I have to continue to talk to you like you are a child.
I'm not making sense to the usual people on this board who have none. The same people who can't admit when they are wrong so they drag the discussion on saying to the same stupid things until the other person gives up and they claim victory, lol. What doesn't make sense is blaming the guy who set a record to today. Yeah lets blame the guy who had to bail us out yet again. Lets blame him for not passing the ball to ****ty Ariza and even ****tier Corey Brewer. Let's trade Harden and keep Ariza that makes plenty of sense, lol.
