9 turnovers and 3 crucial field goals, plus an entire game of piss poor defense. I'll gladly trade more effort on defense and less hero ball for 20 points. Harden has the ability to get his head together. We've seen him make the adjustments. If he refuses to, he deserves the basing.
I used players I would take 10/10 in a double dose over the two Harden's if I was a GM. (regardless of what team.). Players who are two way, versatile enough to be able to guard multiple positions and can play off the ball.(though I'm sure there will be some growing pains at the beginning with the two Lebrons tho after a while because they would care too much for winning we would go straight to a championship. :grin: ). If it was between two Westbrook's and two Hardens I would ehm...probably take the Hardens and hope for the best. Wouldn't stand having TWO turnover extreme usage reckless machines in my team. Kawhi isn't overrated he is extremely underrated. Please watch him this year he has taken another step forward. Now hands down the best defender in the whole league regardless of position and the main scoring option of his team. Just amazing the way he has developed. -- It has to do with the individual player as much as the abillity to exist with his clone. Harden wouldn't be able to. Westbrook would be even worse. Just a catastrophe. Except for one game it means nothing and that's why it's worthless. (for any claim of proof of greatness on its own. ). It flunctuates too much from game to game that's why better if you gonna use anything use it for a whole season (or at least a big sample) or use the adjusted version not the raw. And that problem is nothing compared to the problem of role players. With role players it's even more useless.
3-5 times? 1) That doesn't prove that he doesn't ignore him a dozen other times; and 2) I don't think he assisted him 3-5 times. He had 8 assists. I know many of those were 3s or to Capela.
50 points on 50% shooting, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, when Harden was on the court the rockets were ahead 13 points, when he sat out we got beat by 11 points, we were trailing by 6-7 points at the start of the 4Q when he was out, then comes in, saves everyone's ass, in the process makes some mistakes, but still able to pull off W. yeah, but why not just keep focusing on the negatives, since that totally helps the team, right? needless to say, I'll happily go with a player who can explode 50 at will than any two-way player who are decent all around but have no chance at elevating his team to a championship level (Butler, Klay Thompson much?). defense is important, but at the end of the day, you gotta make buckets to win the game and your main guy does not need to be a defensive genius in order to win the championship (Nowitzki, Curry). it helps, but it's not a prerogative. just need to surround him with the right players, which Morey has failed to do.
I focus on Harden because he's the franchise player of the team. If he wasn't and he was just a role player I wouldn't care (that much). I care for him because I care for the team. Stars and franchise players take the most spotlight in wins and the most blames in losses and everything they do in good AND in bad is put under the microscope and analysed. Unfortunately for Harden the bad doesnt' need a microscope it is obvious to the blind his bad defence. If you think the forum is full of Harden's haters you are deluded. It's full of Rockets fans who want Harden to be the MVP and try in both ends of the court and not have 5+ turnovers, and be able to coexist with Lawson and play more off the ball and have good chemistry with Dwight and play the pnr with him... so as the team to WIN. And right now we are losing. (btw butler carried his team last year and he does so this year too.).
It's not worthless even for a single game, when 1. you main guy plays over 35-40 minutes 2. does most of the heavylifting for the team. then +/- is a very relevant information to gauge that star player's performance. the reason it fluctuates is because not every one can be consistent throughout the season, duh? i agree that it's not that useful for the role players or even for the star players if there were some other guys that carried more workload in that particular game, but both was not the case in yesterday's match up. so you can't just brush off Harden's +/- like it means nothing. when he was on the floor for 40 minutes, we were winning by +10 points. to whom are you going to attribute that success, when clearly he was def our main guy? moreover, when he was benched we got beat by 10 points by the Philly. how is this possible if Harden was playing poor or was more of a liability for the team?
harden assisted all 4 of dwight baskets. two of those were and 1 plays, so this accounts for 10 of dwights 14 points.
Preference would be to run plays, but there comes a time in the game when best player must demand the ball and the best matchup isolated. Every single night, James Harden can eat his defender alive, so he's the best matchup. Harden has always trusted his teammates. But he's the best matchup right now. Once the rest of the team starts hitting the shots we can go back to trust in the 4th. But his options are Ariza, Brewer, and Beverley. I would take the shot too. None of those players have proven they can deliver this year, and barely historically either. While it's not pretty, Harden did what he had to do.
1q Clint Capela makes dunk (Dwight Howard assists) Clint Capela makes free throw 2 of 2 Dwight Howard makes 5-foot two point shot (James Harden assists) Dwight Howard makes two point shot (James Harden assists) James Harden makes 25-foot three pointer Trevor Ariza makes driving dunk (Patrick Beverley assists) Trevor Ariza makes three point jumper (James Harden assists) James Harden makes driving layup James Harden makes 17-foot two point shot Trevor Ariza makes 23-foot three point jumper (Ty Lawson assists) Ty Lawson makes driving layup James Harden makes two point shot (Ty Lawson assists Clint Capela makes 7-foot two point shot Clint Capela makes two point shot 2q Marcus Thornton makes 18-foot two point shot Marcus Thornton makes driving layup (Patrick Beverley assists) Terrence Jones makes dunk (Dwight Howard assists) Terrence Jones makes 25-foot three point jumper (Patrick Beverley assists) James Harden makes 27-foot three point jumper (Terrence Jones assists) James Harden makes free throw 1,2,3 of 3 James Harden makes 24-foot three pointer Clint Capela makes dunk (Trevor Ariza assists) Trevor Ariza makes free throw 1,2 of 2 James Harden makes 17-foot two point shot 3q Patrick Beverley makes 22-foot jumper (James Harden assists) Dwight Howard makes free throw 1,2 of 2 Dwight Howard makes layup (James Harden assists) Dwight Howard makes free throw 1 of 1 Patrick Beverley makes three point jumper (Dwight Howard assists) Clint Capela makes layup (Dwight Howard assists) Trevor Ariza makes two point shot James Harden makes 4-foot jumper James Harden makes free throw 1 of 1 James Harden makes 23-foot three point jumper (Patrick Beverley assists) James Harden makes two point shot James Harden makes 16-foot jumper Dwight Howard makes layup (James Harden assists) Dwight Howard makes free throw 1 of 1 Ty Lawson makes 20-foot two point shot (James Harden assists) James Harden makes free throw 1,2,3 of 3 James Harden makes 16-foot jumper James Harden makes free throw 1 of 1 4q Marcus Thornton makes 19-foot two point shot Corey Brewer makes three point jumper (James Harden assists) Corey Brewer makes free throw 1 of 2 James Harden makes free throw 1,2 of 2 James Harden makes 25-foot three pointer James Harden makes free throw 1,2 of 2 Corey Brewer makes free throw 1,2,3 of 3 James Harden makes free throw 1,2 of 2 James Harden makes 24-foot three point jumper Dwight Howard makes free throw 1,2 of 2 James Harden makes free throw 2 of 2 James Harden makes free throw 1 of 2
Ummm can't compare..The Dream had teammates he could trust to be clutch...Drexler, Maxwell, Smith, Thorpe,Mario, Horry, Cassel,Ellie..should I keep going?
Harden insist on going iso while brushing off set half court plays. I'm just trying hard to get the scoring title this year lol
Ummm can't compare..The Dream had teammates he could trust to be clutch...Drexler, Maxwell, Smith, Thorpe,Mario, Horry, Cassel,Ellie..should I keep going?
Same thing happened in the MEM game. Harden 41 min +1 Ariza 39 min -14 Howard 40 min -12 Final score -9 That is weird, when 3 players play approx the same huge minutes, and there is a striking difference in +/- Not saying I know what it means, but it is not common. Usually the 40 min players are very similar +/- in a game. Don't get me wrong. I too would never give credit to any form of +/- stats. I'm just saying that it's interesting to see the difference between our 40 minute players lately.
Please do not dismiss what he did in 1986 in his 2nd year. I think destroying the defending champion Magic/Kareem led Lakers in 4 straight games in the WCF is an enormous achievement. And they went 6 games against arguably the best NBA team of all time (1986 Celtics), certainly the best front court of all time. In his 2nd year, Akeem destroyed the Lakers at like a 35 ppg clip in 4 straight games.
^^ winning a title as a criteria for player achievements is too limiting. I mean, can we say conversely that Stockton never won a title by trusting his teammates? Or Lebron never won a title until he started taking over, and trusting his teammates less? Neither comment means anything. Likewise, ignoring 1986 on Akeem's resume is merely a convenience to apply the trusting teammates rhetoric.
