The only way a D'antoni team with Harden is going to have a chance to compete is to get a dominant star PG. A Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry type player.
Look at the numbers. Do the math. It's really just not possible for the claim that he almost always takes the full 8 seconds to bring the ball up the court to be true. Does it happen? Of course, does it almost always happen? Not possible based off tracking data. Compare his dribbling numbers with all the other ball dominant guys. If Harden over dribbles then there are a lot of really really good players who over dribble. I feel a big problem in the Harden complaint department around here is people watch every Rockets game and only watch the rest of the league sparingly. They see Harden every game and might really watch another guy only a handful of times during a season.
The complaint isn't that he takes 8 seconds to bring the ball upcourt. It's that he crosses the halfcourt line right at 16 seconds. The difference between the two is that Harden isn't the only Rocket grabbing defensive rebounds. If Capela grabs a defensive rebound, the ball probably gets to Harden's hands at the 21 or 22 second mark. After that, it usually takes him 5 seconds to reach halfcourt. Additionally, you're looking at the average time per touch. Consider this scenario. He dribbles the ball for 17 seconds and passes it to Ariza. Ariza passes it back to Harden, and Harden swings it to the other side of the court to Ryan Anderson. That's clearly overdribbling, right? But its 2 touches with an average of 9 seconds per touch. So no, those stats don't refute the 8 second backcourt time or overdribbling.
Harden is good enough to carry an average team to the playoffs but isn't good enough to get them through the playoffs. Doesn't mean he isn't a top 5 player and doesn't mean he is doomed to be that type of player. Just means without at least another top 20 player, we will have to rely more on good fortune than being prepared.
It doesn't matter since it doesn't disprove the assertions that Harden usually walks the ball to the halfcourt line at 16 seconds and he tends to overdribble.
Can the mods ban this you/log troll with his multiple ids called swayfagggg once and for all. These Lin fans are scum of the earth
