They can but they have to start trading Gordon and others for picks....... And be bad for a time being. It does align with 'Wasting Harden's years' ....... sadly for Harden fans. The 'Only' way has been through the Draft all along. That's the impasse with the Harden situation and Morey.....drafting.
This is where I'm at too like we're forgetting the point is to win games here. The numbers are nice but are resulting in losses. This style of play gets Harden his numbers but we've seen now that it doesn't work in the playoffs. It NEEDS to change. Period. We talked yesterday about how Kobe was doing well number wise under MDA and why would Kobe not like MDA? Well, Kobe didn't like the style because it wasn't winning, Kobe DGAF about his numbers, only some 22 year old 3 year player cares about that because they're trying to prove themselves. At this point, winning should be all that matters. So I don't care how well he played either, I just want the team to win and I don't see that same heart and grit I want to see from him. Not even talking about if he screams after a big play or not, I just want to see it on the court, the desperation. Like Kawhi doesn't react much after big plays but you can certainly tell in close games he's looking for the ball and trying to make the big play.
Well, it will be hilarious if Hartenstein has a break out year next year on another team I think that guy had potential to be a good small ball center.
I do not know how much John Collins could be had for....... Gordon anyone? Just a joke. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/collijo01.html
Saw this post on realgm, harden in elimination games. These numbers are horrible. Stats are stats and he isn't producing when his back is against the wall. 2020 Lakers 12-20 (2-8 3pt), 6 turnovers. -29 2020 Thunder 4-15 (1-9 3pt), 4 turnovers. +9 2019 Warriors 11-25 (6-15 3pt), 6 turnovers. -10 2018 Warriors 12-29 (2-13 3pt), 5 turnovers. -13 2017 Spurs 2-11 (2-9 3pt), 6 turnovers. -28 2016 Warriors 12-23 (3-7 3pt), 7 turnovers. -27 2015 Warriors 2-11 (0-3 3pt), 12 turnovers. -4 2015 Clippers 7-20 (2-7 3pt), 7 turnovers. +12 2015 Clippers 5-20 (2-6 3pt), 1 turnover. -21 2015 Clippers 9-20 (1-8 3pt), 5 turnovers. +23 2014 Blazers 9-15 (4-6 3pt), 4 turnovers. +7 2013 Thunder 7-22 (4-10 3pt), 4 turnovers. +3 2012 Heat 5-11 (3-8 3pt), 3 turnovers. -17 2011 Mavs 7-11 (1-5 3pt), 2 turnovers. +3 2011 Grizzlies 6-10 (4-8 3pt), 1 turnover. +24 2010 Lakers 1-3 (0-1 3pt), 0 turnovers. -1 16 elimination games : 111-266 (37-123 3pt) 73 turnovers. -69 (+/-) If you only went by the last few years the numbers are much much worse!
And that's another thing too, PNR was a big part of his game, completely taken away from him here. If we're moving forward with Westbrook we do have to build the team to help him out, not just expect him to contribute by standing behind the 3 point line.
And do you know that assist percentage has been in decline every since his MVP season....hmmmm.....interesting. Uhh you that reversed Harden went from 35% to 50% under Dantoni. He is, he's gotten worse every season since his MVP, how many times do I have to tell you that. Really? Is that why our Russ-Capela lineups were garbage. Do you think Dantoni would tell Russ stop running pick and Roll, thats a stable of Dantoni's offense. No its because you can literally go under a pick because the GUY CANNOT SHOOT. We went small to accomidate him and he still sucked. That injury crap is BS. This dude has always been a colossally bad scorer in the playoffs and his assist % has been on the decline. And again..so have his impact metrics, so even if his assist % was higher if you are still barely a positive asset to your team, all that means is that he's garbage overall which he has been for the last 3 years. Oh right cause he wasnt dribbling it off his foot, making bad decisions and scoring inefficiently before that...no waaay. Our offense is simple as hell being traded to a new team doesnt mean crap. Whats his excuses the last three years for being bad then? He wasnt injured then? He had PG to move off ball for him? The fact is, he's simply not good enough. And he's been a very inefficient player for awhile.And all the numbers bare that out. But go on, keep complaining about Harden off ball like its magically gonna make Westbrook player better when it hasnt. Durant and PG left him. Doing what to Cp3? He had a down year. You talk about this "elevate" crap like it means something but it doesnt. Cp3 just shot it bad last year, that's it. LMAO yea Harden doesnt elevate his teammates, do you see the stuff you are saying hahaha. He then got better the next year, that's it. if Harden doesnt elevate his teammates(LMAO) than why is our offense consistently amazing with the players we have? He can't run an offense because HE HASNT LOL. That OKC team was not good offensively. The Russ only lineups are not good, not only are they bad offensively, they are bad defensively. And that's funny as hell and speaks to how bad he really is. Even during his hot stretch, guess which lineups were our worse ones.....hmmmm gonna have to think real hard for this one. And Harden had opportunities through out the Lakers series to pass to Harden(he was actually open a few times) it never happend. Westbrook never got him the ball. I think you yourself are looking at a lazy solution by saying "Harden's selfish, he needs to play off-ball." Like its gonna magically make Westbrook as second option player when we've already seen him fail repeatedly for 3 years like that.
I remember talking about this with someone else in the year but you can't use +/- with lineups in this way. All you're saying is that Harden's lineups do better than Russ's lineups, not that Russ only lineups are bad, relative to what? Harden only lineups? Well then of course. Harden runs an offense better than Westbrook. I'm not going to look at playoff lineups because that's like 12 games, regular season though his lineups were not BAD. One thing you find is that there weren't many Russ only lineups because Harden plays so much. https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advan...gular Season&TeamID=1610612745&sort=MIN&dir=1 P. Tucker, .R. Westbrook, .E. Gordon, .A. Rivers, .D. House Jr. Is the most played Russ lineup we had...a total of 35 minutes...net rating 27.0 So really, the sample size of Russ only lineups is pretty small when it really should be more. He was coming here to help Harden rest and it turns out he didn't do much of that, we played him along with Harden a lot
Harden Assist %: 35.4% 50.7% 45.1% 39.5% 35.9% WB Assist%: 49.7% 57.3% 49.8% 46.5% 35.6% Whoops......Those numbers include 1 season of KD. You may try and repeat.... BUT BUT BUT Paul George..... Well duh. Imagine if Harden would catch and shoot like PG did? Harden is an even better shooter than PG! So has Harden..... Blah blah blah blah. You are too bias to have a discussion about WB with..... Yawn... you said that and yet Harden's TOV% was only marginally better. I get it.... you are a Harden only fan. It's everyone's else fault but Harden's.... he's powerless to add new wrinkles to his game to mesh with whatever #2 he's running with.... Harden is the one constant throughout the 8 post seasons run.....I won't ever argue Harden doesn't put up gaudy numbers or isn't a generational offensive talent.... but to what end does that really matter when the results are the results?
What? Do you realize Chris Paul had consistently high net rating even when he was here last year. That's what you are suppossed to do when you face bench units. So we traded for a guy who cant spell minutes for Harden against Bench units....got it. Why would we not use playoff lineups? We had our least productive minutes any time Russ was on the floor running his own units. Thats been the case all year and that was the case in the playoffs. Not using playoffs completely ruins any arguments you have. 35 minutes over game season, literally means nothing. Why do you think we played Harden so much? Because Russ can carry his own on the bench. Also Russ played 57 games this season so that's messing with the lineup numbers. He didnt do much of it because he couldnt. He's not good at it. He sucks at it. Having Russ only lineups would make use lose more. He cant help Harden because he sucks. Even when we went small(which was for him) he still had the worst lineups...tell me how that works?
Except, the most played unit...35 minutes TOTAL...throughout the year...(whose fault is that? Is Westbrook managing rotations??) was a high net rating... We would not use playoff rating because it's a smaller sample size, Russ only played 7 games on a very possibly hurt quad. Seems more fair to use a larger sample size in which he wasn't hurt? You're saying he couldn't do it but the lineups I'm looking at, small sample size (Again, coach decides the rotations/lineups) show that he actually did have good lineups with just him and also most lineups include him. All your stats say is that we're worse when Harden sits...well...yes, just like Lakers are worse when Lebron sits.
When lebron sits, they aren't a net negative When Harden sits, the rockets are a net negative with wb lineups Big difference
Do you know what decline means? Do you realize I've been saying that he's been on the decline since his MVP season...and he just had his worst season yet in terms of assist %. LMAO yea if Harden had PG those numbers would spike up too. Like I said Chris Paul is not that type of player. And why should Harden have to give up the ball to a guy who had 25 assist % THIS YEAR. Tell me? Oh wait no argument...go it. And all those assist %dont mean crap if it didnt lead to efficient offense which it didnt. And what you fail to take into account is that Westbrook only lineups WERE GARBAGE on both ends. So if he really was the creator you said he was, we should have been able to produce efficient offense with him on the court yea.....naaaaah No actually, not true, his playoff stats have gotten better every year. And the only teams he's lost to have been teams with significantly more talent. He's shown up the last three post seasons. So.....you're wrong ....No you're biased and you have a lazy ass way of looking at things. An yet his assist% was waaaay better this year. Give up the ball for what? Oh ....right now answer, poor arguments every single time. Literally just said we should trade him. But go off...haha LMAO, yea yeaaa.... non contextual less garbage argument....not even worth responding too. That's why results based arguments are dumb as hell...please stop quoting me, its clear you have a one track mind and Im not here for it. Ive acknowledged Harden his flaws, but the guy just had his best post season performance and here you are saying this crap..please ....just stop. You have no argument here.
Harden's flaws don't disapear because he played statistically well. Due to Harden's flaws this team has to win like the Bucks which is having a 10+ pt lead heading into the fourth or else teams know exactly what to do to completely **** down the offense and that is dent Harden the ball which due to his flaws is restively easy compared to other superstar guards.
35 minutes in total for an 81 games season.....literally means that, jack ****. Bruno Cabocolo has the highest net rating on our team for the Laker's series. Because those are playoff defenses. Again if he was hurt, what the hell was the excuses the last three years? You cannot win when someone is that bad at scoring...and that bad at decision making. So you have 35 minutes during the regular season(Im confident we used Russ only lineups more than that) but my sample of playoffs dont work? Well yea, but my point is that Cp3's lineups were waaaay waaay better than Russ carrying his own lineups. He even had higher ones than Harden, and that's what you should do against bench units. Of course you are gonna see that with Russ/Harden lineups, we arent playing against good defenses night in and night out. And Harden can make players better, simply being on the court. My point is that we should not GET WORSE when the dude steps on the court. But here we are. Do you know why through out this whole series put Lebron on the court when Westbrook was running his own units? Because they knew that was our weak link.
