Off with your fake ass stats. THE REAL STATS... 2nd in isolations 23rd in assist per game Unlike this poster I'll actually link where I found these stats to show everyone I don't pull them out my ass...SMFH https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/isolation/ https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional/?sort=AST&dir=-1
As far as isolations per game one of us doesn’t know how to sort by possessions or frequency.... As far as passes per game https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/passing/ No need to apologize. I know you are trying your best.
I remember those. But I also remember Harden hitting some clutch baskets to seal the game against the Mavs. I remember a lot more of Harden than Nene in the OKC series. YouTube “Harden cooks Kanter”. I also remember Harden being the best player on the floor in Game 7 against the Clips. And if you don’t have good memories against Warriors than you have seriously selective memory. 2009 was great. Loved that team. But we just happened to play the Lakers the best. We were never better. We played incredible that series. But having TMac or Yao does not mean we would have had a better outcome. We would have played differently. And maybe also gotten to 7 games. But we weren’t going to beat the Lakers. We were just gave em hell with having both Artest and Battier to throw at Kobe and got the most out of our players. Going into Game 7 not a single bit of me thought we had a chance to win that game and neither should anyone who knew the NBA.
Because James Harden still leads the league in isolations genius. Those 8 games he played here obviously pushed our isolations possessions up. Not difficult to figure out. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/isolation/?sort=POSS&dir=1
I miss watching a plater of his skill. His ability to glide to the rim, eurostep and finish was a thing a beauty. And when I watch Oladipo charge in there and get called for Offensive foul I miss him.
I enjoyed rooting for Harden and I liked the success he brought, but he was never one of my all-time favorites. There were some epic disappointments. Since he left, I've probably been more engaged. I think this team is better than an 8th seed, but I'll avoid making any embarrassing predictions... (1) because I'm often wrong and (2) because I don't want to post proof that I'm often wrong.
I don't disagree with you. The Lakers were clearly the better team. But saying that if we had Yao we could have won is like saying that if we had Paul we could have beat the Warriors. The Warriors were clearly the better team even with a healthy Paul. Yet, lots of Rockets fans claim that Harden would have led us to a championship had CP3's hammy held up.
And if you only look at the non Harden games we are right about 9 isolations per game(1 off the league lead). Wall(6th), Wood(26th) and Gordon(38th) are all top 40 in isolations per game. Our isolations overall compared to prior years are clearly down, but we are still relying on them at a near league leading level. Ball movement(passes per game)in comparison to Harden years are down. And when filtered for games this year after the Harden trade we are DEAD LAST in passes per game. And believe it or not player movement(amount of distance traveled per game) is also down. From last to an even worse version of last. Yes, even when filtering out the Harden games. Three things a lot of posters are convinced have changed for the “better” since Harden left. We still rely on iso(though not as much as prior years), we still don’t move the ball much and our team is STILL LAST in the league in movement. I’m totally fine with the argument that our roster has been in such flux that the current results aren’t what the season end results will be. But so far the results are the results.
Also since Harden left on January 13th the Rockets have been dead last in passing and 24th in assist but that's all due to not having a PG on the floor for the most part. Harden still remains to be the iso king (unlike what other posters have said) and the fact that John Wall our only point guard has been injured most of the time since the trade, the numbers for isolation, passing, and assist are skewed. But you can't just spit numbers out if you don't understand why the numbers are the way they are. Sometimes you need an explanation to be able to interpret the data more effectively. Also NBA.com would not let me adjust the dates since the Harden trade to in fact see if our isolations numbers have actually gone up or down. But it is what it is I guess. https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/passing/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular Season&DateFrom=01/13/2021&DateTo=01/25/2021&sort=PASSES_MADE&dir=1 https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional/?sort=AST&dir=-1&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular Season&DateFrom=01/13/2021&DateTo=01/25/2021
I suppose I'm a bit disappointed in the way he left, but not really surprised. It's still not 100% clear to me what exactly happened to cause the rift. Was it just Tilman in general? Not resigning D'antoni? Morey leaving? If it's just him pointing the finger at the Rockets saying they couldn't build a championship contender, then I think he needs to take a lot of the blame for that after forcing the CP3 trade, and then not being able to make it work with Westbrook. In today's NBA, it seems like the players are more responsible for forming the teams now than the GMs. Looking at Lebron, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George as examples. So the question really becomes why doesn't anyone want to come to Houston to play with Harden, and is he doing his part behind the scenes to fix this? Still not clear whether the 'no one wants to play with harden' thing is just speculation, or has any truth to it. No point in hashing out the past I guess, and although I can recognize Harden's greatness, I don't feel the same sense of sadness from him leaving that I do for someone like Springer.
We are not a major market team. Owner is choosing the best option to rebuild during a season with no fans in the stands.
I really thought I would miss Harden, but weirdly he never crossed my mind during any of the games lately. It's like he never existed, winning or losing, the thought of "Boy, I wish Harden was still here" never once came up.
But John Wall isos too does he not? He also has a high usage rate so our passing numbers might change very little?
Yet? the only good memory I have of Harden here is also the worst memory of Harden (g7) Any true team first Rockets fan definitely don't miss him and have moved on. If they do, they are probably player only fans who are now Nets fans. I love our current team even though we're rebuilding, there is a lot of hope and potential. It's not like we're the T-Wolves, Pistons, Kings, Wizards. Mediocre franchises with owners just as bad as Tilman. The difference is our GM might actually know what he's doing. I'll wait until well into the next season to see how good Stone is at drafting but I have high hopes. Unlike Morey who is generally terrible at drafting, costing us potential rings by missing superstars when we had draft picks. I'll admit, I do watch Nets games not because I "miss" Harden but to see how that ticking time bomb will blow up. They've been struggling ever since Kyrie came back, him and Harden just don't fit at all. They desperately need good defenders but they can't secure them unless it's through buyout market since we took all their picks (lmao). I'm 100% sure if they don't win in the next 2 years, they will all opt out of their contracts and we'll be in a bathtub of lottery picks.