[Chron'] Harden returns, speaks on new starting lineup

Is it just me or have there been a lot of Harden haters lately?

 

A disproportionate amount... He played like **** tonight - looked tentative as all Hell. Usually on mid/high screen-and-rolls he will beat his man on the screen, hesitation dribble, then go to the rim. Tonight he beat his man on the screen and pulled up for mid-range jumpers 4 or 5 times.

Hopefully he's just getting back in to it.

 

its sad to see people on this forum dont appreciate a STAR player when finally have one..a after all these years... obviously there are some bandwagon fans

 

We didn't survive Mike James. We got nowhere with him.

 

By doing that, you are the first one throwing crap all over the place and
stinking up this new thread. And then complaint about how bad and smelly
this thread is later.

As for Harden, the guys haven't play in few games, you got to give him some
time to get his feel back again. I'm not worry about Harden at all.

 

If proving a point to get a laugh and call out a few people is starting trouble, then sure. I don't need to run away from what is clearly out there for people to see...

I would like to see a lot less armchair psychologists on the site trying to tell everyone what McHale or anyone meant with a look, an ambiguous quote, or a substitution. It applies to a lot more than just Jeremy, but the people who have done it the most since we have won 9 of 13 games have been his fans - and after wins nonetheless.

I chose to take this opportunity to show that when this same analysis is applied to anyone beside Lin and McHale it appears to be much more superficial and ludicrous. I find it to be the same with quotes from Lin and McHale, but the people I listed don't see it that way at all (or at least their posting history suggests that they don't).

 

A lot of people have been fed up with his D but put up with it cause of his efficient scoring. But lately he hasn't been up to his usual standards offensively (though I think injury/exhaustion plays a big part) and a lot of times he kills us on both ends of the court.

 

I don't remember my 'complaint about how bad and smelly this thread is' at all. In fact, I welcome the discussion because I think it's applicable to a lot of the nonsense we see on the GARM today.

People said the same thing to King Cheetah in his thread about being better off without Harden. It's proving a point by going along with their viewpoint and letting it come to its logical conclusion. Clearly we aren't better off without Harden. Clearly Harden doesn't hate Omer because of that quote. But also it is clear, in my opinion, McHale doesn't hate Jeremy and Jeremy doesn't hate McHale. The people who argue this ad nauseum flood the GARM with useless conversations in more threads than I could post in.

 

This doesn't apply to this thread, but I thought it'd be the best place to put it...

Notice how all the people I listed haven't posted a single thing tonight after our win? These people were all over the board after our win on Monday because they could lambast our coach, James, or whoever. Yet tonight, when there is seemingly little to complain about, they are ALL inconspicuously missing from the GARM.

It's frustrating to me that there are multiple people who relish our defeats and only come out when things are bad... Such is the interwebz I guess.

 

These people are doing nothing, it's you who does it all...but i guees it can be an opportunity for you to experience a more pleasurable life...practice self- control...or just observe the feeling and let it pass by you...

 

His poor defense if overstated. He is by far our best player and we are going nowhere without him.

People that get pissed and call him out over a few bad games should just stop watching the Rockets.

 

lin
parsons
harden
tjones
asik

bench:
delfino
brooks/beverly
trob
smith

 

You guys don't know ****. fack outta here. Clutchfans posters don't know everything like they claim they do.

 

Stretch your mind with our fun survey!

 

No love for Garcia?

 

HadToDoIt....what's your beef with AAU coaches?

 

It's always trendy to hate on star players in the NBA on this website.

 

Well honestly I saw a lot of corruption in AAU basketball - we had kids who were living with the top level coaches as their legal guardians and having newspaper articles written about them when they were in 6th grade. None of them panned out - the coaches just inflated their egos to the point that they didn't have a chance of humbly learning from anyone at higher levels.

I should say it's not ubiquitous, there are people who realize they are coaching kids and try to help them grow and learn the game the proper way, but too many teams rely on athleticism and just shoot every gap, full court diamond press, and tear teams apart with absolutely no basketball skill or philosophy. They field a team of strong safeties and get 40 points a game on turnovers that lead to run outs. The principles of good basketball are not there in the AAU game anymore, and from the time that I spent in AAU (9 and under to 18 and under) I saw so many kids who had great potential fall off the cliff when other kids just matured and got to be the same size as them. It's more of a race to get kids who have already matured in to men instead of growing their skill sets and making them better basketball players despite their level of maturity.

I remember one kid who had a huge article of him in the paper - he was 5'9" in 5th grade. The article was saying how he was going to be the next whatever and this and that, and I'll never forget my mom saying that he'll be 5'10" his whole life - her quote was "The kid already has chest hair... He's done growing" haha. He ended up being 5'10" and never even played college basketball.

I had a positive AAU experience overall, but I was lucky to have a guy who played high level D1 basketball who treated us with respect and commanded (not demanded) the mutual respect in return. It was a pleasure playing for him, but I also had a couple very bad coaches that tried to win at all costs, stole players from other teams, were arrogant and condescending toward other teams and just ass holes to the kids.

In terms of my signature, I have it there just to remind people that there are a lot of coaches out there, and what works on the AAU circuit does not apply to the NBA in most cases. It was always funny going from summer ball to high school ball, just the focus was so much more on fundamentals and real basketball - not shock and awe on the small white kid who is too scared to dribble it up against the press.

I feel many a AAU coach has ruined a kid's basketball development by never making them better at their weaknesses - for example, when a kid matures early, they would put him in the post and never think about what will happen to him when he's 17 and everyone else is 4 inches taller than him at that same position. Teach the poor kid to dribble and let him be a guard every now and then, even if he ****s it up horribly. The wins and losses in AAU are waaaaay too important to many of the coaches so they never do that stuff, when it should be a lot more about growing the kids' potential for their basketball journey.

Sorry the post got long, but I hope you can hit me back on what you see on your end. I have a lot more thoughts on it, but I think you can get my gist.

 

One thing that my favorite coach did was implement restrictions on our team when we were playing an inferior team. He wouldn't let us full court press at any point in the game. He would not let us trap or double team, and every person was responsible for his own guy. It made kids focus on their individual one-on-one defense instead of just zoning it up and hiding the weaker kids.

We would still win the games (you know how lopsided AAU ball is at times...), but who cares if you win by 50 or 25? It was his way of challenging us on a personal level to commit to being better basketball players. We wouldn't get the run-outs and cherry pick lay-ups, but we'd have to generate the points in our half-court sets. At the time it was hard to see what he was doing because we were kids, but he had a positive influence on a lot of people's games.