Isiah on Harden and Lin: Could be the best backcourt in the NBA

That actually isn't true. Isiah is a pretty good evaluator of talent. He was responsible for the drafting of Damon S., Marcus Camby, and TMac in Toronto. In NY he drafted Ariza late in the second round, David Lee with the 30th pick, and Wilson Chandler with the 23rd pick.

Isiah's problem was, like you said, understanding how to fit different players together. He was a huge failure at that.

 

I was going to disagree until that last line. The great offensive players find a way to get to the line. He needs to avoid the Kevin Martin syndrome, which was dependent on a ball fake/initiated "foul". When they stopped calling that as a foul K-Mart was hosed. I never thought he adjusted fully.

Harden is a much better overall player but he needs to adjust and have other options in his arsenal. I keep having to remind myself he's only 23.

 

He simply gives up on D. I've seen him basically let his guy go right past him for layups

Now playing sloppy D because your playing 40 minutes a game is understandable. But coming off a 3 day vacation letting guys run past you is unacceptable

 

Nash&Kobe
Jennings&Ellis
Curry&Thompson
Lawson&Iggy

Can all put up a good fight for best back court duo in the league

If manu started, him and parker would also be on that list.

 

Didn't like Isiah as a coach or gm. But as a player he took care of business. So the key is Lin and Harden commiting to D because the O is already there.

 

In my opinion the Lin/Harden backcourt is already better than Curry/Thompson one. Although Curry is superior to Lin offensively but his defense is still really bad compared to Lin. I would put Curry only slightly above Lin because of this.

However Harden is so far away from Thompson it's not even close. Although Thompson is the superior defensive player offensively Harden is so much more effective. I watch GSW quite a bit so I think their fans will also attest to this as well (go to mercury news warrior blogs, or golden state of mind if you want to see).

Klay Thompson is a streaky jump shooter. For every great shooting night you see he's had a mediocre to awful game shooting the ball. The thing is if his jumpshot isn't falling he has no other way to attack. He's not a good slasher, bad finisher around the rim, no post game whatsoever, not a great passer, doesn't have good handles.

In my opinion the Warriors are doing as well as they are because of getting rid of Monta Ellis and replacing him with someone who actually plays defense.

 

Agree. He was also a b*stard on the court that opposing players did NOT want to face, given a choice (which they didn't have, of course). Heck, one can find great fault in Thomas and what he's done since he retired as a player, but if there's one cat who should know a thing or two about a backcourt, Isiah Thomas is that guy. All this crap about the Knicks, in this context, is just that... crap.

 

Agreed. And too bad Morey couldn't have taught him about good vs bad contracts.

 

I think some Rockets fans are taking this duo for granted. With the new CBA in place, it'll be next to impossible to assemble talent the the C's put together Allen/Pierce/KG, and Miami with their 3. Basically, unless you collude, you can't fit 3 max guys, even if you draft one or two of them. So you have to sacrifice, ala OKC choosing Ibaka instead of Harden (though, if he still was offered a nice contract).

Harden is going to be an elite player, Lin's ceiling is allstar caliber. You just can't blindly put those tags on anyone. So why do these guys deserve it? Because they've already proven they have that ceiling, unlike guys you draft *hoping* they have those kinds of games. Yeah, both players have weaknesses they need to improve on, but I'm sure they will work on those issues in the offseason. To say that the players of this caliber can't together...I'll bet 30/30 coaches will objectively take this back court tandem because again, both players are high ceiling (proven) players.

Throw in an extremely undervalued Parsons and Asik who is emerging as one of the top centers in the game, and you have a core that's going to compete year in and year out.

Harden and Lins games are similar, but they have *proven* it can be effective.

My main point: you just don't find young and unfinished talent like this on any NBA roster. Morey knows that. Could Chris Paul and harden be a better tandem? Probably. But not that the value that Lin gives you ($5 mil vs max contract).

You can make all these "is harden's game detrimental to lin's game, and vice versa" but at the end of the day, Morey knows he's struck gold.

Can the Rockets improve at SG? no
Can the Rockets improve at PG? in an absolute sense, yes....in a value sense, absolutely not.

 

Yeah, Thomas went a bit overboard there. If he had substituted "good" for lockdown, it would have made more sense. There are very few lockdown defenders in this league.

 

Ya'll do know that y'all are comparing two top 5 players to a budding Superstar and a role player correct.

Lin job is to defer to Harden but play aggressive in the same process. They are building this team around Harden.

Now looking over the course of this season, these two have played pretty darn good together. They are one of the top 5 back courts in the NBA. Next season they should be better unless they regress.

 

Harden plays about 5 maybe 10 minutes of good defense a game depending on the situation and usually at the end if things are close and never on the best guards or forwards. Lin actually is decent but prone to making mistakes or not being able to keep up with some of the better PGs.

Neither is likely to be a lockdown defender but if they can play defense and help defense a little better, along with cut down on the turnovers (they seem to alternate on who leads the team in making them) then they can be the best backcourt in the NBA.

 

Curry > Thompson right now. Curry, #16 in ESPN rank.

Been watching Thompson, dude has a lethal stroke. He displayed it against Houston. If they can stay healthy, in a couple years they could be the highest scoring duo in the league.

 

Let me see.
For the season they combine for:

39.1 points
7.4 Rebounds
12 Assists
3.5 steals

If you take away Lin's 'horrendous' November numbers, these numbers look a tad better.
Those are some solid numbers coming from you 2 starting guards.

 

Delusional.

Neither of the two will become a lock-down defender. Even if a guy is not giving it all on defense, you can tell whether he has the tenacity and the physical attributes to be a lock-down defender. Harden and Lin havent shown that.

Harden often lets his man go right by him and Lin has to be substitued at times because Beverly does a better job of man to man defense.

I will be happy as long as neither of the two are a liability on defense. They can both work on being good team defenders.

Instead of Isiah/Dumars, Lin and Harden can be more like the Pistons backcourt of Billups/Hamilton. Neither Billups, nor Hamilton were lock-down defenders but they were both very good team defenders.

 

Solution to the defensive problem: Clone Asik. Now you have Twin(literally)Towers.

Or get a legit shotblocker at the PF position to hide the inability of HardLin to stop penetration.

 

Isaiah put a wild conditional out there, but I like the way that skit worked.

Totally disagree. The league is changing to stop initial PnR plays head on. Only crisp passing and constant penetration to set up plays will generate high percentage points in the paint.

In other words, if either were to be broken up, both would still have to learn how to play off the ball if they ever wanted to contend on a legit team.

 

That's a bold statement, you may want to think about that. Curry at #16 ESPN poll means a LOT people think he WAY better than Jlin unless Lin is now #31.

Jlin was ranked #78
Klay Thompson was ranked #135

I think Klay jumps this year. May even surpass Jeremy. Thompson is in his 2nd year, now playing starter minutes. Scoring is up to 16ppg, 40% 3pt. Excellent FT shooter. Some nights, he can dominate.

 

Season series
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