half of his games this season were BAD GAMES...for a simple reason...he's not good at iso....and he's not becoming better at it...in fact hes becoming worse...(perhaps this is a sign he will progress?)
let's imagine this is in fact true. now, what are the excuses for his missing clutch freethrows the past couple weeks and inexplicably passing the ball directly into opponents' hands time and time again
THIS! btw i think Harden doenst enjoy at all in this iso thing... i think harden is a beautiful ( an artist!) and very inteligent basketball player and like anyone who likes this sport he must be sick of it...because in the first place iso is awful basketball... i think iso harden to death is morey's or mchale's strategy to pad his stats and make him a superstar in order : 1 to atract media because average people only like heroes(ball hogers and volume shooters) like kobe 2. to attract another superstar 3. to get preferential treatment with NBA organization and referees theres no way harden is that dumb... He is a master of basketball and one of the most inteligent players...
Yeah, Harden has been ass this series. I was shaking my head throughout the last 2 minutes. All harden was doing was stepback 3's or a stepback long 2. Jeez, he almost gave the game to OKC. Thank god for Ibaka
The guy is gassed I'm sure. He's probably fighting some injury as well. That said, TOs have been a problem all year and he has yet to look very 'clutch.' I'm guessing next year, after some rest and then training camp, things should look better for everyone on this team in terms of TOs and knowing their roles, so I can only hope that he settles into the role of closer. The isos don't really bother me in that you need a guy who can create his own shot at the end of close games in the playoffs. However, if Harden keeps missing them, we might need someone else to fill that role to take the next step.
i haven't felt good to post anything since the playoff started. i feel alittle bit better with one win although we had a good luck at the end. but win is a win. i take it. regarding harden, nothing is wrong with him. he is fine. he is still our best offense option. keep in mind, you can't have good offense every day, every hour, every min, or every sec. it's the reason everybody says defense is the key to win championships. offense often comes and goes. you have to live with it and suck it up when you don't have a good offense night. the most important and the most obvious thing is our whole team offense looks so stagnant in the first half when harden started to take every offense roles besides trying to score. when he plays in the pg role, the whole offense looks stagnant. not only that, his defense was also suffered in the first half. it reminds me of tmac. i don't like it at all. i said many times harden should be used as a sg only. it was proved in 2nd half of the last game when harden released his duties to bev. that's the difference btw the 1st half and 2nd.
It looks to me like his offensive creativity is running low. He used to figure out ways to score, now it looks like he can't really decide what he wants to do when he gets the ball.
iso Harden is a great player during regular season when the opponents' defense was not that intense. His iso balls could score easily then and the refs made many calls in his favor upon the slightest contact. But as the season progressed, teams learn to adjust to his style of attack more and his injuries and heavy minutes didn't help. That was why he wasn't that effective towards the end of the season. In the playoff with the opponents playing intense defense, his iso ball is not MJ & Lebron's level and can't score as efficiently as before. Worse, the refs are not calling fouls easily in playoff balls and so his heavy dependence on penalty shots suffered and his effectiveness took a huge hit. His playoff record with OKC last year and so far this year has not been great at all because of these reasons. Harden will get Houston into many playoffs in the future, but unless he can develop more variety of shots (like fade aways or spin moves), his offense is too predictable to be stopped, and unless Houston has another go-to guy, there will be many first round exits as long as the coaching staff heavily rely on his iso balls and not ball movement.
You know what. If Lin was given as many excuses after a series of bad games, all those who came out to defend him would be labeled LOFs.
I think it's a mix of things. But mainly I think he's just physically worn out. To me it seems that he's either fighting some sort of injury (I think they mention he injured his thigh muscle in game 3) or the heavy minutes have finally caught up to him, cause if you re-watch some of the earlier games in the season there's an obvious difference in terms of his explosion. Which is understandable given this was his first year as a starter, and was put into a position where he was the main guy, without having another 'All-Star' to help him carry the load.
Harden is probably either worn down or due to over usage scouted enough that OKC has written a book on how to contain him. Either way, I expect after the offseason he will be back to form, although I hope he has learned enough to not constantly try to draw fouls and instead try finish plays. This playoffs pretty much shows that is not going to work well in the playoffs... unless he becomes Lebron James type where the refs are giving him calls.
It's really the opposite, he should continue to try to draw fouls instead of settling for jumpers. it's how you have lousy shooting games , go to the line 15-20 times, and still end up with 30+ points. of the many critiques of harden, the "all he does is draw fouls" is one of the silliest one there is; it's the "All Cris Carter does is catch touchdowns" argument. There's a reason why Morey gave T-Mac the "Tracy Be Aggressive" PPT and why Rudy Gay is a waste of money and cap space, and why Harden is worth every penny.
