No, I'm not kidding you. The ball stops when it goes to Harden too much as he does his jab steps and then he play makes. He goes into his own mode and he'll make more assists because he's playmaking and then becomes the director of the offense rather than being in the flow of the offense. The stat sheets don't show that but you watch the game that's what happens and happened last night. He flows sometimes but still needs to do it more and when he plays with Lin, the coaching staff could make him more aware of that. I like Harden, he's a great player, but I notice that tendency of his.
Ok, let me rephrase, Harden has moved the ball better than before. As for his ISO plays, that's sort of his play style. If he's the number 1 option, there's going to be some ISO plays involved so you can't really get mad about that. But as for when to ISo, I can agree with you that he may not do it at the best of times and it is up to the coach to let him know.
Lin wasnt playing passive. he was just defended well. he got doubled/denied the drive every time he touched the ball. add in the fact that casspi is a PG now, garcia still bricking, and asik is useless on offense, and you get really crappy bench production... also notice down the stretch that the mav's D significantly improved. people say dwight dominated, but he was single covered the entire game until the 4th when he got doubled and all of a sudden started missing/turn it over. coincidence? i think not. harden also got doubled/denied the drive all game and settled for the 3 that just didnt fall. parsons played well and passed well in the 1st half then disappeared. therein lies the dilemma. in the first half parsons was point foward. they had to guard him along with dwight and harden. we won that half. in the second half he was nonexistent. add in the doubling of dwight and harden chucking 3s and people wonder why they lost? personally i rather parsons go back to being a great spot shooter, and have lin start. this way harden and lin can attack, parsons can shoot and attack on occasion, dwight can post, and jones can clean up.
^ Yep. Mavs did a great job of adjusting against our PG's - they couldn't penetrate and kick, like the first time we played them. Carlisle can actually coach and make adjustments... which is what a coach is supposed to do.
think of it this way. everytime harden isos, its a missed opportunity to pnr. i dont know who to "blame" for this anymore. harden for wanting heroball? dwight for wanting to post? mchale/coaches for allowing it? where's the unguardable harden/howard pnr?
I'm not sure I want to blame Harden for this, he's been alittle better moving the ball and his production is still good...Howard, I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever be as dominant as 2009 orlando dwight....but its up to the coaching staff to design a fluid system
I might argue that Harden isn't any better than Monta Ellis. And that you see what you want to see if you think that Beverly is better than Lin. Regardless, better than Lin? Yes. But twice as good...Can't help you with that line of thinking.
It's not that Lin has a bad game or two, but the double standard that McHale and presumably the Rockets organization have toward him versus the rest of the top players on the team (that is if you believe what they say about Lin being an integral part of the lineup). McHale has a quick trigger with Lin and doesn't have it with the other impact players. Whereas it seems like Lin has to start hot and continue to be hot to get minutes, Harden, Parsons and co. can work through their troubles and still be on the court at the end of the fourth quarter (unless they are completely out of it like with Harden in the first Clippers' game). Morey stated when he got Lin from the Knicks that he saw great things with Lin during the Linsanity period and wanted to import that playmaking ability into the Rockets. Yet, Lin, except in brief appearances like the San Antonio game last year, hasn't gotten the opportunity to play that way. Now, to be fair to Morey, once he got Harden and Howard, he may think Lin is expendable and doesn't deserve the ball in his hands unless he is shooting lights out. If that is the case, then Lin will probably not resign with the Rockets once his contract is up as circumstances changed from when he was originally signed.
