This sounds crazy but James Harden should be the 6th man...

Harden leads the team in assists per minute because the ball is always in his hands. Jeremy is told to run to the corner and wait. If Jeremy was allowed to play the way he played in New York, I am pretty sure he would lead the team in assists. But I don't mean to disrespect Harden. I just think he could adjust his game with less isos.

 

haha, as a Lin fan, even I say this is crazy...however it would be good to stagger their minutes or better yet, build a system where both of them have opportunities to attack the basket when they're on the floor together

 

Ok, I'll bite. The comparisons of Harden/Jordan are as silly as comparisons Lin/Harden. Different style players, different mentalities, different talents (and talent levels). Probably not what you were looking for.

 

The comparison has nothing to do with ability. It's about learning to be the cornerstone of a team. Learning to trust your teammates. Learning that you cannot will your way to ultimate victory alone no matter how talented you are. Jordan went through those growing pains for years before he won his first title. James is going through it now.

 

That is a negatron on your last killa

 

I agree, it is a process and in that light the comparisons are valid. I hope we can just enjoy this team more as fans without all the bickering and player vs player crap. I am looking forward to watch Harden (and the rest of the team) going thru this learning curve, because I think when they get there, it will be glorious.

 

Dude, assists per minute have nothing to do the ball always being in his hands. Although we've already made it clear that Harden DOESN'T have the ball in his hands more than Lin. Can you stop going back to jeremy Lin in New York that player will never be in the NBA again.

Actually, no. Jeremy Lin in New York is in the NBA doing a pretty good job. His name is Kendall Marshall, go be a fan of his if you love D'Antoni point guard inflation.

 

McHale has made that term famous with how many times he's said it to describe every game Harden's been ball dominant and failed.... Clearly, our coach has no grasp on analytics.... Fire him...

 

I don't believe in that theory that Rockets coaching is ordering Lin not to attack and to go stand in a corner while he's on the court. Sorry, I don't buy it.

And I guess you skipped over reading the statistical analysis posts? Aelliot posted numbers that show Harden has the ball in his hands something like 11% less than Lin. And he's still averaging more assists per.

 

I'm with you here, my friend. After suffering through some rough years with this team there is definitely something to look forward to.

And on a tangent I was a professional saxophone player for over a decade so I dig the screen name.

 

Gross

This is the grossest trollingest thread of all times. I don't post but very rarely but this thread deserves scorn and ridicule. When Jeremy gets traded or his contract runs out these same people will just be trolling on his next team's website. Shame on you trolls!

 

Nice!! I'm a Professor of Jazz Saxophone and also teach clarinet and play it professionally in orchestras.

 

Not to be contrary, but the OP is a 2003'er. I don't agree with his assessment, but I don't think he'll be leaving with Lin either. Some others are trolls though, from both sides. They love to egg each other on.

 

in EVERY SINGLE PAIR you mentioned, the smaller guy is a better scorer than the bigger guy. That's how rare a strong scorer is in a bigger guy.

So if you have a big guy that can score as much as stephen curry, then, yeah, he's going to be harder to replace than stephen curry.

 

So how many big guys can score more than harden?!?!? Maybe Lebron Durant Melo (debatable) and that's it? How is harden easily replaceable?

 

i'm not talking about when one guy is young and the other is about to retire. I'm talking about the players at their peaks.

And I don't suggest that the replacement must be AS GOOD as the current player. They just have to replace the player without a substantial drop in team performance. For example, how many players can hit 20/5/5 if GIVEN THE GO AHEAD. I would say a lot.

A 20/10 player is harder to replace than a 20/5/5 player.
A 25/10 player is harder to replace than a 25/5/5 player. By that I mean that you can replace a 25/5/5 player with an 18/5/5 player more easily than you can replace a 25/10 player with an 18/10 player.

There are two reasons. There are simply many more people in the world that are under 6'5". And the other reason is that a soft touch is harder to find in a guy that is large like 6'10"-ish and up.

 

i don't buy it either. But something else could be happening. he could feel that that is what is expected of him by everyone around him without being explicitly told that.

I wouldn't read into those statistics too much. For instance, Harden is sometimes passing to Lin, and Lin is passing to Harden. So what does it say that Harden has more assists? Harden is passing to Chandler more and Lin is passing to Garcia more, right? The stats don't matter. All of our guards are replaceable.

 

I actually don't think this is crazy and there are 2 ways why this would happen.

If a Bev and Lin starting combo experiment suddenly turns the Rockets into a winning team and the numbers all changes in their favor then Harden will have to come off the bench or reduce his minutes/touches significantly.

Secondly, if Harden ever suffers a serious injury, the coach will have no choice but to bring him into the game slowly and thus use the above lineup (Bev and Lin) to start.

If Harden was on another team, say Miami, I would definitely make him 6th man because again his attention on offense would take too much away from the rest of the starting lineup, and his defense is a liability for 40 minutes.

 

If this is in response to last nights game, it further proves my point. The offense should run thru Howard and the rocket need a pg who won't concede the ball to howard so much. Sam Cassell wouldn't be giving the ball up and running to the corner like lin and beverely. Hell , he played with allen,robinson,kg,and sprewell and didn't do thaat. Bev isn't good enough and lin act as if he's just happy to be here.