Do the Rockets play better basketball without Harden?

Harden is Rox's best player but he need to be a better player: that is trust his teammate and stop ISOing.

 

People said tmac was a volume shooter and a ball stopper and he is an almost hall of famer cough cough. you can still be a player doing that, just not my thing. I prefer team ball over carmeloball.

 

Insightful analysis. Daryl Morey...hire this man!

 

As a team, we play much, much harder. On both ends of the floor. This is only because the guys know they have to step up in his absence. When he is on the floor we rely on him too much to create offense, which is why the ball gets stagnant.

We need to learn how to play hungry with him out there.

 

he may be that, but in the time that he wasn't injured, he was also one of the greatest scorers in the game.

 

We still stand no chance against the top teams without him in a series. Hate him if you want, but come playoff time our finals chances depend on him showing up. He's that special of a player when he's on.

 

Do you also believe the Clippers are better without CP3?

 

Great post but keep in mind PLAYOFFS harden can't do it by hisself coaches will game plan against him, it's a 7 game series coaches make adjustments, that's where lin comes in. Like tonight if we had harden when Rick started to double Lin it's no way they could have stopped us if we had harden out where also, either one could attack.

It's mchales Job to figure this out.

 

Gee, I wonder if playing the Spurs (a team we own with and without the Spurs killer Harden) and the mediocre Mavericks instead of the GRIZZLIES has anything to do with the last two games.

 

of course because the team actually plays some D withouy Harden and passes the ball around. No sticky 4th quarters and no iso hold for 20secs and pass for a bad 3pt shot. Harden is useful against...teams that dont have a good sg that goes off on him.

 

I haven't seen Lin smile and be this enthusiastic in a long time, he carried us to the win at the end

 

everyone should agree the ball moves better without Harden.

but we arent a better team without him.

 

They move the ball better ...but Harden gives u game winners in ugly games like that New Orleans game

 

As usual, it's all about the matchups. Lin has played damn well the last 2 games, but being guarded by mediocre defenders like Calderon, Harris, Parker, and Joseph absolutely has something to do with his success.

If the other team has a great SG defender that can stop Harden, AND we continue to rely on him, we are screwed. That's when we need Lin to demand the ball and attack. That's when Harden should be used more as a decoy.

On the other hand, if the other team doesn't have an answer for Harden, Lin needs to defer to him and maximize Harden's touches.

 

Are you seriously asking if the team is better off without Harden?
Lin plays better without Harden. And the game might seem more exciting to you because your favorite player involves himself more when Harden's out.
The team just needs to figure out how to get them both clicking at the same time.

(And this thread is stupid btw )

 

Our offense was awful yesterday, it was one of our worst offensive games of the year. The only reason it didn't look like Atlanta was that San Antonio gave up an unholy number of offensive rebounds, but that has very little to do with guard play, Harden is literally the nightmare of AT&T Center.

As for the mavs, they missed every jump shot today for about 4 minutes, against us the last time in Dallas, they hit every jump shot for 9 freaking minutes in the 4th.

 

1) Give Lin full green light to play PG
2) Make Harden pure SG
3) New commitment to PnR

Guaranteed 2nd Round playoffs minimum. Someone tell McHale to stop messing around.

 

we play harder and tougher on both sides of the ball, we have Better ball movement. But we are still a better team with harden. This is mchales job to figure this out with rotations, not playing harden 40mins every night, and have plays for other players, and hold harden accountable just like he does everyone else.

Even when Howard is off mchale will sit Howard quick. And he doesn't even have a backup right now.

 

couldn't help but think all game, what if we had carlisle?

 

And at the end of the day isn't that what Rockets games are really about? Jeremy Lin looking and feeling good?