Clearly it's you that doesn't watch the game because to say that playing through our best player when not getting to the line is insane. When hardens not getting to the line he's still a bigger offensive threat than Lin parsons Howard whoever. The defense is aware of him everywhere on the court. When he has the ball he is being watched and often time traped by 2 even 3 defenders sometimes. If you watched all the games then you would see that the number of games that our offense has played week with harden far succeeds the times it hasn't worked. We're 31-17 have the 3 rd best record in franchise history at this point. We have a young new team players starting for the first time, our best players 2nd season as the lead guy, we have a new dominant post player superstar new bench. Yet we sit with a great record and still feel we left games on the table. That should tell you and any real basketball fan can see the rockets are a serious threat and contender out west. The rockets have a real chance to go into the playoffs as the 2nd best team in the west our core and talent is enough. Harden and the rockets will figure it out and be the scariest team out west outside of okc come playoffs.
Agree starting Lin with Harden is pointless. There is a reason why Paxson (Bulls), Blake (Lakers), Chalmers (Heat) are the point guards. They are not going to get the ball much so they better be guys content (or really skillset wise can only be) being spot up shooters. All this arguing about Lin/Beverly is a waste of time. Lin is clearly a better player but in terms of what the rockets want their point guard to do (play D and spot up shoot) there is no sense in starting Lin. Harden needs to put in a better effort on defense because the guy plays at 30% on that end. Offensively he needs to stop with the holding the ball and they kicking it to a teammate with a few secs left. At least drive to the basket before kick out. Then this team could play closer to their potential.
You have got to be kidding me. With all due respect, you need to either get your eyes or your head examined.
Yea that reason is their primary scoring threat either played off the ball (Jordan), played like a PG (Lebron), or in the case of Kobe, had Shaq for the 1st run and a AAU dream-team for the 2nd We are nothing like those teams that could afford to have 3&D point guards against elite defenses. Harden plays like a shooting guard, not a point guard, not even like a combo guard. Just like his defense, he could if he wanted to, but he doesn't. Dwight isn't Shaq, Parsons isn't Pippen, and the rest of the team isn't ridiculously stacked. Harden needs to either play like a PG, let somebody else, or bring in another near all-star ballhandler and let them take turns. It doesn't have to be Lin, but we are never beating OKC or Indiana with all our eggs with a SG scoring and dictating the offense from isolation. GSW (Iggy) & LAC (running Harden ragged with screens) may join that list.
I feel like the GARM is getting dangerously close to a thread titled "Why Harden should be traded". Not good guys, not good
This is true, people have said this for awhile including me and it won't make a difference their are people on here that want J Lin to start no matter what. I've come to realize that nothing any of us says no matter how logical will change their minds.
What's with the Harden hate lately? you guys realize we would not have made the playoffs last year, would not have had Dwight either, without Harden, it's simply true. It's one thing to say he disrupts team play, but the hate is getting out of hand. I also want to add that Jeremy needs to learn how to play with players who are better than him, he defers way too much, he did the same thing in NY heck Yao and Tracy did the same thing their first year together but they learned how to play together after awhile.
How is it pointless when it was very effective after the all star break last season. We had a top 5 back court last season. Lol
We made the playoffs with Harden and Lin in the back court correct. So how is a back court with Harden and Lin pointless?
As a fan of both of Harden, and Lin and above all the Rockets as a team, I like Lin coming off the bench when Harden and Beverly are healthy. Lin as 6th man, gets to be the go-to guy out there. He can dominate the ball like he needs to in order to play his best. That's his style. When he's free to dominate the ball, he can create shots for teammates as well as himself. With both Howard and Harden on the floor Lin shouldn't be dominating the ball. He can still play be valuable with them, but it's not an ideal situation for Lin. With Beverly on the floor, he's better at just distributing and letting Harden dominate the ball to make plays for himself and his teammates. There are many great things about having Lin as Rocket with this group of guys. One of them is that when Harden goes down witn and injury and has to miss games, Lin can step in do a great job of shouldering some of the weight. He's shown that, and the Rockets are lucky to have Lin. Another great thing about having Lin on this team is that he can be that effective 6th man out there, and play his game his way, and he's fantiastic at it. He makes his teammates better, and does better himself with that unit. As a fan of Lin I want him to be in that role so that he can succeed.
Start Beverley and Lin! Harden should be coming off the bench. There was obviously a reason why he was supposed to be OKC's sixth man. OKC without the "best" shooting guard of the NBA currently ranked number one in the competitive Western conference, the Rockets' record without Harden 6-2. The numbers are clear. Bench him!
I am okay with Lin coming off the bench. But I do think it is more complicated than Lin coming off bench -> Lin gets to dominate the ball I wish it wasn't, and hope it changes. But Lin only really seems to get to dominate the ball when Harden is out. Often, even in the 5 or 6 minutes per game when Harden is not playing in a game, Bev seems to run the offense, and frequently Lin does not even get to touch the ball during a possession. It is the darndest thing to watch. (And when Harden is in the game, Harden almost always runs the show regardless of whether he is playing with the starters or the bench.)
