Debatable. You're underestimating Dwight Howard's defensive impact. None of those pairs has a defensive anchor like Dwight. Out of those 3, only Irving is a legitimate 3rd option who can create his own shot, and the Cleveland trio of Lebron/Love/Irving haven't played a single game together. An above average PF would help this team significantly more than a star PG. We aren't weak at the PG position.
We are weak at the PG spot. If Bev gets hurt, then there will be greater pressure on Harden. You are correct, that we do need an above average PF more than a star PG. I won't be opposed to getting Rondo, if it doesn't cost us an arm or a leg. He might be the only one that is obtainable. We will need assets for an upgrade at the 4, even if we acquire him.
We aren't weak at the pg spot. People need to realize that Harden handles most of the playmaking, and he isn't an off the ball player. As such, the ideal pg to complement him is a 3/D pg. Beverley is perfect.
That's the problem, Harden has proved he cannot handle playmaking, scoring, and defense. Which is why Rondo (or a playmaking PG) is needed. Harden should be playmaking in spots. Scoring and Defense should be his focus. A playmaking PG should make the game easier for him and Dwight.
People need to realize Harden handles so much playmaking out of necessity, and would be a better overall player if he had a PG that was competent to take some of the load off him.
I rather get George Hill. I don't think Rondo will be the same and he will get a max offer after this year
I don't think he will be the same, that is why I am somewhat reluctant to having him in Houston. I don't think he will get a max offer for the same reason, and that along with his expiring contract might put him within DM's reach.
This makes no sense at all. Harden's greatest strength is his playmaking ability, and he's already sharing playmaking duties with Dwight. Why would we intentionally reduce Harden's greatest strength even further? In the hopes that he suddenly becomes a good defender? If you want a playmaking pg, then why are we paying Harden $15mm?
Beverly, Ish Smith and Canaan is your PG core. That is far and away the weakest PG core of any western conference playoff team. What position helps the most in closing out games?
He came off the bench in OKC because they had 2 guys who combined for almost 40 shots in the starting lineup. OKC wanted their starting 2 guard to be a Patrick Beverley type player. Harden would have been wasted doing that. Harden is a playmaker, and that will always be a big part of his game. Right now, though, he's being asked to do it too much. He's perfectly capable of spending a significant amount of time off the ball.
Agreed. Why is everyone's logic that if we reduce Harden's strengths, his weakness will then absorb that spare energy?
He's getting paid to score. As he proved in OKC, he can do that off-ball and on-ball. Those of you arguing we should go after a PF, tell me.......who? There are no all-star caliber PFs available. The best option is Millsap, who while both a good fit and player in his own right, is not good enough to move the needle for us. We've framed this question incorrectly. The real question is: how can we fix BOTH the 1 and the 4? IMO, using our best assets to acquire a PG, especially if we can hold onto Beverley, is the best way to improve this team. Once we've got a PG, then we use non-guaranteeds or the Lin TPE (whichever is left) to acquire a decent PF.
I think his problems were mental, not physical. He's only 24 years old. At his age, fatigue shouldn't really be an issue. Our PG rotation may be the weakest, but that's offset by having the strongest SG rotation. That's a weird question. No particular position helps the most in closing out games. You rely on your best players, regardless of position, to close out games.
Harden's greatest strength, by far, is his ability to score. He can still do that with less playmaking duty. Offensive workload clearly matters. Even Lebron, a great defender, coasted on defense this year because of his increased workload.
In OKC, he didn't have the mentality that he was "the man". He already has an off-the-ball role when we run the offense through Dwight. It makes no sense to increase this role by getting a playmaking point guard. Do you remember Harden's body language in Game 2 when we kept giving the ball to Dwight? It wasn't good. Also, he's getting paid to be a playmaker, not a scorer. Scoring is a product of playmaking, but there's a difference. We don't need an all-star PF. We just need a PF who can defend, rebound, and hit open shots. Acquiring Millsap would make us an instant contender. Worry about one thing at a time. Right now, we should be much more concerned about our 4 than our 1. That doesn't make sense. We should address our greatest need first. If we acquire a playmaking 1, we may not have enough resources to acquire a good 4 (should one become available). And if anything, Morey values flexibility.
He certainly wasn't "right." He just didn't look like the James Harden we were used to, and I'm not talking about James sucking at defense. Just in general, he looked off, in my opinion. Maybe a lot of it was mental. There was a lot of pressure on the guy, sure, but I was thinking at the time that he looked used up, or banged up. It wasn't like this was his first trip to the dance, after all. That's one of the reasons I would love to get someone who can be effective taking some of his minutes. The Spurs didn't have a single player averaging 30 minutes per game. Yeah, it's the Spurs and a deep team, but that was also deliberate to keep the key guys fresh, as everyone knows. We need to take a page from thier book. Leonard is young, too. Younger than Harden, yet he played 29 MPG. Different position, but so what? So I agree in the sense that Harden was off, and I don't think it was simply pressure. He's been there before. I'd much prefer Dragic, if we could manage to get him. Not only is he a big upgrade over Bev and Lin at the point, he's a scoring guard and he has good size for a one. He could take some of the minutes from Harden and play in the backcourt with Beverley. Regardless, Harden's minutes need to come down, in my humble opinion.
We already have Dwight has an alternative playmaker, and we aren't paying Harden $15mm to defer to multiple people. Lebron is 29. Harden is 24. If anything, Harden needs to improve his conditioning. 24 year old players shouldn't be getting fatigued late in the season.
Harden does not offset Tony Parker, Russel Westbrook, Chris Paul, Damien Lillard and Stephen Curry. Having a Rondo or a Dragic plus Harden and Howard should tilt the advantage towards Rockets if they play defense IMO. Damien Lillard ran rough shot on the rockets in the playoffs with basically having to play only one side of the ball. The rockets team defense was utterly pitiful and that's on the coaches and a real PG will make Harden much more effective IMO.
