Sure, he's our superstar, but we are depending a lot on Harden, way too much. After four games (small sample size disclaimer blah blah) we are +25.7 with him on the floor and -17.5 with him on the bench. Somebody is going to have to emerge as an offensive counterpoint that we can rely on when Harden rests. Jason Terry is the likely candidate, but he's still learning the offense and his teammates' tendencies. I was hoping Daniels would cement himself as the primary backup at the 2, but so far that hasn't happened.
Papa averaged 4 assists the first 3 games. But had an off game yesterday and still adjusting to the NBA like any other rookie. I think by March he'll be that off the bench play maker that we need.
lol Did you really expect Daniels who is essentially a rookie to make a huge difference? I am hoping that we get some kind of play from him. It takes years for players to make impacts and Daniels was no exception.
I have only seen one game and I know Dwight has played limited minutes due to foul trouble, blowouts and injuries but I am concerned when a guy who should be good for 20+ a night is only getting eight shots. Is McHale turning him into Ben Wallace 2.0?
What is this offense that you speak of? Surely you aren't suggesting we are running some sort of plays out there?!
I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the blowouts and Harden not playing a couple of 4th quarters and 3rd stringers getting 5 minutes on the floor at the end of games. Harden has only played 34 minutes per game so far. The previous 2 years he's played 38 mpg. McHale has been clearing the bench at the end of games and they'll give up about a 10 point advantage. So if they were winning by 25 when McHale put the 3rd stringers in, they were then winning by 15 at the end of the game. So the negative +/- number when Harden leaves the game is misleading.
This is the value of a Rondo type player. He might not be a perfect fit alongside Harden, but he would be a great guy to take over when Harden is off the court.
That was due to Philly fronting Dwight and denying him the ball. TJones struggled on coming to the top of the key to make the pass to Dwight. To be honest, the Sixers just game-planned well against Dwight. And their athleticism helped too. I'm not at all concerned about it. In the game thread, people were actually complaining about going to Dwight too much.
he didn't play two 4th quarters. the garbage time is messing up the +/-. it will become less extreme as the season goes on.
Dwight is averaging 11.2 field goal attempts per game this year per 36 min... which is not much different from last year when he averaged 11.9 per 36 minutes.
Don't we have 3 players in the top 5 in +/-? Harden, T. Jones, and Ariza? Or is that Harden, T.Jones, and Howard? Something like that.
While it does exaggerate the numbers, we can't deny that Harden is absolutely vital to this team. Even if we strip out the 4th quarters, I would guess you will still see a tremendous spread when Harden plays and sits. We need another playmaker to help the 2nd unit.
And even more impressive is his defensive improvement. Very early but his D rating is 97 (career 106) and his defensive box +/- is 1.7 (career -0.3).
He was our 3rd or 4th best player in the playoffs. So I believed he would and should be cemented into the rotation.
lol He is a rookie and when he actually shows he can play with the starters then he will. He had some good baskets in the playoffs and that means he deserves a shot. Just because he made a few shots does not mean we fit our offense around him. He has to fit into our offense. I hope when he gets untracked and makes a few baskets in a game or two that he isn't annotated our savior and the expectations don't jump that he is now the best player. Daniels is a rookie.
Howard +/- is bad because the rotation is such that Howard has to play alongside DMO for stretches where Harden is out. DMO has been really bad without Harden.
