James Harden has 14 assisted field goals in 9 postseason games

Things that make say: "Hmmmmm"

 

does stats of any sort mean anything now?

 

I don't know if we need another wing scorer or playmaker (more)... Dragic would have been nice. This team as currently constructed does not have the ability to take any pressure off harden offensively.

 

one of hardens biggest strengths has been negated. getting to the FT line. you can tell by his play he is reluctant to drive to the basket now. his aggressiveness has been turned off.

 

This indicates a ****ty offense. If your sets don't get your best players easy assisted buckets more frequently than this, then your offense sucks.

 

There is a reason that he was no.3 on OKC.

 

This is what I'm talking about. As much as Harden has been struggling against the Clippers, it's not 'entirely' his fault. Sure, some of it is but we have no system whatsoever when it comes to our offense and defense. We are just playing "give the ball to harden and let's see how things unravel" street ball against professional NBA teams. No wonder we are getting our ass kicked. It is the coaching staff's job to make sure the ball always moves and get our big men to set screens and so forth. Just look at the Spurs, Hawks, Warriors game and you'll instantly notice they play way more organically then we do. We are just too stagnant on both ends of the floor.

 

Harden needs help, no doubt about it. Brewer is the only other person on the team that can create his own shot and that's somewhat of a stretch. I don't get blaming Harden at all.

 

Harden's assists would be through the roof if players were hitting the easy shots he sets up for them. I don't think Harden has let me down. He is just getting doubled and passing it to the open man. Because no one on our team other than Harden is an offensive threat, they can just continue to double him on the P&R.

 

Harden needs help on offense, for sure. We all knew that but that's an interesting number, OP. Thanks for sharing.

 

Do we have any plays where we screen for Harden or is everything just give the ball to Harden and have him figure something out?

 

Harden is getting more blame than he should. Its unfair but that's how it is in life. The leader gets all the blame for failure and the glory for success. He definitely needs relief on offense. However, there is no excuse for making Austin Rivers look like MJ. He's giving up a ton of points on defense every night.

 

Nice job, OP. The stat's a bit disturbing.

 

Last year Harden embarrassed me with his effort against Portland.

This year I've been fine with him although his recent defense on Rivers is starting to irk me but I think that's just not in his wheelhouse, his effort on Griffin & a slowed down Paul indicates that.

He's overextended (leading to turnovers). You're telling me in 12+ games of this same exact song and dance versus the Clippers that Kevin McHale's staff still cant find a way to get the ball in Harden's hands from off-the-ball? Are you kidding me?

He gets ZERO help and it's embarrassing. He isn't a point guard. He's still playing efficiently despite no help, that's amazing to me. I cant imagine what he might do with a better coach and a secondary playmaker. Give him some help already, Jesus.

Yeah, Jordan has an impact on him, that's obvious. God forbid Harden has a weakness when one of the best defenders in basketball is waiting for him in the paint... it happens, regardless of how good you are. Here's a novel idea -- FIND A ****ING WAY TO COUNTER.

A real coach and secondary playmaker would also be able to get Howard more open looks and space the floor for our shooters. We're making things so hard on ourselves.

And with all that said... it's the defense that's our biggest problem right. Man, what a disaster.

 

finally people can stop believing this and they need to. this was always a luxury, the fact that he is a capable playmaker but he cannot be a full time pg bc he isn't and never was.

 

Our offense needs to be overhauled in the offseason. We focused on improving the defense this year. Fine, it improved a bit, particularly the half-court defense. But the terrible offense -- sloppy passes, predictable attacks, scratch-your-head shot selection -- just offsets all of that.

We need a PG who can run an offense and is a threat to score himself. Someone who makes Harden's job easier on the offensive end.

 

He's not even shooting the ball much. How can you get assists? He's taking like 14 shots v. the Clips a game.

 

This.

Our group of guys are incredibly talented but we need them to start moving around and setting screens everywhere.

The reason Blake and Deandre get so many dunks is because Chris Paul is constantly having people screened and switched and when the moment is right one person rolls to the basket for the easiest points known in basketball.

Dwight Howard could easily have 4-5 dunks in a game MINIMUM. all you need is for guys to switch and force DeAndre on a guard like Harden (otherwise fear his 3 pointer) and if DeAndre does in fact switch....lob it up to Howard