Does Harden WANT to get released so he can go play in LA???? I don't see the Rockets releasing him, but a trade ?????? Harden wasn't listening to Bickerstaff before, not sure he will now. Interesting quotes from Magic Johnson that Rockets made a mistake. Rockets have great individual players but don't have great team players. Les Alexander also said that in the past if he REALLY wanted a player to stay, he found a way to keep that player (when asked about Dwight's option at end of year). Really beginning to believe this is a team in chaos!
I am usually a Harden apologist, but c'mon man, dude was straight up mailing it on on defense. He's our best player and needs to set an example.
James Harden in my opinion is one of the most talented players in this league. But the issue I have with James is just how great does he want to be? There's a big difference between guys like Lebron who wants to be greater every year and work extremely hard on their games to improve every year. James harden on the other hand, thinks he's great enough and is fine with being complacent. That's the biggest problem with James harden. Last playoff series against Warriors and even Clippers, a lot of Harden's weakness was exposed. I would have thought that the last game where he had like 13 turnovers would make him determined over the summer to work extremely hard so that would never happen again. But instead, James harden constantly believes he's the best player in the league and never really worked on his game at all. Sure he played in the Drew league but that don't do anything except keep him in decent shape. Never once did he work on other aspects of his game. It seems this year he regressed big time. That's because he didn't put in work over the summer. That's what happens when he believes that he is good enough and think that he doesn't need any more improvements. Unless he understands how flawed his game is, he will continue to fall and his career will be another talented offensive player who greatly underachieved. It seems he enjoys partying with celebrities than being a great NBA player. If he keeps this up, I will be glad to rid him from Houston and take a chance on a young highly talented player who wants to be great.
Lebron James of the 8-3 Cavs. Wish our best player would talk like this, instead of "it's a long season, we have 72 games, we'll figure it out, blah blah"
You're right. When you are paying a center the max, and he doesn't pull down a double double in points and boards that's a problem. When you're paying a center the max, and he plays staggered on B2Bs, that is a problem. There is plenty of blame to go around here. But when is the last game we saw the Rockets win and Harden not show up? We would have to go back to last season to nail that down. When the Rockets win Harden is doing his thing, and to be fair Harden asked for help last season at the guard. Ty is not helping out there. Guys are missing layups, Brewer can't hit an outside shot to save his life, and we are giving up offensive rebound after offensive rebound. This team is built around pace, it is based on on more possessions not necessarily more efficient possessions (although efficiency is nice). When the help is missing shots and when we aren't getting boards we limiting the number of possessions we have. We don't have efficient guys on this team. To me, those are the key problems. We need to create more possessions, this comes from team defense and rebounding. Harden is a component to that equation, but by no means is he the primary factor in it. That's on the rest of the team more so.
5 or 6 straight games with 10-12 3pa and making 1 or 2 of them? yeah he's on the hot seat. bringing back the defensive juggernaught jokes too.
im glad mchale got fired i wanna see an offense with real offensive sets, instead of iso harden bailing mchale out
rockets pressure and expectations >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> pelicans pressure and expecations. andwhy would davis be on the hotseat? he's not slumping hard like harden. his team is also injured. they're not good enough to overcome key injuries and stay competitive in the west. southwest division makes it harder
good points, all of those are definitely true but I'm a believer in it starts with your best players. that just comes with the territory because you are supposed to lead by example. Then it becomes a trickle down effect as things go bad or right. And when things start to go wrong they have definitely reached some pretty lows thus far But this will tell alot about Harden on how he and the team responds after this. Do they still all believe collectively this team is good enough to win it all as they have been preaching. The only way they'll be able to turn things completely around is if everyone buys in as a team. Players have to adjust and make sacrifices including Harden. The only good thing from all this is it is very much early in the season and time to get things right. Hopefully so.
I love Harden and I think he's the best player we've had since Olajuwon if you factor in the potential he still has to evolve. That being said, I would think long and hard if the Knicks offered us Porzingis and picks or the Sixers offered us Okafor and picks for Harden.
As old as Les is i can see him making big trades to get underachieving players out of here. Harden gets them noticed not by his skill but by popularity . Les not playing games anymore and Harden has been the main culprit with his lazy defense and horrible shot selection. I will never doubt Les trading him.
wow the sixers and knicks would take that deal in a heartbeat.. the knicks owner dont even like porzingis all that much, drafting him was phil's decision, and most around league believe hinkie is having the sixer guards force feeding okafor to showcase him for a future trade
