When Charles is respectful, he can really be a great analyst. Hear what he has to say about Harden: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dNLWMgp35M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I hope Harden changes next year. New coach new start
I posted about this in the Harden thread, but I 100% agree with Barkley. Hero ball = loser ball. We have to get a more team oriented approach or we are going to waste Harden's career. Harden has a choice, does he want to be Melo/Dantley or does he want to be known as a Wade/Kobe type that can lead a team to a chip? The Rockets would be much better overall if Harden actually did a little bit less on offense and more on defense. DD
Well the problem is the few times we tried that this year, the other role players could not step up and score consistently. Some of it could be his ego, but some of it is necessity due to the roster. I think Harden will easily change if he gets the right players around him that he trusts.
Any smart person would have come up with this assessment. The Rockets have personnel problems. Even Harden himself said the roster has to improve dude has been begging for help for a year now.
I assume that's based on the premise of a revamped roster. In no way -- 0% chance -- would the 2015-2016 Rockets be better overall if Harden did less on offense. Also, regarding Barkley and Harden not being fun to play with -- uhh exactly what was Charles? Post up at the 3pt line and dribble dribble dribble in to the paint. Barkley held on to the ball so long they changed the rules to stop him from doing it!
Barkley is 100% correct. I wonder if other players want to play with Harden. But, I don't think Harden is a selfish player. Harden will pass the ball. But, Harden has a hard time playing in an offense with a lot of ball movement, and player movement. I don't think Harden likes to run or move without the ball. McHale was constantly talking about ball movement. He recognized that was always a problem with Harden and this team. Can Harden change? I don't know.
People over complicate this. When the Rockets had more creative playmakers - Lin, Parsons as examples Harden successfully played off the ball more. When the current team has some semblance of a playmaker on the court - Beasley, JSmoove last year, DMo to an extent, Harden is a willing ball mover... Heck even back door cutter. When Harden is forced to pass to Bev, Ariza, Dwight, etc and rely on those guys to create... It doesn't work. What's more... Since they'll never trash the coaching they completely ignore that. Harden is very coach able per history... If coached by a good coach. He doesn't take well to generalizations. "Pass more, move more, try harder, be patient...." Lol. That's not f'ing coaching.
This is true but the fact of the matter is, this team lacks scorers and shooters. There isn't one single player on the team that can take over the scoring load for even 5 minutes. There isn't a consistent shooter that you KNOW teams have to respect and not double off of. Every team in the playoffs has a second go to scorer. Dwight isn't that guy, maybe Dmo but he isn't fully recovered. This was a problem last year as well but the Rockets found a way to win. You have to have the roster to play team ball otherwise the team falls back on the ONLY thing that works - Harden ISO (which is bad). There are many problems with the team, but I believe with a good coach, he can get Harden to play within a system (whatever that is), build around that and go from there.
Here is the thing, we had Thornton who could score and we cut him, we have DMo who can score and rarely use him on the post, we have Beasley who can score - and for some reason we just didn't use him that much. Clearly we need to revamp the roster, but we need a system in place that is not defer to Harden - and yes, we need new players and we need to move the ball around and play team ball. Harden as I said earlier in the season is the problem and the answer. DD
The question is if Harden does not have the ball, how can he make himself effective? That's more of a question on Harden himself rather than the coaching staff
It is unbelievable that you moron Harden haters think that the same guy who had no problems coming off the bench in OKC would be sternly objecting to taking a lesser role in the offense he has to carry on his own head like an Indian woman... One wrong move and the whole team comes crumbling down...
I don't understand his point about Ariza. Ariza is a 35.2% career 3 point shooter. This year he shot 37% and last year he shot 35%. His numbers have not declined because he played with Harden so I'm not sure I buy the "rhythm" argument for a guy like him. If we had role players who were better suited to creating their own shots and having the ball in their hands, then maybe playing with a guy like Harden creates problems......... ...but we don't have those guys. The closest we have is Howard who thinks he has a post-up game, and Montejunas who DOES have a post-up game but can't stay healthy. Maybe Beasely once he got on the team. If Harden wasn't doing it all this past season this team would have been even WORSE.
Man whatever, Harden averaged more assists that most point guards in the league: http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/assists/sort/avgAssists/year/2016/seasontype/2 He shares the ball, but our offensive system and personnel have a hard time getting shots off, so it just goes right back to him.
With almost 5 turnovers a game. Out of the top ten assist makers I bet he has the fewest amount of hockey assists. It's a result of an offense that just stands and watches Harden.
