I keep hearing different analysts , how Harden has changed this season, before he was only looking to score and now he allegedly stopped being a ball hog and decided to share the ball. It seems to me their stances are mainly based on number of assists and self-perpetuating widespread narrative that goes with it. To me Harden was always pretty willing to share the ball, if anything hes now 'ball hogging' more than ever, its only that for the first time he has a couple of good shooters around him. Please discuss.
It's 100% true what you are saying and sports media manipulate their audience and fabricate the truth so they can sell their story. It's all bs, that's why any award voted on by media people says has little value.The media and its role was different back in the day. I remember TNT being a very insightful show, with serious Ernie and serious discussions with guest (former) players. There was no social media for people to just state random nonsense. Sports media has suffered tremendously for the last decade. I do believe the MVP award has been right most of the time, especially in the 90s so no Hakeem did not deserve MVP of the 94-95 season so he was not robbed. That was just his view of himself and used it as motivation to kill the Admiral. My guess is you are also alluding to the MVP narrative, if not, ignore this part.
He does seem more focused on making sure that his teammates are involved ever since D'antoni moved him to PG, but it's not like he was some selfish ball hog before. The media acts like Harden went from being Kobe to being Steve Nash which is just ridiculous.
Harden's game really hasn't changed in my opinion. He was always looking to create for his team mates. Where he's thrived is having a coach who's giving him direction, and more importantly giving his team mates direction. Letting them know where they need to be for Harden to find them. I feel like, under McHale Harden was having to create so much from nothing, and the other guys more or less stood around waiting for him to do so. He's a craftsman, and he's finally been given some great tools and a plan to create something special.
Agreed! Not including this season, he's averaged 6.6 assists/game, as a freakin SG! If you include this years assists total, it jumps to 7.6 It's all "media conspiracy". They know most fans cant, wont, dont watch all of the basketball games so they're able to push their agenda. They know most people won't take the time to do their own research and take their word at face value. Heck, even most media folks dont watch all of the games. They see Harden leading the team in scoring, he's automatically a ball hog. Except this year, he's not a ball hog anymore cuz he led the league in assists, but now it's D'Antoni's system - not that fact that because he's always been such great passer, and a willing passer, with amazing court vision. All D'Antoni did was use that strength and maximized on it.
Chemistry. He truly enjoys playing with this group and trusts them. There is that brotherly feeling and playing for one another. I am telling you chemistry is a big part and I called it right away that chemistry was lacking last season. My advice is to ignore the village idiots and delusionals who thought chemistry was fine last season
We should hire you in the front office. You can tell morey his stats are useless, and that dantoni making the offense significantly better had nothing to do with it. It's that we out-chemistry them, bruh.
There are two key differences this season. First, Harden is making decisions more quickly instead of the ISO-ball we saw under McHale where he'd often dribble around for 20 seconds before doing something. Part of that is due to him moving to point guard. The other factor is that he has a real coach this season who's implemented an offensive system. Second, Harden has teammates he trusts. He never had issues with Ariza and Bev, but instead of Josh Smith or Terrence Jones camping out on the perimeter, he's got Ryan Anderson. Instead of Ty Lawson or a washed up Jason Terry coming off the bench, he's got Eric Gordon(and later on, Lou Williams). And most importantly, he doesn't have Dwight Howard clogging the paint and demanding post-up opportunities that end in bricked hook shots or missed free throws. Capela and Nene(and occasionally Harrell) are more than happy to play the pick-and-roll with James and look for easy layups and dunks.
You mean you didn't know that the media creates narratives and then perpetuates them as facts based off of one or two national tv games or some youtube clip. The media, especially the sports media is lazy and not very bright. Dan Le Batard on his show, on live air stated that he had no idea Nene or Joe Johnson was still in the league. By the way Le Batard says he's leaning towards Harden for the mvp, now how much Rockets basketball do you think he watched this year if he didn't know Nene was on the roster even though Nene played in every national televised game. Its frustrating to hear about this "evolution " of James when if you look at his numbers last year, as Jordan-esque as they were he wasn't all-nba, this year he's averaging 4 more passes per game and somehow that's an evolution. **** all these talking heads #GetGame2
Since McHale left there's been less iso ball and more ball/player movement. Having a competent head coach makes a world of difference. That's what it shows us.
I agree to an extent. I believe the difference is that Harden has become a better passer. His "alleys" were never this on point/fleek.
The media, who rarely watches the Rockets, sees the jump from 7 assists to 11 assists per game, and thinks that means Harden changed his whole mindset. The reality is Harden finally has a decent coach, like every other star player the media fawns over, and he actually has shooters around him to accentuate that. Harden very realistically could have averaged the same number of assists last year if the supporting cast didn't have career-worst years across the roster. Easiest way to spot somebody who doesn't watch Rockets games is to hear them say they thought Harden was a ball hog and never passed.
Or that he plays no defense. Every time Harden is mentioned on bspn they alway harp on "he doesn't play defense". These people who are paid hansdomely to watch sports and then talk about it cant get past a four minute youtube clip and actually watch him play basketball. Its like the nfl draft, gms fall in love with workout warriors at the combine instead of watching three years of game tape, watch the games you lazy bums.
now that you have lay it down in such a beautiful manner those 6-7 assists from mchale era look more impressive then this years 11
offensively, his game doesn't look like it has changed much although D'antoni says Harden is possibly the best P&R ball handler he's ever seen. But I have to say Harden has put in a lot more effort this year defensively. He's more consistent on defense this year and actually gives a **** on most possessions. Obviously, he still has lapses and doesn't contest sometimes to avoid the foul but overall, it's been a lot better this year.
the one thing he doesnt do nearly as much anymore which I love is the iso-dribble and then a quick pass to someone with 2 seconds left on the shot clock for them to heave up a shot. That annoyed me so much because he killed like 9 seconds from dribbling in one spot and then he made the pass. Now if he does that iso dribble he usually ends up taking the shot unless a defender creeps over last second for the spot up shooter to be open.
