Zach Lowe can go F himself. He has become a shitfest of a writer. Blaming the Capela trade on HARDEN??? He was really reaching on that one, and his entire article was deconstructionist. Subtle he was not.
Hmm....I'm actually not sure at this point tbh. I went and checked the data and Harden on pick and roll was 1.01 PPP in 2016-2017, pretty good. Then I went and checked it the next year and it was .92 PPP and then the next year it was .97 and then after that .98. All of this is happening while his possessions using pick and roll are declining significantly. Im wondering how NBA.com tracks this stat. Do they still count it as a pick and roll if Harden gets double/trapped?
Well he does handle it a lot during crunch time. It can't be Harden 100% of the time, so is there anyone else you trust?
I think mentally he’s in his own head as well. I’ve watched James put up 40 and 50 while being EXHAUSTED... but something happens MENTALLY in the playoffs when he goes cold. This series can change everything, but more than the tired legs or the system or any of the bs, he has to get out of his own head when he’s cold.
Well given the options I would trust Westbrook 100000000000x more than Gordon, Rivers, or really anyone else outside of Harden.
I think Harden gets anxiety in elimination games, especially in the clutch times. It affects his decision making and performance. The biggest problem is that most coaches draw up and practice set plays for end of game & clutch time. Our coach doesn't use many set plays and I think Harden suffers. Under pressure, improvisational basketball is much harder to do than follow a script.
I literally didn’t read any of this because the claim he shouldn’t shed shitty habits because it’s the playoffs is pretty damn indefensible. It’s about The rockets, not harden. He gets paid handsomely for his role in the team as well as the respect/status. Time for him to put on his big boy pants, be open to changing and goto a sports therapist for mental midget plays
Holy crap are you misinformed. Do you really follow the Rockets? How do you NOT know that D'Antoni is one of the BEST with ATO plays?
Might be the most biased take on an article I've ever read. How about a little balance in your take? Zach also says "Harden walks onto the court with 30 points" among many other glowing descriptions of Harden's game. You don't get the Guaranteed 30 almost every night without accepting the bad stuff. Despite all your negatives, Harden has been one of the top players in the post season so far, especially when you consider his excellent defensive contributions (Harden is 4th in defensive rating for players averaging over 30 minutes a game and 3rd in defensive win shares). You have to give a player credit for their whole game, not the elements that you personally don't like. Harden didn't go for 30 pts, 6.8 boards, 8.0 assists and 1.6 steals and play championship level defense against the Kings, he did it against OKC in the playoffs. I'll take the Harden we're getting over the mythical flawless player you have in your head. As Zach said - Harden has time to turn around his history of coming up weak in big games. The block in G7 against Dort might take some pressure of him and allow him to play up to his true ability. Let's see how he responds against the Lakers before we bury him.
Because it doesn't fit his negative bias about Harden and D'Antoni. If it doesn't fit his bias, it can't be true.
This is a much more realistic take. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...the-lakers-backup-center-against-the-rockets/ Lakers, not Rockets, will be forced to adjust their game. All the pressure is on Lebron and Lakers.
so i guess we just don't play him the last four minutes and he'll still be a superstar and we will win. simple solution, duh.
thanks for finding these. this has been my biggest harden argument, that he had some devastatingly bad performances back 3+ years ago which don't really seem to apply as much any more (and also when we weren't really elite contenders, even in 2015). and this is in clutch moments or just the first 43 minutes of playoff games. unless you have a way to get lebron or kawhi, the pool of people who outperform harden in the playoffs lately (by any significant margin) is basically nobody.
