Harden is a role player now?

We tried that the last 4 seasons

 

And the Rockets were always beaten by eventual NBA champions EVERY single postseason.

Rockets need better players around Harden, making Harden less than a top 5 player is hardly THE solution.

Any system or coach should always MAXIMIZE their best player, not lessen him.

 

I think we’re really just trying to make a point to go with less isolation, all the time. Silas is really wanting a lot of ball movement. Harden won’t have lower scoring nights like this every night. This is the most talent that he has ever played with, so I think they’re really trying to figure out what makes them most successful. Which, in my opinion, is a HUGE upgrade over Pringles.

 

Proof is in the pudding.

When Silas wins as much as D'Antoni then I will buy in completely.

Not looking good so far.

 

His production is down bc it’s a new system he’s trying to learn and he’s also dealing with an injury (ankle). I’m 1000% on board with the way Silas has his team playing. I hate the hero ball stagnant offense that gets exposed in the PO. Harden is so use to everything revolving around him that he sometimes doesn’t know what to do because the offense sometimes doesn’t need him to score. Sometimes the offense just needs him to make the right pass. With all that said we will definitely need his amazing play and scoring in the PO.

 

rockets are so fortunate to have a role player who
leads in assists (tied)
leads the league in assists on drives (tied)
more points on drive than KD
less TOs than luka, trae, & jokic
27 points on 17 shots more efficient than steph, lillard, luka, kyrie, giannis, tatum, jokic, murray, booker, AD, lebron
attracts double teams
opposing teams game plan for
helped a superstar who didnt play for 2 years be back on track
and lastly turned an undrafted player into an allstar

 

Sometimes solutions are counter intuitive. We could see a assists and defensive-minded Harden this year. This would prove his value as he has the Jedi intelligence to change his game and be effective.

 

Maybe roll player for the regular season to save him for the post season.
They supposedly wanted to played him less minutes with Russ but I don’t think he played any less minutes than before. MDA never followed through with that, he always played pj and Harden a lot of minutes.

I prefer building everyone’s confidence from starters to everyone on the bench. The ball movement is better for that, in the post season I’m sure the team will use more iso but by then the offense will be able to switch it up depending on how they guard Harden.
Harden iso isn’t something they need to practice much, they just need to space the floor and stay on their position.
If they stay where they are supposed to they will get open shots. (Idky pj wasn’t on the corner vs Portland )

 

Harden is accepting his role as the new Steve Nash.

John Wall is taking the role of Russell Smartbrook who plays defense and doesn't take dumb shots.

 

The Most Memorable Plays in the Playoffs are Assists by the Best Players.

Hakeem passes to Sam Cassell for 3
Hakeem passes to Robert Horry for 3

Michael Jordan to John Paxson for 3
Michael Jordan to Steve Kerr for 3

LeBron James to Shane Battier for 3

 

I'm ok with it. Lebron led league in assists/gm last year similarly. Use iq to win, lessen wear on body thru reg season. Then turn it up for the postseason.

Harden already led league in assists/gm in '17. Won 55 games with Patrick Beverley & Ryan Anderson. While 17ppg on less free throws isnt great, this version of Harden can still work

 

https://tenor.com/bqhdK.gif

I wonder if Jim is thinking of.......(Nets/76ers). That’s just so odd.



JK don’t @
me

 

Harden is the engine of the team

 

He has received traps and double teams againt Indiana and Dallas. He's always been a generous passer, yesterday it was a blowout win and he seemed to be enjoying assisting. He's OK, just needs more games, rhyhtm and will be even better.

 

Then he went on to vomit into a bag.

'Jim never vomits a 2nd time at home.'

 

No disrespect here. But haven’t the Rockets been without key players multiple games so far? How many times have they played with a full healthy squad? Maybe 3 games? And 2 of those 3 were wins I think? My memory is not the greatest and I didn’t go look this up so for that I apologize if I’ve got something wrong.

James out 1 game?
Wall / Cousins out 2 games?
Wood out 1game? Cousins ejected same game?
BMac out 6 games? (Key rotation guy)

I’m also sure these guys are still learning to play with one another. I’ve seen Wall and James volley the ball back and forth multiple times on multiple possessions. It’s like they’re both trying to keep those around them happy. Last night I saw Harden pass up multiple layups only to pass to one of the role players who took a lesser shot. I love seeing James drop 40 each night but I hate seeing us lose. The other thing I LOVED about last night, they kept that lead the whole entire game. I personally can’t remember a time with James here where we jumped a team by 20 points and stayed up but that much or more the whole entire game. We’ve always let teams back in. Never put teams away before. I’m not saying that’s resolved after a game against the mash unit Magic but to me it’s promising!

I know there are still a lot of questions to be answered but there’s still a tremendous amount a growth that can be developed with this squad and coach. Maybe it’s just me being excited for the sake of change... but I’m excited.

Last year I cut my cable subscription, gave up on sports in general. The Rockets have always been my favorite team. This year I had to get a subscription to watch them again as I couldn’t take missing the games while reading the game threads in the garm and noticing how excited everyone seemed to be over this team. Had to see it for myself.

I’m normally always the pessimist. This team has always broken my heart since that last championship. However, I’m cautiously optimistic that this team has maybe the best shot at winning since the Paul and Capela squads. I think the depth of this team and a coach who will use a deep rotation actually gives James an opportunity he’s never had before.

my .02cents fwiw

 

The biggest difference is if the other players hit their shots
Harden's assist game is dependent on others

Which means whether or not he has a good game is dependent on others. .... in people's minds

Rocket River

 

Ramon Sessions had 24 assists in a game.
Jamaal Tinsley 23
Chris forking Duhon 22

 

Maybe he’s not on the mike D’Antoni 90 minutes a game pace anymore and the team realizes that he needs to save all of it for the playoffs