Did you ever see Harden in Houston?? Turnover, after turnover, after turnover but we would get the victory
The thing is Harden was also unbelievably efficient and an all time great playmaker. When you factor in just how much he had the ball in his hands and how much the team asked of him in self creation and creating plays for others the level of turnovers wasn’t even that egregious. And just to be clear, while the turnovers were a problem last night, I don’t feel like Jalen has a turnover issue in the aggregate. He’s fine.
Jalen was trying to force his offense too much in the fourth especially against one of the best perimeter defenders in Daniels. He wasn’t getting many foul calls either. He’s gotta shake the frustration and get back to play good basketball at the end of games.
I need you to be able to learn how to read NBA defenses. Like see what the POA defense is. For example Amen in the game winner wasn't being targeted with the point of attack defense. Scalabrinie even knew the play was with Amen being the DHO hand off guy and Green curling around and using Amen as a screener and getting the hand off. Brown expected the hand off and then was surprised and had to back peddle. Another thing I want you to notice. What happens when teams start pressing full court. It seems like Ime only trusts three guys dribbling the ball against full court presses (FVV, Jalen and Holiday). Amen's scoring diet against tth Celtics still included a large amount of his points coming off the gravity of Green and Sengun being doubled and blitzed. How many dunker spot east looks has Amen gotten from a simple blitz on Jalen on a pnr possession where Green dumps it to the wide open roller and help defense has to come to the roller which leads to a wide open dunker spot attempt for Amen? Like I feel like that's like 40% of his offense right there. He still has issues maintaining a live dribble when it's crunch time and teams start pressing. In the Celtics game how many times during the fourth did Amen stop his dribble and had to find Jalen to hand the ball of to? The thing about your perception about Jalen not finishing through contact and Amen being able to is that it's your perception and it's biased based. You remember the impressive finishes though contact with Amen and you dump the memories of Green finishing through contact against some of the best defenders in the NBA like Rudy or Wemby. I'll be confident in Amen if he can do Green's on ball role of attacking point of attack defenses in half court sets from the perimeter. But he hasn't done that yet. And let's not question the toughness and physicality of someone being able to play 150 straight NBA games under a Ime coached regime that makes you go all out on defense.
Look at fourth quarter and ot scoring possessions in tight clutch situation games in a few recent examples I can think of off the top of my head in the past couple of years. Notice the way Green scores in these situations is different than Amen. Green is doing it while everyone in the arena knows he is going to be the one handling the ball and putting up the shot. That's how the defense is playing him. Its a different type of attention. When Amen splits double teams off the dribble like Green, we can talk.
I really wish you guys would READ and COMPREHEND. I distinctive stated that Harden would turn the ball over however we would get the win! I never compared them as scorers. Mainly, as ballhandlers. Harden had 10+ turnovers in a Game 6 playoff game at home! A great scorer but he was turnover prone. I remember a game in Boston, that the Rockets had in the bag, all they had to do was inbound the ball and Harden turned it over and they lost. We can't get caught up in EVERY game, what a player did and not do, the ultimate goal is to WIN
Harden was a low turnover player, he never turned it over much. That's a myth by "eye test" people, it's not true.
When Harden was age 22 he averaged 16.8 pts / 4.1 reb / 3.7 ast / 2.2 tov on 49 / 39 / 84 splits off the bench.
He put up a TS+ of 125 that season. That's one of the highest numbers you will ever see, a number even jokic or curry never reached. The best jalen has done efficiency wise is a 97 TS+ (rookie year and this season). The gap between them is so massive that it's a beyond ludicrous comparison.
Why? And he would still be nowhere close to what harden was. It's not like he's 1 or 2 levels below, they're just in a different universe.
People make arguments that Harden is possibly in the top 5 for all time great offensive players. Look dude, comparing Green to what we know Harden was in his prime is simply not fair. Players have had accelerated trajectories before so is there like a 2% chance Green could reach the level of overall player as Harden through different means(less playmaking more consistent plus defender, but becomes as prolific of a scorer). Sure. I will by no means bet on that lol. Its a slim chance. I know that. But let me say this and hope this doesn't offend, when Green is "feeling it" he is just more fun to watch than peak Harden when he's feeling it. And this was kinda an ass game for Green in terms of turnovers and playmaking. Its the duality of Green at his current stage. Can be the most exciting and frustrating player in the league at the same time. Edit: also like to add that Green does not need to be Harden level at all for this team to be a perennial contender. This team is SIGNIFICANTLY more balanced with talent distribution than the Harden era Rockets.
I never found harden all that fun to watch, but i find guard play not fun to watch in general, it has never interested me. I've never seen curry and thought wow that's fun to watch, it's not. I'd rather watch mutumbo play defense than curry play offense 100 times outa 100. I only responded to someone who posted stats of 22 year old harden with the intent behind it clearly being "hey look jalen's stats are actually better". I just wanted to point out how absurd and ridiculous that was because of the MASSIVE efficiency difference.
Okay but understand us simpleton low IQ basketball watchers enjoy electric guard play with acrobatic finishes and ankle breaking crossovers. Also I bet you are over 6'3". I'm a mere 5'9". How we play pick up ball is also the style of player we prefer.
because when you come off the bench you play against other bench players? comon man no need to be this obtuse. this version of Harden was traded for Kevin Martin & Jeremy Lamb.. let's not act like he was a sure thing superstar at this age.
Oh 100%, i know people love guard play. I'm 5'10 but i never grew after like 7th grade so i was always taller than everyone when i was 13, 14, 15, 16 so i was always a "center" on the streetball courts.
