I'm gonna assume you are joking, cuz you obviously have been around long enough to know what "small sample size" means.
ok but the sample size for Durant, K Love and P George is not small right. But those players still take the last shots
that is fair, he is a situational defender. which means he amps up his D when either pissed off or sees that playing defense at the moment is really necessary. Mchale should really look to piss him off more. He should be like "Harden no strip club if we don't win this game"
Really, FT% is your deciding factor? Under that criteria George has 7 FT attempts, Anthony 7, Durant 12, Harden 9, Curry 3,Love 2 and Lin none. You're really basing your judgment on that small a number of attempts? Does anyone iso more than Durant? Should OKC not let him ISO since he's only shooting a low percentage in the criteria that you described? Fact is not everyone can or wants to take the clutch shot. You can certainly hit the open man but you're likely to find that they are open for a reason.
Yes and for the season Durant is shooting an even lower percentage under the same criteria. Did you understand that?
No, I don't. Durant is obviously the better player (by miles) and THE best player on OKC. But let's look at the 3p% of the players you've mentioned in your other post. Durant 42.1% Curry 40.9% George 39.9% Love 38.3% Harden 31.3% Harden is without a doubt extremely talented, but I feel we have too many offensive weapons to depend on a contested-3-on-ISO from a 31.3% 3p shooter in tight games. Again, perhaps this is more on McHale than Harden, but as a fan you can't possibly tell me you are perfectly okay with those contested 3's.
Not joking. I'm pointing out how ridiculous the criteria is that you quoted. If you are the "goto" guy for your team then you end up taking a lot more shots down the stretch and your percentages won't be good. It's not just Harden. Kind of interesting that you mention "small sample size" when you just quoted Curry shooting 100% from the FT line on a whole 3 shots.
I'm not basing my post on FT%. I'm merely pointing out the stats you provided didn't paint the complete picture. Durant made 11 of those 12 FTs. You don't think that matters in games decided by 5p or less? With all due respect, OKC sits #1 in the packed WC with a 25-6 record. And that was playing without Westbrook in some of them. If Harden could lead our team to a better record than that, I absolutely have no problem with him ISO'ing on every single possession.
And OKC also had several years to build the right chemistry and work out their problems. Our team has had TWO MONTHS. It's a gradual process. Next year we will more games, the year after that even more, and eventually we will get to the point where we are ready for the championship. It doesn't happen overnight.
It's not Harden's fault but when you have good coach who can put Harden in check for those r****ded plays at the end, pretty sure it won't happen again.
Then this thread has no validity because ,Harden has been our best fourth quarter player. He was huge in both wins in San Antonio, golden states, Pelicans , Grizzlies and the win in Portland. He had 10 points in the last night last night but his last minute brain fade cost us.
Except at the time Harden took that 3 pointer that everyone is screaming about he was 5-9 from behind the line. He was hot from behind the 3pt line tonight so he shot the ball. On that particular 3 (1:20 remaining and leading 104-103) he stepped behind a Dwight Howard screen and the shot wasn't contested. At that point he was shooting 55% from behind the arc for the night and he went for the kill and he missed. If it goes in he's a hero if not people whine. The final one that he took had to be a three because we were down by 4 with 4 seconds left. Would you have preferred him to drive or throw it inside and just concede the game without giving us a chance to win? Should he have let Lin take a contested 3 since he is shooting a higher percentage for the year but hasn't hit a 3 in two games?
I thought we are in a "win now" mode? Regardless, I hope you're right. I just don't want to see Harden ended up like Carmelo Anthony - absolutely talented but just can't lead his team anywhere because he puts himself above his team. With Dwight's post game improving and getting T-Jones back, we shouldn't be losing so many games in December. The .500 (8-8) December record bugged me.
