Do the Rockets play better basketball without Harden?

No. No they do not. Stop smoking crack Harden haters.

 

Are we a better basketball team without Harden? Absolutely not. Do we play better on offense without him? At times, yes. We see far fewer ISO plays and there does seem to be better ball movement. But where you miss Harden is when you need someone to make a tough contested shot or get to the foul line. Guys like Lin and Parsons can do that, but nowhere near as efficiently as Harden.

Honestly, this is where coaching comes into play. Harden is a great player, but he needs to learn to trust his teammates and also get better at playing without the ball in his hands. Part of that is on him(even an all-time great like MJ took years to figure that out), but some of it can also be attributed to McFail and Co.

 

cmon man, cut the sarcasm, now you can't say anything positive about Lin

 

Someone tell Harden to stuff his ego and we'll be fine

 

Did you just call Jose and Parker mediocre? smfh

 

I hate threads like this piece of garbage.

 

Definitely play harder, definitely better defense, definitely better passing...

Whether that translates in the long run to "better team" is debatable simply because of Harden's superior offensive abilities.

 

Lock it up.

 

stupid board.

 

You're right. Calling Jose mediocre defender is offensive to the word mediocrity.

 

Are you sure you watched tonight's game?

 

Mediocre defenders. Yes. Wow, can you read?

 

Lots of hostile replies but this is a legitimate issue. I agree with you, clearly Harden is one of our two best players along with Howard. And clearly this team is much better with Harden. But the ball does move much better when Harden is out and the coaches need to figure out why and resolve that issue. I don't think it's as simplistic as some people say of just having Lin play the same way whether or not Harden there. The coaches have to change their approach so that, while Harden is still the main guy and Harden is the go-to superstar at the end of games, the team is able to fix its sticky ball problem.

 

and winning...no one would be happy with a loss.

 

The Rockets barely got out with a win today and yesterday (against a depleted Spurs, who are about to lose to the Bulls).

I don't know how that's evidence that the Rockets play better without him.

 

Harder, yes.
Smarter, no.

 

You spoke too soon. Tonight, it was Dallas's bigs who did most of the damage. Usually when Harden is in there the opposing 2-guard scores a season-high or whatever.

Tonight:

Calderon: 2-12 shooting
Ellis: 3-10

 

The reason why it looks like they're playing harder is because they have to get off of Harden's back and actually run the court.

 

It's not..... Just let the Lin nuthuggers have their night before our best player comes back and sends him back to the bench. We were 14 games over 500 a week ago with harden. 2 loses and absolute terrible play by everyone including the prodigy Lin to Memphis followed by 2 wins without harden and all of a sudden this team is better without harden.

At the end of the day harden is the best player on the team and one of the best players in the entire league. He's young and must Learn to trust his team. These are problems every 24 year old superstar goes through he's not mello in his 11th yr just figuring out he needs help. He has to figure out the medium, while Lin needs to figure out how to just play consistent from game to game forget being a starter why don't you show me you can play the same way 15 game in a row not 2 good ones followed by 5 games were he looks like he should not even be in the NBA. I don't think if seen a more inconsistent player.

 

That just means Harden being in the game makes everyone disengaged.