Yep, I have a feeling with our bigs playing well, we are gonna go for a true PG to take some of the burden off of Harden and play his true 2 position.
Harden will never be a true 2, and we will be under utilizing him if we make him one. One of his greatest assets is his court vision and we need him to orchestrate and make plays. The best pairing for Harden is a true shooting guard, not a PG.
Alls I was inferring was that a PG was our second/first thing on our wish list. And when we do trade for 1, he will get more rest time/concentrate on scoring and defense. It has been proven that if he's got the rock too much he starts to get turnover-proned when that help D comes over. Soooooo if we get a true distributor/shot caller/play maker we can get more plays for him. Otherwise he would just dribble up and play ISO all the time... basically see 2013.
Which PG would you put next to Harden though? Kobe played with Fisher for almost his entire career, a serviceable point who could defend and make big shots when needed. When Bev and Canaan come back from the IR they can provide this, easily. Canaan is an offensive spark off the bench which we need, and he can play well with Harden because he's a gunslinger ala Westbrook was when Harden use to play for Dallas other team. The Rockets biggest need right now is frontcourt depth, specifically a center who can make FT's and hit outside shots. We don't have any frontcourt players who can make FT's at a reliable rate now, and Hack-A-Dwight is a tactic that Portland used last year to beat us in the playoffs, and it worked. It's not a surprise that Portland went after Kaman to improve their own depth, but you have to think that part of that plan was to ensure that Kaman would be off the board should we pursue him in if our plans fell through, which they did. I like what D-Mo, Dorset and Black are doing in Dwight's absence, but these guys don't fill in the real weaknesses of Dwight's game. They are mostly redundant players. We need another frontcourt guy who can score the ball and hit FT's.
D-Mo is playing well, but he's still redundant. He can't hit FT's consistently nor outside shots. When Dwight comes back he will rub one of these guys out of the lineup because we won't need them anymore, he will absorb the same minutes and do the same things they are doing. Dwight needs a backup or frontcourt pairing who can play with more finesse, Bosh or Love would have been perfect but.....we struck out. Kaman would have been the best backup Dwight has had since Gortat.
We don't need an all star pg, we need someone who can run things when the game is still not being played at 100%, just someone that can run the offense through its motions and spot up for james at winning time.
How many extra losses are you willing to accept in return for keeping Harden's PT down to x number of minutes?
You're cherry picking, see. You're also failing to understand the premise of my post. D-Mo can hit FT's at around 64%, that's a dramatic improvement over Dwight but it still sucks. Black and Dorsey are arguably worse at the line than Dwight is. None of them can hit a midrange shot or 3pt shot to save their life. D-Mo might fancy himself as the next Arvydas Sabonis but he's only shooting 26% from 3pt land and has no midrange game to speak of. D-Mo IS a solid defensive player and has good overall feel for the game as a team player, but he's not a go to guy or someone who can string off 3 or 4 baskets in a row by himself.
....ya, but he played an FIBA season this summer too after a playoff run. Even Durant had to drop out from fatigue due to the extended playing season. Plus, if we are being honest here - Harden took plays off on defense a lot last year. This year - that's not the case. My point is, there is more end to end effort this year so 37 minutes in 2014 Harden is not the same as 37 minutes in 2013 Harden. Yes, he's still young and can be ridden for 38+minutes a game into the playoffs, but the point is you gotta be smart about his minutes earlier in the season so he has something left in the tank for the playoffs when we need him to dominate(not just play). Remember, Harden is the ONLY creator on this team so as he goes, so goes the team. I mean, I don't think we have a choice right now with so many players out and Houston needing to win to stay in the playoffs in the competitive West but they probably need to conserve his minutes a bit once the rest of the roster comes back.
Durant admitted that he dropped out because he got scared of injuring himself after the PG13 injury, not because he was tired.
Under the circumstances, I will take the 5 extra minutes a game if it means 3 extra wins in November. Once Dwight is back, for sure we should be shooting to keep James at 35 minutes a game - but for now, no one else is going to win games for us reliably.
I'm a big fan of reducing the minutes of our heavy usage players, particularly Harden (Ariza is playing more minutes than Harden, btw). Have been since last season. Having said that, I think McHale has seen the light, and has taken every chance to get James off the court when he can. When we get our guys back from injury (or make that trade, perhaps, for a 1?), it should make it easier to reduce his minutes. At this point, I'm not concerned. Keeping an eye on it, though. Hey, we're winning games the league (and a bunch of us here) expected us to lose. It's early. Enjoy!
