[2015-2016] James Harden the return of the defensive juggernaut

Very intelligent response. Maybe we should do away with all advanced statistics, 'cause most of them are based on per possession (or 100 possessions). What efficiency? it doesn't mean anything in basketballholic's world. Let's just go by archaic raw numbers, because that's more accurate apparently.

 

So by playing the dual role he gets the high TOVs but not high ASTS?

And the question isn't even that, it's why did Harden's turnovers all of a sudden a balloon this past year. His role did not change from 2 or 3 years ago.

 

Yes, because most of the time Harden is playing the role of main scorer, but he also has to facilitate time to time. As a scorer first/passer second guy, of course he's not gonna average 10 assists per game. But since he is getting so many possessions, he is expected to have many turnovers, at least in raw numbers.

His role didn't change but his teammate's offensive production did. It got way worse this year, hence putting much more offensive burden for Harden to carry.

 

Real games have real turnover counts. You haven't studied turnovers enough to understand them. You want to quantify them by how often a player touches the basketball. Even doing that there isn't justification for the amount of turnovers in reference to assists or steals to justify Harden having the basketball that much. It's a drag on winning games. A huge drag. 41-41. There's your metric. Top 3 to 5 player. .500 record playing the style he wants to play with the boys he hand-picked to play with, along with the organization dumping guys he didn't like to play with. .500, barely in the playoffs, laid a turd in the playoffs once we snuck in by the hair of Hardens beard.

 

If Dwight didn't suck so much on offense, Harden wouldn't have touched the ball that often, hence committing less TOs. Dwight is at the root of most of our struggles this year.

 

Before I go off to bed, I'll end my conversation with this. We are never going to win a championship as long as Harden is the #1 distributor on this team. Not even if we get Durant.

We will not win a championship with Harden until and unless he steps aside and allows a superior distributor to run the offense at the point.

Good night all.

 

Actually this might be the only point on which you and I would agree. I don't want Harden to be the main distributor on this team. He' a good passer for a 2-guard, but he's no PG. I think Harden will play much better and his offensive efficiency will improve once he gets to concentrate on playing the role of a main scorer. We do need a real PG on this team.

 

Or he gets better.

DD

 

rockets fans are totally pathetic. y'all oughta be ashamed. and duh i'm a fan that's why i'm here. but y'all are dumb.

 

We're Rockets fans, not fans of a single player.

There's a name for such posters, it's HOFs.

It's interesting that certain people think it's never ok as a Rockets fan to criticize Harden, but it's perfectly OK, even required, to trash everyone else in the organization.

 

And there is a name for you, "an idiot with an agenda".

You do backflips to discredit Harden.

Harden has faults, and you are there to constantly draw attention to them, while not giving the same attention to his positive contributions, or to similar faults of other players.

 

Lars is in reality a Harden hater

He hates Harden so much that he can only say good things on the board to nurture his hatred inside

 

Oh dear, are you worried about hardens feelings or something? I guarantee you he isn't reading this.

The #1 change from last year is how different Harden is playing. That's why I'm pointing it out. Role players aren't very relevant, as Harden himself made clear with his comments when Parsons left.

 

false, there's much bigger issues on this team than just starting with Dwight specifically. Dwight's simply been the easy scapegoat for typical HOF's all year. If you're just going to do the same and believe the problems start with him you're kidding yourself.

 

Dwight is going through the same career trajectory as Amare Stoudemire. Once athletic big men lose their mojo, it's done. They will never be same players again. Dwight can't score nor defend, he's practically useless on both sides of the court. The fact that we are wasting $22 million on this guy is all you need to know why he's massively hurting the team. I won't even keep him for free because he hinders progress of young centers on our team by stealing their minutes.

 

and despite all that which of course is your opinion, he wasn't the "root" off the Rockets problems this year.

Did he show some decline. sure he did, but he still is very much a significant player and blaming him for the entire struggles this year is just false.

 

I believe our core problem is lack of talent on this team, no question, Our 2nd offensive option all year has been Trevor Arzia in terms of FG attempted. You can't expect to win big games when your 2nd go-to-guy is a 30 year old SF averaging 12 points. Dwight should have stepped up and played like a 2nd star that he is. He didn't, while making all that money. We couldn't acquire a real 2nd star because Dwight was taking much of our cap space, and his level of contribution on offense and defense was basically nil. That's enough reason to say Dwight was the root cause of all.

 

the #1 problem of this team and has always been is defense. that is above everything else. So no Dwight is not the root

 

Of course that's why Dwight is the root cause.

When our offense sucks, who do you blame? Dwight Howard? Trevor Ariza? maybe to some extent, but it's Harden's job to carry this team's offense. He should be held responsible for our offensive woes.

By the same token, when our defense underperforms, it's very logical to blame the central defensive anchor and leader of your team in Dwight Howard. That's basically his only job and is getting millions to do that right, which he hasn't. It's one thing if Dwight has been good defensively and your team's defense still sucks. Then you look for other guys to blame. But that's not the case. Dwight has declined significantly on D and doesn't even contest shots or box out anymore. He's been just awful all year and should receive the most blame for our defensive struggles.

 

you're still talking about offense when that was far from the rockets main problem. anyone who is trying to criticize the offense without acknowledging defense being the #1 issue doesn't understand what truly happened this year.

Again just wrong observation. So Dwight is supposed to cover an entire defense now right? When perimeter guys just walk all over into the lane he should be able to guard his own man and another at all times right? And regardless of how much you are spiting Dwight and him defensively, he was still a plus defender this year. Is it at the level as its been previously no, but that again goes into what has been the #1 problem which is defense. If an entire team drops off dramatically on defense the issue is more than one person. You just blaming Dwight is just plain hate and false thinking. You try and post video's of other players trying to defend Harden and his defense while putting the root of problems on Dwight. Yeah way to stick with the typical trend of other HOF's and not holding the same accountability for everyone.