No, this team is not better without Harden. It just so happens to be pretty good when Lin plays without Harden. As we all have seen over the past 4 games, when Jeremy is the focal point of the line up he explodes for high scoring games. We saw a good example of that tonight when Harden was out and Lin and PB were in.
A couple of fluke wins with Harden in the line up and you're playing the Tuba on the bandwagon. Spoiler <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d0aIqx1McVI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Of course we're better without beard. Just like okc without kd, miami without LeBron and Chicago without d.rose. Why did morey trade away our precious little lamb for this guy! Lamb could be a star one day dammit!
As better as Lin is playing right now, Harden is still THE #1 Star in Rockets. I am a fan of both fine young individuals.
That is an interesting question, I would say probably not but we would be over .500 and fighting with the Lakers. Harden is great, but to me his lack of defense is just about as important as his offense. So to me, he is great, love him but if he wants to be a superstar he has to play SOME defense....I think the Rox would be worse, but only by a couple of games without him. DD
God Harden's defensive woes are grossly overrated. He is a slightly below average defender playing the 2 guard spot where defense is not as important as the forward or C spot. People act as if he is Nash bad on defense.
I disagree vehemetly, the guy gets torched on D, because he is peaking and trying to watch the ball. It would be interesting to the see the stats of the guys Harden has been responsible for guarding all year, I would wager a significant portion of money that their overall stats are much better when going against Harden. He just doesn't try, he is approaching Kevin Martin standards of D. DD
I was pissed about the effort tonight but that goes for pretty much everyone...especially Omer. DD is just piling like he always does with little substance and more emotion in his posts. The rockets would be nowhere near where they are without Harden. (for the record I have called out Harden's lackluster D plently of times in the game thread)
I can agree with that. I loathe the Rocket's lack of defense this year. Some of that of course is on the coaching, but I hate it when Harden (and others) seem to just not care or try on the defensive end. Seemed like it was the case tonight.
