Breakdown: Bickerstaff Was Talking About James Harden

possibly, the west is awful this year. 2 years ago with a worse team the rockets were 6-2 without Harden with wins against the spurs, mavs and decent teams.

 

He looks out of shape or sick.

He can't attack when he's that slow. Until he gets back the explosiveness this is what we'll see

 

JB needs to start limiting Harden's Mins when he sees the lack of effort. It's that simple.

 

This was obvious to anyone with some knowledge. I called it in the first page of the JB Bickerstaff thread that Clutch started.

Waiting for some delusional no bball knowledge homer to post some random cherry picked advanced stat to show that Harden is not a problem at all and is playing at the same MVP level of last year...all without any context LOL

 

It seems like teams can stop him one on one now. His isos usually end in a contested 3

 

Sometimes it sucks being right.

Let's hope Harden grows up, and becomes serious about the game. Otherwise we are stuck until we find a coach or player that can get through to him.

DD

 

And the Rockets will become the next Knicks....

T_Man

 

Totally disagree...

Iverson played with HEART every single night and you can't say that about Harden... Iverson would also play both ends of the court and you can't say that about Harden...

It's an embarrassment to Iverson to compare him to Harden...

T_Man

 

Eh, no they won't.

It's been a disappointing year for both Harden, as well as the rest of the team. Pretty much everybody outside of Capela and Thornton have regressed, and as you said, we're lacking that true 2nd star. That matters. Harden's offensive responsibility is more than most.

Harden needs to be better, and defensively he needs to be MUCH better, but there's more problems than just him. It starts with Harden, though, so hopefully he really gets it going, the team gets it going, and we reel off some big wins. We'll see.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that 100%. At least to where having true star level secondary players would make life any easier. Lawson and Dwight would look alot different if they were playing without Harden IMO.

For example, while a team like Cleveland has multiple all star level players, etc., the engine that drives that team is absolutely Lebron James. When they take turns playing the superstar role it just doesn't work. And playing with Lebron James as another superstar might be even more difficult than playing with Harden. Look at Kevin Love as an example. Him and Bosh really had to adjust their game to be effective support players. Lawson and Dwight are no different in their challenges, and while you can argue that Love & Kyrie are better than Lawson & Dwight, there is no question IMO that you take playing alongside a player as dynamic as Lebron or Harden forces them to look like substantially different players.

Just throwing another superstar on the court with Harden isn't solving all your issues. I would argue that OKC back when they had Harden were a very Harden-centric team even though they brought him off the bench, he was really the engine for creating offense for their team, and more of a PG than Westbrook was AT THAT TIME. Moving Harden really made Westbrook grow alot in his playmaking abilities.

Superstar support or not, the engine driving a team with Harden will always be Harden at this point in his career. You aren't changing that. There are very few players in this league that would force Harden to defer ever in crunch time. Maybe Lebron... maybe CP3 or Curry (even though the Olympic team a couple years ago was very much Harden-centric even with Curry on it).

If you go out there chasing someone to just take turns with Harden when he's off I think that person will end up just being a bystander kind of like what you are seeing now with Lawson. Except in that case they would be a very expensive bystander. At least in the case of Dwight Howard, he provides alot of other things on the defensive end, and doesn't demand the ball on offense like he used to.

What this team needs more than anything is for Harden to be MVP level Harden. What can the team do to foster that environment that makes him successful? I think having a system, coach, and supporting players that hold him accountable help in that regard. Putting players around him that make him more deadly and dangerous helps more too rather than just having other players that you throw the ball to when Harden is struggling... because at the end of the day you know that's not going to happen. For better or worse, its Harden's team.

 

Not that I don't agree that Harden has been the main issue this season, but where did you hear he comes to games hung over? And that he was a strip club the night before the WCF?


As for being out of shape, he didn't get to play in his usual tournaments this year due to ankle injuries.

Still, I agree, Harden's obvious lack of effort is cancerous.

 

i wonder who mchale was always referring to when he'd talk about sticky balls?

 

uh... are they in competition for Homecourt seeding now ? i think it might be a mixed blessing for this team. Get these guys to learn how to score without relying on James. Run the offense and stick to it even late in games instead of tightening up and treating every possession in the final 5 minutes as if it were the final one. Maybe it would show james that he can trust his teammates more. And we'd get to see what 5 v 5 looks like on defense.

 

You are talking about a superstar that openly mocked the idea of practice meaning anything. If you need a history lesson on the whole "You Talking Bout Practice" thing I don't know what to tell you.

Playing with Heart, and giving effort absolutely is connected to more than just showing up on game night. Putting in time to learn the plays, watch film, etc. is just as important to winning as doing something like taking a play off on defense to rest. Its all connected to winning. Argue what you want about Iverson, but he was absolutely a flawed superstar, and not just any team could have success with him without aligning the proper support system.

JVG said it best when he said something along the lines of "Every player in this league wants to win. But what separates the winners from everyone else are the players that want to win on their terms vs. the players that give that up for the betterment of the team to win"

Harden & Iverson absolutely want to win on their terms because they think they know exactly how to win. Its up to the team to come to terms with their individual flaws to foster an environment doesn't enable those flaws. Iverson and Harden have different flaws, but they are very similar in the fact that they need to be fostered.

 

As unlikely as it may be...they still are. Only 2.5 games back of 4th place.

 

Hubie Brown had a talk with Harden while he was at Zona about consistent effort. Seems this has been a character flaw in him forever.

DD

 

Well if they realized that fact they would. If they don't though, if they think Harden is dragging guys behind him then it seems easy to jump to the conclusion that this is all his fault.

I don't think the team is built to win. I don't think Lawson is good enough and Dwight has regressed so much that making the all-star game would be an accomplishment for him.

I think if you were to put say Paul George on this team, you'd find very different results. Harden needs another alpha dog, another player to clash with that is near or around his level. Yes, I do mean clash with. A player that thinks he's the one carrying this team.

Lawson is a guy that has never made the all-star game and really this team was built around Harden-Dwight and now Dwight has completely regressed.

No putting another superstar won't solve all of your issues. But this issue or idea that Harden needs to carry the team every single night is unrealistic. Even Lebron had problems doing that. No one does that in this league any more or if they do they are on a bad team because no one is going out there wanting to actually do that. He's not going to do that every year and if he does it still won't be enough as we saw last season.

You need more than a MVP caliber player to win. You also need another at least consistent all-star player (which we don't have.) and a system the team believes that.

What starts first though is the personnel. Right now Lawson is what he is. A Borderline all-star player who can probably play PG here long term if he can go back to his old form. Dwight though has regressed, as I said it would be an accomplishment for him to achieve the things he used to achieve.

 

Ok.. Please go look up history on the "Practice thing", it was totally mis-quoted..

You are correct that all players want to win... But Iverson put it all on the floor and you can't say that for Harden... Iverson played with all HEART and you can't say that about Harden.

You can compare Harden to Melo, they are very similar...

T_Man

 

I said it before and I'll say it again - the dude is a cancer...

If people want to keep coddling him and telling him his crap don't stink... that's their perrogative I guess... but the dude is fool's gold...

 

I think you are missing the entire point about having a team with a flawed superstar, and making it a Iverson vs. Harden thing. You could take the the most similar players in the league and argue against one or the other for days on end.

Iverson and Harden are incredibly dynamic players that need to be fostered. Melo isn't necessarily flawed as a star because he's not a dynamic player you build around, and expect success. Iverson and Harden are/were proven that they could put your team in position to go deep if they were fostered correctly. That's literally the only point I'm making.

FYI Iverson was special. One of my favorite players of all time. Harden, for all his question marks, is just as special, and tries hard in his own way. He's got his own issues though that he will never be able to stop doing if he's not fostered appropriately... this year the Rockets have failed.