Breakdown: Bickerstaff Was Talking About James Harden

His effort on defense has improved a lot the past few weeks. But his lack of explosiveness and in ability to really drive past anyone this year is bothersome and I don't really understand why he seems healthy and fit. I think that's why he's settling for so many jump shots this year.

 

If we have a coach Pop like Spurs, then the problem is going to be solved.

 

And we know that's the game plan how? I'm not buying it's the game plan when you have guys like Ariza and Bev going ISO. Houston doesn't have a game plan they play street ball. This read and react system only works when you have 5 guys who are intelligent and actually move. Half of the time they just camp and watch who ever decides to go 1 vs 1

 

Harden suffers from astha.

 

What is disturbing is that you think Harden is playing bad. If you think this is "bad", then you will never enjoy watching another Rockets game in your life, because even though he is having a "down" year, he is still playing exceptional basketball, specifically on offense.

No quickness or explosiveness on offense? This is the exact same Harden as 2013 and 2014. The only real difference here is he is not hitting his 3s at the same clip and his defense has fallen back to its 13 and 14 levels.

In fact, other than the 3pt shooting %, it is kinda disturbing how consistent his numbers are across the board.

 

Come on he is definitely not the same player as he was on offense last year. If you can't see that you're blind. His handles are not where they were last year and he is having trouble beating people off the dribble. He looks slow

 

Yeah...the defense is very bad, but he's going for 28/7/6. Are we so spoiled that that's considered "so bad" and "disturbing"? Even the shooting percentages are getting better after the bad start. I mean...c'mon...

 

The numbers are just fine, but they are very obviously not equating to wins this season. Until James puts the "W" as priority #1, we'll continue to see these up and down results.

 

Of course not. His defense has obviously slipped, he had a terrible start to the season percentages-wise, and many players on this team, specifically Brewer, Lawson, Jones, and Dwight have noticeably disappointed as well. It starts with Harden because he's the top guy, but there are many reasons why the Rockets are not winning as many games this season. To not acknowledge that remains foolish.

 

Correct

Big picture look at this teams biggest issues:
28th in defensive rebounding
28th in turnover %

Biggest offenders:
Turnovers:
Dwight, Lawson, and Motiejunas

Rebounding:
Jones, Motiejunas, and (playing small ball)

 

Yes the Bulls have changed. Hoiberg has marginalized Noah and also pissed off Butler. Noah was the heart and soul of those teams. Don't forget Roses injuries. Those were real and changed his career trajectory. He can no longer do what he could do pre-injury and the only one that hasn't figured that out is Rose.

Noah would bring a whole fresh bunker war mindset to this team that it needs but isn't going to get from either Harden nor Dwight.

 

It's pretty bad when the Rox can't make a few layups/dunks/mid range jumpers in the last 8 minutes of a ball game which has become a bad habit. JB nailed it. I like Harden and at the same time, the truth is the truth. Double edge sword too..when he makes his game ending dagger shots at the end of game we don't complain but when the "hero ball" doesn't work like most of this season so far then his shortcomings are EXPOSED. Rockets at this point from the head coach to the players should have enough common sense to make a few layups that decide games. Period. It's truly ridiculous and should be easily solved because it's quite obvious what the issues are at the moment. Grown men with no leadership skills? Really? Enroll them in leadership class or bootcamp for goodness sakes! Making all this money and not one starter knows how to lead. Insane

On another note, Brewer reminds me of Rahim Moore of the Texans by the way. Should be interesting what happens with this issue as it relates to Thornton getting more playing time or not.

 

But IMO, the blame still falls on Harden's shoulders. He's supposed to be like a high tide and raise all boats. If he stops killing the offense and stopping the ball, and allow the offense to keep everyone involved things would change in a heart beat.

James' 28+ point games would start equating to 10+ point victories instead of narrow wins and disappointing upsets. Chemistry will fix the TOs, defense, and disjointed offense. But unfortunately James is killing the chemistry.

Dude just has to do better. And by "do better" I'm not saying score more points. Play for your team mates and they'll play for you.

 

Do you even watch the games? Doesn't sound like it.

Look at his ortg and Drtg you posted. Big dropoffs from last year.

And no you can't just say hes shooting worse on 3s.

The question is why is he settling for so many 3s? Why doesnt he have the quickness to get by his man or explosiveness to finish at the rim?

I almost never saw him blocked last year. Happens often now.

We haven't even gotten to defense or playing off the ball, which basically is just him standing in one spot.

And stop being a terrible fan and getting mad at people for critiquing Harden. This is a Rockets forum not a Harden forum.

 

This is very fair. I think Harden deserves a lot of blame for his defensive issues, and he does have a tenancy to hold the ball too long and stagnate the offense. But really...that's not very different from last year.

The only difference between last year and this year, offensively, is Harden's not hitting as many shots. An actual coach with an actual offensive system would go a long way towards improving the ball movement we all want. I mean...look at the Warriors. It's not like they were anything special until Kerr came in. Before Kerr came in, they were the same iso-centric team as we are, and they weren't special.

Not saying we have Warriors potential or anything like that, but I have a hard time assigning a ton of blame offensively to Harden when he doesn't have the help that most have. He lacks a great coach, and he lacks a great offensive option alongside him. We wanted Lawson to be that, but it hasn't worked out.

 

I don't even know what to say to the guy. Anybody that thinks Harden is pretty much the same last year has their head so far up their ass its hard to even begin a dialogue. I applaud you for trying.

I also hate how people try to post stats when the simple eye test + results + common sense are clearly against what they are saying. Its ruined this board.

 

More and more everyday this is feeling like the makings of a 30 for 30

 

I don't think anybody thinks this. It's an obvious step back from last year for Harden, primarily defensively.

 

I still don't understand why James turned down Dwight ball screens multiple times when he had Holiday, an excellent perimeter defender, on him, just to isolate. Especially in a situation where we had excellent spacing since they had Anderson and Davis in, while we were small. All you needed was a tiny bit of penetration and someone would get a good shot, yet James stopped working the second Jrue fought over one screen. If the first PnR doesn't work, keep trying til it does.

 

He's also not as bad as you and many othes make him out to be. People are over the top with the love as well as the hate.