Yeah, sorry, Shaq is full of s***. He has done nothing but trash Howard for years, and now he starts defending him?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Durant said he was looking forward to "the next season" meaning playoffs. Some fans freaked out thinking he was saying he was coming back.</p>— Royce Young (@royceyoung) <a href="https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/719679760373125120">April 12, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">For fun, here's Durant (again, terrible video) thanking fans and making their hearts stop for a second: <a href="https://t.co/E3ViJUHLZG">pic.twitter.com/E3ViJUHLZG</a></p>— Royce Young (@royceyoung) <a href="https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/719685122585456640">April 12, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
plz choose houston durant. we got lots of love here with the jb-brewer connection. lots of love and joy and happiness. get you some of that jb
Harden does dribble too much and Howard never learned basketball skills to consistently score in the post without turning it over.
Let's try the world of facts instead. Harden dribbles the ball 329.6 times per game. All of these players dribble the ball more: J. Wall 437.24, R.Rondo 443.65, K.Lowry 364.97, K. Walker 486.40, D. Williams 360.40, D. Lillard 499.19, R. Westbrook 482.38, C. Paul 480.60, I. Thomas 367.71, B. Knight 361.01, I. Smith 382.26, J. Jack 378.98, T. Evans 341.40, M. Conley 403.19, R.Rubio 439.082, R. Jackson 486.02, K. Irving 348.66, E. Payton 348.19, E. Mudiay 329.43, J. Teague 344.12, T. Parker 390.9 Curry is just behind Harden at 317.71. So if Harden dribbles too much then who doesn't dribble too much? Wall, Walker, Lillard, Westrbrook, Paul, Rubio and Jackson all average 100 to 150 more dribbles per game than Harden. Another CC.NET case of perception being nowhere close to reality.
This would be a great example if everybody listed werent a point guard. One does not belong with the others.
Yeah, while Harden can create for others, he's somewhat inefficient at it. 4.6 turnovers for 7.5 assists.
Nope I dont think thats headline to me, but some are suggesting he doesnt handle it as much. It gets stagnant with him, not so much with those listed. He is a SHOOTING GUARD after all.
I really appreciate that you take the time out to craft good posts, I disagree completely for the same reasons others stated, but I didn't want to want to go by without mentioning it . I do think you leave the context out too often, like donkey said before me, you listed PGs up there---and by claiming "so he's the primary ball handler" you're proving the point we are all making. He dribbles too much and shouldn't be as ball dominant as he is. I want to shy away from saying he shouldn't be the playmaker, since he has shown glimpses of distributing the ball well a number of times this season---but the fact that he stagnates the offense and churns it into a turd is really apparent everytime you tune into a game this season. The rockets are the 9th seed with Dwight Howard and a more than capable team, which coincidentally had to run another PG off because he couldn't participate in the offense. If he's going to handle the ball that much, shoot it as much, turn it over that much, he's actually worse version of Russel Westbrook. Also, please post your source next time. Its easy copying and pasting number to paint a picture, but the very validity of those numbers is what your argument rests on.
So it gets stagnant with Harden but not those other guys? Ok, let's see how long each of them really hold the ball. Here's the average seconds per touch : R. Jackson 6.15 D. Lillard 5.65 C. Paul 5.63 R. Westbrook 5.44 R. Rubio 5.30 K. Walker 5.15 T. Parker 5.15 M. Conley 4.97 J. Jack 4.75 R. Rondo 4.75 K. Irving 4.71 J. Wall 4.69 E. Mudiay 4.67 E. Payton 4.63 J. Teague 4.58 T. Evans 4.54 J. Harden 4.44 Harden holds the ball a shorter period of time per touch than any of those guys. More perception vs reality. Have you learned nothing from cc.net? The way you discredit Harden is to say the he's the defacto PG so he needs to be compared to other PGs and be held to a higher standard. If you want to compare him with other SGs then his passing is off the charts and his turnover/assist ratio is good. No other SG even averages 5 assists per game. Among SGs he's #1 in scoring, #1 in rebounding , #1 in assists, #2 in TS% and #2 in steals.
Yes but do your statistics account for the Euro step? The possibility that Harden takes less dribbles but more steps than anyone?
He is the primary ball handler, do you disagree? Are you under the impression that we run our offense through Pat Beverley? Obviously Harden runs the offense so why wouldn't you compare him to others players who also run their teams offense? If you think Harden takes too many shots (19.6) then do you also believe that Steph Curry takes too many shots (20.2)? If a player is shooting 59.8 TS%, why in the world would you complain about the number of shots that he's taking. If Harden could take every shot and stay right at the TS%, then we'd be the greatest offensive team in the history of the game by a wide margin. Who do you want to handle the ball if it isn't Harden? Harden turns the ball over 12.7 times per 100 possessions. That 12.7% Turnover ratio is the 5th highest on the Rockets this season behind Howard (15.4), Smith (14.2), D-Mo (13.8), Lawson (13.1). That's the problem, we have nobody else to handle the ball. You're comparing him to Westbrook as if that was a bad thing? Westbrook has been great all year and will likely be first team All-NBA. Harden and Westbrook both contribute in multiple ways. Westbrook has more assists and Harden is much more efficient. All of the stats that I post come from stats.nba.com. That's the most detailed and accurate stats. There's really no reason to use any other site. NBA.com posts stats rather than estimates that try to predict stats in order to compensate for incomplete data. example: Basketball-Reference.com doesn't have actual possession data so they try and estimate it. I believe that their estimate of turnovers per 100 possessions for Harden is over 16. The NBA site tracks actual possessions and it turns out that Harden's turnover rate per 100 possessions is actually 12.7. That's a big difference. As I said, stats.nba.com is the only site that you really need if you want to post real number that are accurate. EDIT: I'll qualify that last remark by saying stats.nba.com is the only site you need for stats from the last few years. The incredibly detailed stats at the NBA site come from SportsVU which has only been around a few years. If you want older data, then it may not be available in any of these less common statistics. Also the Basketball-Reference season finder is good for checking how many times a statistical event has occurred.
It's real simple. Harden is not an efficient enough distributor not is he a creative enough creator to be the primary ball handler and creator. Therefore since he should not be the primary ball handler he is dribbling too much. Shaq nailed it.......for once. Shaq may have agenda now with the agent bit but he did speak the truth. When Kobe kept pulling his stunts, they parted ways. And......Kobes selfishness did indeed cost him the opportunity to equal and surpass MJ's ring count and ultimately led to him going out this year with a lottery team. Harden is at the peak of his career right now. Hopefully that peak lasts another 4-5 seasons. But.....he's been incredibly selfish this season and it has cost him and us the opportunity to compete for a championship. Harden is responsible for alienating Dwight on the offensive end by being too stubborn and narrow-minded in his approach to the game. He's not good enough as a creator to be dominating the basketball this much over Dwight. And our record reflects it. Harden should yield over to a much more efficient ball handler and a more proficient creator that would help all the guys get their touches and produce a cohesive multi-dimensional offensive attack that would then lead to much better defense as effort levels would improve along with defensive balance as the role players see their leader digging in on both ends of the court. Harden has failed as a leader this season. He's the leader. He couldn't get any of his teammates to really play well this season. It's on him.
And what about last years record?... Sure sometimes dwight doesent get the ball when he has defenders sealed but that is due to us being a VERY bad passing team. People keep complaining about hardens usage, yet they offer no solution why is that you ask? Its because Harden is by FAR the best ballhandler, passer, scorer, and creator on this team its as simple as that. Would you rather see Dwight posting up or harden taking his man off the dribble? Its an easy answer every time, add the fact that howard cant get his ft shooting up to 50 percent and you just cant blame harden. Especially when howard is asking for the ball like he is an offensive star. The second part of this ppl fail to recognize is the coaching. Dwight wouldve been happy and getting his touches if we had a better coach. We are one of if not the most damaged team structurally in the nba today. You want to shoot 3s and drive, yet your team doesent have any players except one who does those things above average, and to top it all off you have one of the worst coaches in the nba who never puts his players in the best position to succeed. i feel he sometimes just tells them to go out and play hard without any strategic mindset of how to stop who and which way is the best to attack them. The one who is Selfish here is dwight and most posters here dont see it because he is a good citizen, but from a basketball prespective if you cant recognize your strengths and weaknesses then do whatever the team ask you to do you ARE selfish, especially if statistics back up all this which it does. Instead he wants his image restored, max money etc......yes he thinks he is worth 30 million a year, that should tell you everything you need to know
I'd rather see Harden accept a philosophical change to the way he plays basketball that would allow us to then acquire a legit two-way point guard that could both handle and distribute in a far superior manner than what we have now. We do not have a better ball handler and distributor than harden because Morey has built this team to Hardens specs. It's not working. It's not going to work. Harden is not efficient enough nor creative enough to be running the team from the top with only bit player handlers/creators on the roster. Last season was an anomaly. We were a random Josh Smith performance from being upset in the playoffs in the second round. And the conference finals showed we were woefully lacking as the dubs pounced on harden like a pack of lions on a deer and we had nothing to go to. Harden being a one man band will not work in today's NBA.
