This is an excellent post. The Roy comparison is apt. Health aside, I don't see the problem with bringing Gordon off the bench and moving James over to the 3 for some minutes. It's really important to have a scorer on that 2nd unit. His natural position is the 2, we should keep him there. James can play 1-3 and we need someone who can take some ball handling pressure off him. That's not Gordon. What we really need is a point guard.
You are confused. This isn't about shooting or playmaking, it is about inbounding the ball and fighting off defenders to get it across mid court. You need an actual PG to do that, a guy that is a good ball handler / dribbler, not James Harden.
He's not a PG, not very durable, and not a very good defender. plus we need scoring off the bench. Hence hes not starting.
I bet you will see both this season. He will start some and he will be 6th some. They will toy around with lineups until they get comfortable and whichever one performs the best will clearly be the playoff rotation.
He's always been a starter and we just paid him a bunch of money. He's starting! Now we'll have to see who does not start out of Bev/Ariza. Capela Anderson Ariza Harden Gordon or Capela Anderson Harden Gordon Bev
So Beverley is a PG? Harden was and is the PG for the Rockets. What you should have said is..... Beverley DEFENDS the PG. If Terry could play next to harden, then why can't Gordon? Is Terry a PG?
If the roster still looks like this by the start of the season that will be upsetting. we need to replace Bev with a pure point guard because that's what we need; someone like Holiday. If we can do that Gordon comes off the bench. If we keep Bev it's a little hard for me to see much of a benefit starting him vs Gordon. He's got a little better handles but not great. His value is really more as a PG defender. So id probably start Bev and bring Gordon off the bench in that scenario as well. We also need help at 3 and 5. Hope Morey's not done; our roster still need help.
Great players like Harden don't have to fight off defenders. They just go by them. It's the second or help defender great players have to worry about. No one man can stay in front of Harden or make it tough for him to bring the ball up the court. Also if you ever watched Gordon play then you would know the guy has a good handle and can initiate the offense 10 times better than Beverley.
Like the idea of him as a 6th man. Starters will be good enough offensively with Harden and Anderson. I really don't care either way. I imagine he'll be effective in either role.
Again, this has nothing to do with the offense. Forcing Harden or Gordon to inbound the ball and get it up the court is an invitation to a full court press which would be a disaster. Harden (or Gordon) is not equipped for that. Can he walk it up the court with no pressure? Yes. Can he fight off the pressure on a possession by possession basis, no.
This is what I think. Plus, I think Bev gets just as many minutes off the bench as he did as a starter. I've been watching JB and McHale play guys like Jason Terry and Priggs major minutes at the point guard. Defense doesn't get worse than those two guys.
Gordon has spent a ton of his career bringing up the ball. I think he's better with the ball than Pat. Harden will bring the ball up the court about as much next year as he did last season.
