Slow feet. It doesn't even make sense to make the 'lazy' argument because we're talking about his offense. I always thought his lack of defense was due to his physical/athletic limitations, not lack of will. Also, Harden is a pretty good defender when standing straight, but as soon as he has to move his feet, he becomes one of the worst. It's really not that complicated to figure out why he sucks at perimeter defense (but not post defense), and getting out of double team/pressure situation. Or maybe it's a stamina-related issue. Either way, it's not something that he can fix by just 'trying harder'.
Doubling harden is like fronting Yao ming. Theres no solution. You just gotta play around it aka other players needs to do more
James needs to stop holding the ball so long he has become predictable. That ball needs to hop a little bit. I like how MDA let them play thru it to see if James or CP3 could make the adjustment and they didn't. Trevor has got to be more aggressive. But James has got to do a better job of keeping the defense off balance
Harden and Paul are way too smart of players to not have figured out how to break that double team. IMO MDA already has a solution but why on God’s green earth would you show any team what your solution is during a meaningless reg season game? Watch how CP and Harden handle this double team in the PO’s.
he shouldn't bring up the ball with cp3 on the floor. lazily walking the ball up the floor gives the defense time to set and orchestrate how they will double him and rotate after the double.
Turnover the ball and intentionally humiliate yourselves further, CP3 will still be a conference finals virgin when his career is over.
We are about to find out if Harden can lead the Rockets to a championship or if he is just a regular season wonder. His history in the playoffs is concerning. We are about to get the final verdict. Let it rip.
Our shooters were a bit hesitant tonight . Having E.G. And Ryan back as options should help prevent that from happening .
The Rockets have seen a lot of different defenses in the last two weeks. You are right MDA should be prepaing or has already game planned for possible Harden or Paul double teams in the playoffs where Tucker, Ariza, Mbah Moute will have to make a play for the team to get a good shot. Of course Gordon and Mbah Moute and Green have shown flashes of making a play to get a good shot. Rockets need to keep Capella active on the offensive end, today he only played 26 minutes but he needs to get more than 6 shots for each game. MDA should not just rely on Harden or Paul figuring it out, anyway this is the regular season, adjustments are important in the playoffs. One of different options MDA has is the screen and roll with Capela. It poses problems for double teams on Harden or Paul because Capela rolls to the basket and either he has a clear path to the rim or a rotating defender leaves a Rockets player open.
we're going into the post season the same way we did in 13-14 and we were right to be worried then, it carries over.
Well it's not as simple as Capela rolls to the basket and either dunks it or passes it to an open shooter. The defensive scheme against that would be a hard hedge or double team up top where it forces Harden to give up the ball to Capela far away from the basket. Once that happens, then you're in a situation where Capela is 20 feet from the basket and needs to take it to basket against the help defense. At this point in his development, he is fairly limited offensively that far from the basket. He has literally one move where he does a mini Euro step, but that's usually ineffective against better defenders. His other option is to pass out to the corner, but that's rather predictable as we saw tonight when PG was able to read that play and intercept the pass. However, keep in mind that it's not easy to do a good hard hedge or double team. Tonight, Westbrook and Patterson did it perfectly - not every team can.
You’re getting into the specifics. TO’s happen, they looked more cautious than ready for this game. I don’t blame them, with CP’s history of injuries going into the PO’s I’m sure that’s on the back of his mind and honestly just wants to finish the reg season healthy. We were also missing 2 key guys off the bench and one who scores 20 a game almost.
You make good points. I assume however that when Harden or Paul feed the ball to Capela he should be catching the ball when he is 15 to 10 feet from the basket. Capela may not need to even dribble from that distance. You are correct that the offense is predictable teams are expecting ISOs and that defenders are expecting the kick out to go to the corner shooter. I am thinking another wrinkle in the offense other than the occasional Paul or Harden mid range would be to have a slasher from time to time. Green, Ariza and Mbah Moute have shown the abilities to timely slash to the basket.
Thats irrelevant, of course Harden could win a chip as a second banana, and of course a guy like Curry could lead the team to 50+ wins and a second round exit on his own. James Harden is the Anti-Hakeem.
Cp3 joined harden to be 2nd banana. Melo wanted to be 3rd banana. If rockets dont win the chip lebron will come as 1b. Lol you dont think players mvp aint the best player if replaced curry in 15? Hes the clear #1 on that team Or last years mvp runner up and this years mvp wont be the best player if he replaced kd in 17? At worst hell be 1b. U think kd is confident he can single handedly carry the rockets last year to a chip? Lol
Lots of conjecture and very little substance. When you write an argument, maybe start with something that can actually be proven or disproven empirically. Instead of the "Replace Harden with X player and they do just as good" nonsense.
