Harden - and how to build a championship team around him

double post.

 

What exactly am I making up? Beverley is a spot up shooter that occasionally drives from time to time when he gets the ball. When McHale paired Ty and James together to start the year, Lawson was playing the role Bev has now.

You and I beg to differ here. If you are trading for Ty Lawson and his strength is his facilitating, not his shooting, you let him do that. The Rockets didn't. They tried fitting a square peg into a round hole.

I'm not absolving Lawson of blame in his performance. But you are blind if you think that making him drastically change his game to fit next to Harden and then relegating a career starter to the bench has nothing to do with his poor play this season. The guy didn't just forget how to play. He's been asked to play a role that is not his strength.

Ty Lawson has been a better player than Lin his entire career. And Lawson wasn't brought here to play behind Beverley. But until the Rockets make Harden the secondary ball handler, no pure passing point guard will fit next to Harden.

 

Really good post but sadly it quickly went downhill with the first couple of replies being from Harden haters who have nothing substantive to offer. I do agree with your synopsis DD but I think Morey's style is to get as many superstars as possible so he doesn't put emphasis on coaching and role players he's just trying to remain flexible so he can build another big three like the Miami Heat when they had Lebron. I think when it's all said and done and if Morey gets his way Harden won't even be our best player. He will just be one piece of a much larger puzzle.

 

This comment is incredibly shortsighted and would only make sense if Lawson were playing well but it just wasn't working out. Lawson is playing badly there is no way to tell how he would fit with Harden if he himself were actually playing a good game. How other players play is not Harden's fault our system is not Harden's system designed by or for him. Morey and Mchale created the type of system they wanted without any regard for personnel.

 

This is true and should be repeated one million times.

 

In today's NBA you CAN'T build a championship roster around a player who 'needs' the ball. This isn't 25 years ago. Defenses are allowed do more than man to man. They're allowed to zone up and overload certain sides of the court.

A player that only wants to hold the ball and play one on one will find it very hard to score, probably commit a ton of turnovers, and become exhausted by the end of games. Any of that sound familiar?

In order for the Rockets to be successful with Harden he has to learn to play within a system and move without the ball.

 

You keep saying that he is bad without giving any reason why having been a good starting PG his whole career suddenly became bad.

Of course, the only thing you know for sure is that it cannot be Harden's fault. No matter what, nothing can be Harden's fault in your mind.

 

You're speaking as though your point of view is the most logical when it's not. For instance you are willing to blame Lawson's poor play on Harden but when Harden plays poorly I've never seen anyone blame Lawson. Why? Because it's ridiculous. You can have poor chemistry and still have a solid individual game. Ty has not been solid in any fashion even when Harden is not in the game. The desperate grasping at straws to blame everything on Harden (Though I admit he is far from perfect) is a tool for those who don't have the ability to have a true unbiased opinion based on logic, common sense, statistical reasoning, and critical thinking.

 

It's either Durant or mediocrity for a while if Alexander does not let us tank to be honest

Not satisfactory choices

 

Hardens defense has declined far more than anyone else's

 

You are attacking the poster instead of his argument. This is because he is right. Lawson has gotten opportunity both with James on the floor and with James on the bench. Outside of maybe 2 games, he's failed all season long.

Aside from Lawson " needing to figure out his role " etc.... there is a base level of play which is expected from a guy like, which you've said has been decent his whole career. Unfortunately there are actually alot of negative trends with Lawson the last few years and this year he has just fallen off a cliff.

The guy just looks awful. Is james making his 1 on 1 defense **** ? Is james making him play like a p***y when watching from the bench ? Is james making him pass up open,set 3's ? If you believe yes , then you are hopeless. If you can't understand that even if James has a negative impact on lawson that the level of play that lawson has brought is just pathetic then I dunno what to say man.

 

I dunno , Harden's defense was really good early last season, but by the end he had run out of gas and was about where he is now. There have been times when Harden is locked in this year and he still looks every bit as good. I dunno why he loses focus , but he does. I think his stamina and fitness coming into the year played a really big role in how bad he looks at times.

But as for who has declined the most ?? Its probably been dwight. The guy cant guard the pick and roll anymore , I dunno if he is hurt or saving it for the postseason, but he was elite when healthy last year. This year he looks like he is running in mud and his lateral speed is gone. Sure he is still strong and can have great rebounding games, but he's not a quick shot blocker anymore . To make matters worse he still goes for the block like he is one. We have awful rotations so his guy gets an easy offensive rebound and putback.

 

I think Harden needs to play with another ball handling point guard and not just a 2 dimensional 3 and d guard like Pat Bev.

This style of Harden isoing or being the sole playmaker and offensive initiator isnt good enough.

Artis Gilmore set the record in the 1977-78 season, with 366 turnovers http://bkref.com/tiny/niqnk

Harden currently has 247. If he plays Houston's remaining 27 games, and continues to average 4.5 turnovers, he'll reach about 368 for the season.

 

Harden's defense is better than the 2013 - 2014 season. Harden has never been a good defender sense he's been here. That's why our starters are mostly defensive players and they have all regressed it's just the truth.

 

Lawson is sucking period. Watch him on the court without Harden, he is still passive and gives up the ball to the likes of Ariza and Brewer, and is still reluctant to shoot. Aside from a few games he has not played well and very little of that has to do with Harden

 

I think you can make a case for Ariza regressing a lot.

I don't really see it for Dwight and Bev. And then you moved Capela into the starting lineup who is better than the PFs we started last year.

 

Dwight Howard is in decline defensively.. What games are you watching? LOL For gods sake.

 

Dwight Howard is no longer an elite defender

Ariza & Beverley have both been a step behind defensively.

But the worst offender this year is clearly Harden.

 

Yes we all know that Harden is bad defensively but as said before he's always been bad defensively. It's the guys whose job is to defend that's hurting us due to regression. On our team Harden's job is to score. If we had another superstar who could score it would be different but we don't.