Harden fixed his turnovers issue by getting more assists but the TO's are still a problem

Honestly . . . I think the solution is he takes 10 more shots a game
Simply stop trying to facilitate as much . . ..

QUESTION: Does averaging 7 assists and 3 turnovers do it for you ? With him being a volume shooter?

Rocket River

 

Wall is surrounded with more talent than James is.

Beal (when healthy) is better and more talented than Gordon. Gortat is a solid vet Center and better than capela, as much as i love him, but gortat can play with big boys down low. Porter is shooting 45% from 3 this year and is very talented (imo better than Ariza). So youre left with Anderson and Morris. Anderson is better at shooting the 3 - morris better at anything else.

Wizards are barely around 8th spot in the EAST!

So please just stfu.

 

Curry? Leonard? Paul? Wall?
Having any one of them handling the ball 90% of the time
would not work on this team
Curry averages less than 7 assist on a team with consistent knock down shooters
Leonard doesn't handle the ball as much now . . .. .

I don't see it

Rocket River

 

Honestly. . . . other players hitting some shots . . . not missing bunnies helps alot

If Anderson and Ego are knocking down threes . .. their man is not lagging in the paint

Rocket River

 

The Wizards are currently the 5th seed in the east with a 24-20 record.

Denver is the 8th seed in the west with a 18-25 record.

Logically, if Harden were replaced with Wall, the Rockets would still be a playoff team.

 

If he eliminated the 4-5 times he passes to Brewer in the corner (AKA turnovers) and replaced those with shot attempts, he wouldn't even have to sacrifice assist numbers.

 

That's because you're trying to jam those guys into Harden's exact role.

Look at it this way....a lineup of Beverley, Gordon, Leonard, Anderson, and Capela. Can you really not visualize a successful offense with those players?

 

Wait so is his TO issue fixed or is it still a problem?

You kinda went in 2 different directions right there lol

 

Dammit. Im really late to this party. I thought i was the 1st to mention that but i see multiple other posters giving OP a hard time way before i did lol

 

Right. In my post I said 5 per game are fixable, and he averages 5.9 per game, which doesn't make sense because I've been caught using message board hyperbole.

For clarification, I'm talking about the bad games. 7+ TO's.

I just pulled data from November 1st, and here are some quick findings.
I'm looking at this as I type this so I don't know if it will confirm my bias or not, haha.

Since 11/1 --- 45 games, 32 wins, 13 losses, 263 turnovers.

So let's look at T/O per win vs T/O per loss, for fun:
178 turnovers in wins, 5.56 T/O per game.
85 turnovers in losses, 6.54 T/O per game.
OK, not much there (but there is something.) Unfortunately, I can't get much smarter with this data point like breaking it down by quarter, or by opponent record.

How about comparing 7+ T/O games versus our record...
When T/O >= 7 we are 11-7
When T/O < 7 we are 21-6

That starts to tease it out a little more.

Anyway... if I'm a coach, I just think it's something worth looking into.

 

Part 2 of my post above ^^^^

This means (very conjecturally) that we play like a 50 win team when Harden has 7+ T/O's, and a 64 (!!!) win team when he has 6 or less.

There are a TON of other factors going on; bench players being terrible, Anderson/Gordon being hot/cold, injuries, Harden's particular playing style on any given night, Harden's shot selection ona given night, but I just feel like this issue in particular is a recurring theme.

So let me change my request from "fixing 5 per game" to "staying at or below his current average" as much as possible. I think that makes sense. *shrug*

 

The solution is

Spoiler

A PLAYERS ONLY MEETING

 

if the hail mary works 60% of the time, you are basically getting 1.2 PPP which is elite, and when they intercept the pass you are usually already set on D. not that bad

 

Eric Gordon was brought in to do that. His struggles recently aren't a coincidence the Rockets are struggling right now too. Hopefully EG gets over this rough patch sooner than later because the Clippers are chasing us back in the standings.

 

that bounce pass when the lane is clearly clustered frustates me so much and it happens almost every flipping game.

 

So youre just going to ignore 3/4 of my post and take the last line to say that we would still be a Playoff Team. well maybe a Playoff Team, but only because the 8th seat sucks in the west. anything above 8th - i dont see it with wall instead of harden. and btw 8th place means playing the Warriors in the 1st round

would actually love to see a stat on how many of those result in 2 points. I think its def over 60%.

 

Interestingly, the Rockets minus Harden this year have been a relatively decent basketball team, posting a virtual net neutral point differential of +0.4 in the 564 minutes played without Harden. http://stats.nba.com/vs/

Their performance without Harden is actually even more impressive when looking at the stats.
<script type="text/javascript" src="//widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fplayers%2Fh%2Fhardeja01%2Fon-off%2F2017&div=div_on-off"></script>
Minus Harden, in 564 minutes the Rockets as a team has managed a 107.6 ORtg while allowing opponents a 104.9 ORtg for a net rating of + 2.7.

This of course may be affected by the opponent's lineups/units they are facing and pales in comparison to the Rockets net rating with Harden, which is a healthy +8.5.

Based on these numbers, IMO its probably safe to say a lineup sans Harden but with the addition Kawhi Leonard would be able to produce a successful offense/team.

 

Anyone comparing Harden's AST/TO ratio to CP3 is insane.

Harden literally only creates layups & open 3's for his teammates, the easiest shots in the game for a role player supporting cast. Half of CP3's assists on the other hand are midrange jumpers.

Harden is also the the primary scorer on the team while Chris Paul has 4/5 other players that can create their own looks.

I think people read too much into his TO's. Half are him clearly getting hacked but refs not calling it or teammates fumbling easy passes. People see 10 TOs & automatically assume it's all his fault.

Never forget the only reason we're the 2nd ranked offense in the League is solely because of him.

 

60% may be a little high? But if we could find a stat that told us that would be awesome. Same efficiency as shooting 40% from3.

I'm not against the full court pass because it puts pressure on the defense to defend and every more energy hustling back and if they do turn it over, we are set defensively.

I do dislike the bounce pass in traffic to a big even tho Harden is (relatively speaking) very good at it. I was always taught to never bounce to a big.

 

I don't see how this is relevant. An "assist" is by definition a pass that results in a basket. If you get a lot of assists, that means you are creating shots that your teammates can "easily" make. Where they make those shots make no difference. The fact is they make a ton of them so they must be good shots he creates for them.

BTW, the argument that you get lots more assists if you have good teammates is also somewhat overblown. I remember Andre Miller once average 11 apg when he played for the garbage Cleveland team that won less than 30 games a season.