Great OP and something I think he can work on. Hopefully he will. I have faith that Harden will be working on improving his game this summer. The experience Harden and our team gained in these playoffs are invaluable.
I hope he's not happy with his overall game this year, and isn't just looking to "upgrade" the talent around him. As good as he is now, hope he sees holes in his own game as well.
Spot on. This guy goes in the lanes rady to throw his arms around. If he was to get hit and gather himself and try to make the shot, he'd get more calls.
Harden will make adjustments/improves during this summer. He practice the fundamentals of his game, he is young and he wasn't even with the rockets training camp, he was playing his 1v1 isolation okc basketball in houston (and it seems like thats all he knows how to play is 1v1 isos) ...he needs to need to utilized his physical strength, learn to catch the ball at the high post,(he likes to catch the ball at the 3pt line), just the simple fundamentals of the game like cutting in, movements (he seems a bit lazy both on offense and defense) Harden is rockets Franchise player, the better franchise player is, the better the rockets will be.
When the ball gets to him, any and all off the ball movement ceases. Then we get to watch him go iso. It's mostly Harden's but is also everyone else on the court including coach's fault. A lot of the times it seems he's waiting for a cutter to pass to, or someone to get open, which doesn't happen because they are just standing by for him to go solo, whether he wants to or not. As a result, the only option left is for him to go 1v1. I hope that they work on communicating better this summer. And Mchale discourages sticky ball/sticky players behavior. We free flow when the ball free flows.
Yea, this is exactly what i was saying in another thread. Harden was not driving as aggressively towards the basket and ended up taking more bad shots. Also, I agree that he should develop a post game, that would take his game to a whole new level. I also believe that Harden only has one go to move outside the euro step, which is the shake and bake step back jumper, he needs to add a few more moves.
if harden had laid off the poody-tang during the playoffs we would've won game 6. He had strep-freakin-throat which is a harsh illness to play through. He was weak and debilitated. He was far less than 100% for Game 6 and we needed other players to step up, but Harden was still initiating the offense and made a lot of questionable shots and had a few turnovers that turned the momentum of the game. (And yes, I think McHale allowing the starters to sit for so long turned the game too). Bottom line, as a previous poster mentioned, Asik-Parsons-Harden-Lin-and our PFs!!! started a whole year for the first time in their collective careers (so Parsons started most of the previous year..but still). They will make huge strides next year. Keep the core in tact, add a talented PF without strapping ourselves up in teh salary cap and watch this team flourish.
one thing i would love for harden to improve is his midrange jump shot.. if he could get it to be consistent then he would be a top 3 player in this league
Harden has yet to have a Rocket's training camp or preseason. He will improve, which is scary for opponents. He is very young as well. Next season, we will all see major progress. This is also true of most of the Rocket's players.
Conditioning is the biggest thing I hope he improves on. Looked tired out there too often and he should be alright at his age playing 37+ minutes. Every franchise player has done it when they were his age. Other than that, just focus on correcting some of the repeated small mistakes that he made which led to turnovers.
He is an extremely strong 2 guard. He is built very well and thats what makes it so easy for him to take that contact alll day and get to the line, have to think it could be utilized in the post as well
Alot of teams would kill to have our talent playing this well this early on. Can't be impatient with these things.
I wish you would spam this in every lin thread, every lin vs harden thread, every bash or complimentary harden thread. in fact, spam this in every thread about any player on the rockets so every fan that's ridiculously hating or knee-jerking would step back realize that we will have an off season with so many good possibilities.
I have been saying this for the past few weeks. Harden was trying too hard to get fouled and not enough to make play. He obviously had not been making layups the rate he did earlier. And he had not been making those kick out passes to open shooters. A lot of his assists came in passing around the perimeter after dribbling for more than 10 seconds without being able to blow by his man. I don't know what happened to him. Maybe it's what some people say, fatigue. I really hope he'll come back strong next season.
Injuries killed him literally, in the regular season, he would euro step with ease and get the and 1, but after the injury, it just .. toned him down a little
Good thread. And maintaining a stronghold on each and every possession is one area that will add significantly to his game. Viciously defensive offense in conjunction with devastatingly 'offensive' defense will definitely be in order. Seems obvious but it is not so. Too few can execute at such speed, over and over again. Will he and his mates deliver? I think so.
Here are a couple of thoughts from Feigen's year-end Q&A. Just one writer's opinion, perhaps, but one imagines he has talked to some folks within the organization about their perspectives when forming his own: http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...fans-guide-to-the-offseason/?cmpid=sportshcat
I think this falls on McHale. He is playing this brand of ultra-fast b-ball, have Harden do too much of offense and he doesn't let him rest enough. I like James Anderson but I feel like he's still playing college ball, hasn't made the transition to pro.
