Harden plays too slow. He needs to pick up the pace.

Lame.

If you rewatch the 4Q of this game, I promise you won't want to see us do this again this season:
http://www.nba.com/games/20161116/HOUOKC

There have been a couple other games where we won thanks to a balanced effort but sputtered with a few scary ISO moments:
http://www.nba.com/gametracker/#/20161205/BOSHOU/rockets/analysis
and
http://www.nba.com/gametracker/#/20161201/HOUGSW/rockets/analysis

Don't be afraid of holding the team to high standards. It's good that we can, now.

Again, I have no problem with Harden's game, except IF he goes back into 2015 mode too early in the 4th.

 

So when times are bad, it's "NOT ANOTHER DIME, LES!"

And when times are good, it's "no criticism allowed - scoreboard."

I like to be able to have discussions. Sue me!

 

You can pay for your season tickets in nickels only.

 

Now that we have Beverley back I'm surprised Harden still even starts. WTF are u doing Pringles? Turnovers are not good, FYI

 

not at all, they are mixing it up beautifully at the moment. Don't need to play fast all the time, it is good to have unpredictability in the offensive arsenal

 

While I do think that Harden is still having the efforts issue from time to time, but I am getting more comfortable with his issue of "walking across the mid court with 17 seconds left" sometimes.

His passing skill is elite and some of those moves of slowly walking up the court (not all of them of course) are actually his way of deceiving the defense.

 

That's the Jazz in him. Don't take it from him. That's how he probe the defense.
Since Beverly is back were #6 in the league in pace.
Let Harden be Harden.
* As long as he plays D

 

This a progression for him to play the point. He is running selectively. It probably is going to take awhile to master the job of PG.
You should appreciate his off the screen decision is pretty on spot. He is surveying floor. He is playing like a true PG and has done a pretty good job to make his team mates better.
The alternative is Westbrook, who plays very fast and likes to drive into crowd and dish. I don't call those PG skills per se. Russ is a great player relying on his passion and athleticism a lot, but that's probably not enough to transform that team to the next level.

Growing pains. It will only get better.

 

How about.. "If it aint broken......"

 

d

This! I rather like him to do the PG right than being out-of control. They are not running complicated stuff yet. It's going to take time for him to develop and be comfortable being a PG. You can tell he is developing a PG mindset. Right now, the coaching staff probably is telling him to get the ball to the point, run a screen, either dive or dish to the open man. He is doing pretty pretty OK. Once he is comfortable with this, then I am expecting he will be doing some other stuff to mix it up.

 

I do get a bit nervous when Harden barely crosses the half-court line at the 16-17 second mark

 

I think we should cut his minutes Kawhi Leonard style. Our bench is good enough for James to play an efficient 34 minutes a game. I truly believe that his pace would be more consistent, and we would benefit in the long run.

 

people seriously like to complain about anything. Now it's harden needs to play faster lol

So now all the people that hate the way westbrook plays which is at 100 mph all game long, they want harden to do the same. No absolutely not. A strength of harden's game is that he plays the game at difference paces. He mixes it up. You don't play the game at one speed. Houston's offense is one of the best in the league yet Harden's needs to play faster. That makes no sense.

 

I know this is not exactly the topic, but in the first few seconds of the video zack lowe breaks down what harden does when he dribbles the ball alot around halfcourt. He is looking for possible plays. And i really dont have a problem with him taking his time to make the best possible play. I like that more than what most other teams do (passing the ball for 25 times until someone appears to be open).

 

Expert analysis from bballholic as always

 

I like that we didn't go all out ISO down the stretch tonight against Brooklyn

 

Some of us could see this. Harden is clearly our best player but for some reason slows down from time to time. Tonight it cost us a game.

 

No he doesn't. He needs to take care of the ball better.. He plays slow at the end to take the time off the clock.

 

Did it work? The team plays better when the ball is moving. He held the ball over and over. Hopefully he will learn from this.

 

It's protocol to slow down with the lead at the end of the game but the thing is he didn't take care of the ball. Emphasis on those last 2 turnovers that cost the Rockets the game.