Would you let Harden Iso so much down the stretch during the first two years with the Rockets? I don't think Harden's Iso and stepback game would not be as good without those failed Iso attempts in crunch time. At the time, it was frustrating as hell watching Harden clanking left and right on those Isos. You can even recall going back to McHale memes thread and see a whole bunch of 'Harden Iso this' 'Harden Iso that'. So I guess thanks McHale for those failed isos?
I don't recall Harden missing shots, ever in his career, OP must be a Harden hatter to come up with such ridiculous accusation
It took me a second to understand your point. Most of the posters deriding Harden and McHale were Lin fans. The new narrative will be that Harden doesn't dominate the ball enough and gets too passive (LeBron narrative) because he's so good.
Harden seems to have found a good balance between when to dish and when to score. It's only frustrating when he sometimes decides to play passive. I still have no idea what happened in the 4th quarter in Game 1. He hit 4 shots in a row and then Josh Smith started playmaking.
I knew a couple of people who were frustrated with him being passive and then were instantly frustrated with him when he was being aggressive. I guess you can't ever please a certain type of people.
As much as I hate to admit it, you might be right. Might have built up Hardens confidence that way. It was frustrating though. I think right now we're close to the right balance between. Harden isos and team play. Try to set everyone else up first and run plays, and if the play starts to fall apart give it to Harden as a Plan B.
Nope, too easy to game plan for, and the rest of the team stands around, the Rockets under Hakeem did not win until they started sharing the ball, and neither will this team. DD
I think most people deriding McHale were just Rockets fans I still don't like McHale that much. But credit where credit is due, he's gotten a lot better over the years. He started pretty crappy, so I guess no where to go but up...but up indeed he has gone...
Exactly. ISO Harden is good when he's fresh and energetic and the opposing team isn't riding him hard. But near the end of the 4Q, when he's tired and every possession is heavily guarded then it becomes way too predictable.
Yes, like it or not it remains our best option. If we had better shooters or another play maker then no but our choices are limited to pretty much just 1.
He's been letting him do it all god damn year. It's a little too late to change the way the offense works now. The effort level that Harden has to give to make some of those shots is off the charts. He gets no easy layups, no open shots. The difference between this series and the rest of the year is that Klay Thompson is a great defender who can make Harden work incredibly hard to get shots. It's been a serious flaw of this offense all year and usually it's not exposed until you play great defensive teams like this one.
I think you guys misunderstood my thread's topic. I'm asking would you go back and let him have all those isos knowing that he would perfect it in 2 years?
You know, I've always felt it would be so much better to get Harden to come off a couple of screens first to get the ball late in games, but there are two big factors there. 1) He's not that type of player. 2) The team has looked SO BAD when he doesn't have the ball. Seriously, it's turnover city. ISO Harden is the best thing this team can do right now.
I never had a problem with Harden doing so much ISO. I didn't think we were a serious contender anyway so why not let him figure out how to play better? In fact, I think I wrote more than a few posts advocating this for his long term growth.
