But it's not weird or obscure. It's common sense. The players who have the ball the most generally turn it over the most. Harden, Westbrook, Wall, Rondo, George, the list goes on. High usage high volume guys are all at the top of the turnover column. There are always exceptions to the rule. Which is why some guys are so damn good. Chris Paul dominates the ball and doesn't turn it over, which is why he is considered one of the best point guards of all time.
Oh and I also called his play last night a joke and said he needs to turn it over less. Though like usual the genius posters who call me a delusional homer will just ignore it and say I never say anything bad about the guy.
All of those guys have a much higher assist % except George . Harden was already a high turnover guy, but he usually made good decisions and set up guys for great shots. He's not doing that this year. It's common sense to look at better stats and see that hardens turnover rate is completely unacceptable this year
Harden will be fine. He certainly isn't without his issues that are glaring in a game like last night. We need a better running mate to pair with harden so he isn't our entire offense.
Which is why I also included the statement that he needs to turn it over less. And your point that "he's not doing that this year" is really my underlying argument and why I stick up for Harden so much around here. People are seeing a way down year and are ready to bail and immediately drop him out of the top 10 players, hell a lot of the usual suspects probably have him as barely a top 50 guy, which is just ridiculous. The three years leading up to this one, any rational observer would say this is one of the 5 guys you want to hitch your wagon to for the next 5-10 years. And now 1 bad half of a season and none of that greatness even happened to some people. Hell quite a few people believe that clips come back and the turnover game basically erase all the good he has ever done. Ridiculous. I'm just trying to bring some balance. When someone comes out and says something that makes no sense I'm going to correct it. If you think Harden is the only star out there turning it over I'm gonna correct you. If you say someone who is so obviously less efficient is more efficient than Harden I'm going to correct you. FTW of all people is the worst. This is the guy who said years back that with McHale we could NEVER win a single playoff series. Then after years of saying we have no chance with that clown of a coach he says before THIS season we should win 65+ and make the finals at the very least. I called him out for that stupid **** back then and I continue to call out his stupid **** now.
Fair enough, I agree the previous three years he was on his way to bring the second best rocket ever and the second best SG ever. This down year is really disturbing though. He's 26 and not injured. Not a typical year to decline. Are there any similar examples?
saw this highlight video of harden from the cavs game. lol splicing it with harden singing was genius. :grin: <iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BtEyHvc05Z4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Some of the shots looked okay (sometimes early in the shotclock, but kinda open), but his defense is so inexcusable. His defensive iq and effort are so freaking low, at least have one of those two things god damnit.
Curry is far from being top 50 player all time. Haren isn't even close. It takes ton of consecutive seasons of greatness to be considered something alltime something.
Make a separate thread for these highlights please. I was about to, but thought it was already posted. it was.
Harden is an offensive superstar, and for the last several years has been the league's best shooting guard. His lack of defense prevents him from becoming an all time great. He might be remembered as the 2010s Allen Iverson.
Of course you need excellent defenders to do it..... not just lanky perimeter defenders but a team that can use team defense very well I count only the 5 top Defense in the league that can do that consistently. Dallas is an offensive team, due respect to Carlisle, but it takes players to swarm Harden. Other defensive teams can do it. Not consistently because Harden is still a great offensive player. In the playoffs you do not need to shut him down completely, slowing him down for 3-4 games is enough while their own superstars and role players can deliver the rest. This is just a vague concept of how it could go. Carlisle does not have a very good defensive team and Dirk is not a defender, otherwise he would be on Top, recall Carlisle's Pacers? that is where he should be. Hey man, if you are a Harden supporter, that is just fine with me. I am only saying he has been in Houston how many years? 3 or 4? I admit he rose to superstardome very quick, in his first two seasons. But he does not have experience of a Lebron or another superstar who led teams to the Finals by themselves The problem he got is leading, trusting his teammates, bonding with his teammates, listening to a coach.....his weaknesses, playing team ball You know I compared him to a rich man's Ginobili, well Ginobili's talent is limited and he passes more when his game is not on. It helps him that he does not draw as much attention as a superstar and that he compliments TParker very well. He knows team game because that Argentinian team of his, they played winning team ball without being super talented like the US team Sometimes too much talent and reliance on it is impeding. Rant over.
I am by no means building against him. If my predictations are correct and he goes to LA or another team, or in case Rox find another 2nd and then a 3rd star the team knows what star they should acquire. Someone more reliable and more driven to greatness Harden and Howard are great but but not working out 100% or like we expected them to. It is a fact we should live with. Howard is declining in front of our eyes and Harden I think he will again find his motivation again but when will that be?
Hah. That's alot to unravel there dude. Seriously though.... I feel everyones pain just as much. I'm a diehard, and Harden frustrates the hell out of me just as much, and I understand his weaknesses just as much as anyone. We can b**** and complain about them all we want to, but in the end it really changes nothing. Either you want him gone, or you still believe in taking a chance on the talent as long as his talent is there in his prime. I personally want to give the guy a chance till at least the last year of his deal with Houston when we should have a pretty good idea if he's a risk to leave or not. In the meantime, I'd obviously like a shake up of the roster like everyone else. But I admit there are times where I just really miss the lovable hard working Scola/Battier Rockets teams that were so easy to root for. Harden is hard to root for at times, but the guy is alot more of a complex person/character/player than we give him credit for. You can see it in his expression that as an obvious introvert there is alot brewing in there. Waiting is hard work, but if this guy ever gets it back it together again, it will be worth the wait just like anything else great.
Again, you are talking about the sum total of their production, which I already said was quite good. Blowing out two opponents and then get blown out in the third game statistically may look like two good wins and one "good" loss. But those two scenarios are totally different. The second kind of team is dependable. You know they bring it every game. If they are good, you know they will go deep in the playoffs. The first kind of team is what I call "inconsistent." They look like world beaters the majority of times but they don't bring it every game. You never know which team will show up. You can't predict that they will win any playoffs series. They can play brilliantly one quarter and totally sleepwalk in the next quarter. Just look at the Clippers series last season. They got blown out at home when Chris Paul was injured. They played a solid game next and won. Then got blown to pieces two games in a row. Then won a good one at home. Then they looked like they wanted to go fishing for almost three quarters before the combination of a historic choke job by the Clippers and a heroic comeback with Harden sitting on the bench the whole time. That's what I call inconsistent. To put it simply, the Rockets just don't bring it all the time. You simply can't count on them to win any given game even when they look good in a couple of quarters in that game. This is not just this season. It has been like that for quite a while.
Sorry but I still don't see it. I'll look it up later, but I recall on bball reference only seeing like 5 or 6 losses all season by more than 15 points (two or three of which were from GSW). If you're going to use just the Clippers series as the case in point to their overall inconsistency then I think its kind of a stretch. I think there is the temptation to say they are inconsistent because obviously their style of play is going to look ugly when its not clicking offensively. I've said it for years now that this current offensive system is going to look downright terrible when they aren't hitting shots because of the lack of structure & extreme lack of player movement off the ball (spot up, swing side to side, back and forth, etc. etc.). But the 2014/15 Rockets had a top 10 defense that kept them in games alot last year when the shots weren't falling. So was the Clipper's series anything other than an isolated incident we should have seen as a precursor to this s$%^ show of a season??... maybe. But as an entirety of a season is concerned, they were pretty much as consistently good as you could possibly have hoped for. Given the injuries, tougher teams in the West, and loss of talent the previous Summer, its a damn miracle they were as consistently good as they were. As I said before, different year, and now its a different team. I dunno what happened but this isn't the same team.
