Hang on, who is his replacement in this hypothetical? I can only assume you are not meaning a rotation of Anderson / Garcia or something like this in replacement of Harden and would suggest Kevin Martin (and yes Martin is a huge upgrade on the other 2 mentioned). Mate you either smoking some good crack or you are full on hatorade. Martin 2011-2012 PTS RB AST STL FG% 3P% FT% 17.1 2.7 2.8 0.7 .413 .347 .894 Harden 2012-2013 PTS RB AST STL FG% 3P% FT% 25.8 4.8 5.9 1.8 .442 .371 .86 Martin is a much worse defender as well. 4 wins my ass!
I hate harden for getting us into the playoffs last night. Also hate Lin, Beverly and Asik. I still believe we should be tanking to get a better pick so can have a free superstar to pair with Harden.
Let's balance this thread with things we do like about Harden. He had a bad game tonight (by his standards) and I don't know why his passes were often wayward. But boy, was he very lucky tonight! Thank you, James, for quickly embracing your new team and playing your heart out for us. Continue to grow in the playoffs. Play carefree and without pressure
I hate how he uses goaltending as his way to make game ending shots. I'd prefer he just make it go thru the net.
THERES A STAT FOR THAT. My favorite stat actually EWA (estimated wins added) http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/sort/VORPe Harden has added 18.1 wins eek:) to the rockets, good for 3rd in the NBA 1. Lebron 2. Durant 3. Harden 4. Kobe 5. Westbrook 6. Carmelo 7. Paul 8. Wade
List of things you like about Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and draft picks going to OKC for the Rockets. 1. 2012-13 Playoffs 2. Future Playoffs 3. Dynasty
Kobe's on the list so at least we know this stat can make huuuuge mistakes cause Kobe is just plain and simple terrible basketball player...hes done more damage than benefit
honestly that was a terrible terible shot-terrible possesion...we should have made some seriously and inteligently designated play
Yeah I mean, he only has 5 championships and is going to go down as top 10-15 all time. What a terrible basketball player.
what are you talking about Kobe ruined lakers and they are hardly making it to the playoffs this year... Kobe maybe did played better in the past when he was under coach that could bridle him...btw nothing is same ever... everything is in a constant state of change except perhaps the change itself...nothing ever IS...everything is in constant flow... E-Prime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia E-Prime (short for English-Prime, sometimes denoted É or E′) is a prescriptive version of the English language that excludes all forms of the verb to be. E-Prime does not allow the conjugations of to be—be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being— the archaic forms of to be (e.g. art, wast, wert), or the contractions of to be—'s, 'm, 're (e.g. I'm, he's, she's, they're). Some scholars advocate using E-Prime as a device to clarify thinking and strengthen writing.[1] For example, the sentence "the film was good" could not be expressed under the rules of E-Prime, and the speaker might instead say "I liked the film" or "the film made me laugh". The E-Prime versions communicate the speaker's experience rather than judgment, making it harder for the writer or reader to confuse opinion with fact. Korzybski (1879–1950) had determined that two forms of the verb 'to be'—the 'is' of identity and the 'is' of predication—had structural problems. For example, the sentence "The coat is red" has no observer, the sentence "We see the coat as red" (where "we" indicates observers) appears more specific in context as regards light waves and colour as determined by modern science, that is, colour results from a reaction in the human brain. Alfred Korzybski criticized the use of the verb "to be", and stated that, "Any proposition containing the word 'is' [or its other forms 'are,' 'be', etc.] creates a linguistic structural confusion which will eventually give birth to serious fallacies."[5] However, he also justified the expression he coined — "the map is not the territory" — by saying that "the denial of identification (as in 'is not') has opposite neuro-linguistic effects on the brain from the assertion of identity (as in 'is')."
The interesting thing is LBJ, Wade and Bosh accounts for 57 wins (their total EWA) for the team. Miami is on track for 64-65 wins. So you can see having superstars that does everything overstate their EWA somewhat, with the role players EWA probably understated. The other thing is the EWA is highly correlated to usage. If we use EWA/USG, for point guards Chris Paul comes out #1 by a long margin at 0.694. Westbrook #2 0.569, then Curry, Calderon, Parker, D Williams, and then Mike Conley at #7. Dragic is #10, Irving is #12, Lillard #14, Lowry #21, Wall #25 and Lin #26 0.254. Before this becomes a Dragic vs Lowry vs lin argument again based on simple numbers/analysis, it's obvious that you have to adjust Lin's ranking due to him playing next to a ball dominant SG in Harden. Steve Nash is ranked #33 0.219 in the list playing next to Kobe, and Mario Chalmers #36 0.144. Basically a ball-dominant SG takes away PER, EWA etc mostly from the PG. There's no way Steve Nash is worse than Jeremy Lin. And the numbers support this. Steve Nash had EWA/USG of 0.423 last season in Phoenix, and this would have ranked him #8 among PGs this year, and he was ranked #4 last year. But instead he has roughly half his EWA/USG this year playing next to Kobe, and is ranked #33. In terms of across all positions, anyone who doubts LBJ and Durant should be fighting it out for MVP this year (and are head and shoulders above the rest of the league) should check out their EWA/USG. 1. LBJ - 1.049 2. Durant - 0.934 3. Tyson Chandler - 0.754 4. Chris Paul - 0.694 5. Harden - 0.668 6. M. Gasol - 0.619 7. Horford - 0.618 8. Kobe - 0.599 9. B Lopez - 0.589 10. Ibaka - 0.586 Note that EWA/USG doesn't rank the best players. It just ranks win share per usage. So it roughly ranks how much a player contributes towards winning per possession used. Note I said 'roughly', I know neither statistic is perfect. But MVP should reflect the amount of wins they contribute to the team, and weighing it for usage is an ok way of doing it. Interesting notes: Miami and OKC each has has 3 players in the top 15 this year. Tyson Chandler was ranked #2 last year, just ahead of Kevin Durant (& #3 this year). And we know Chandler was Morey's target a few years ago, but the trade fell apart. Gortat was #4 last year playing alongside Nash, but fell apart this year (dropped to #88, bickered with coach and teammates etc) with Dragic as his PG. Perhaps one of the reasons why Dragic's stats look fine, but Phoenix has fallen off so much this year vs having Nash as PG. And one of the arguments against Dragic (I won't go into 'for' Lin arguments ... just look at the Linsanity roster last year with Melo and Amare sidelined, and the Knicks record) is that he doesn't really make his team better. Bynum and Howard were ranked #6/#7 respectively last year. Kevin Love #9. James Harden was #17. Ibaka #19, Westbrook #20, so OKC had 4 players in the top 20!!! If they had kept the team together, with more seasoning, this young group would trump Miami, in my opinion. Note Bynum, Howard, Love all appear(ed) to be Daryl Morey targets. With Harden gone this year, the other players for OKC have picked up the slack, especially Westbrook, which again shows that PGs that play with ball-dominant SGs have their EWA/USG understated. Westbrook's EWA/USG jumped from 0.457 to 0.569 this season. Kevin Martin is #86 on the EWA/USG list this year, which shows that the Rockets probably would've lost a lot more with Martin as opposed to Harden, but Lin would probably have better numbers (not that this is any good for the Rockets and is not what this discussion is intended to lead to). Also interesting is that the #4 SG in the NBA this year based on EWA/USG is JR Smith, and he's ranked #60. So really, only Lin, Nash and Chalmers have their numbers materially adversely impacted by a ball dominant SG. It also means we have by far one of the top 3 SG in the game today, and as Wade and Kobe ages, and Harden (hopefully) improves defensively, we'll have the marquee SG in the game. Larry Sanders is already #23 this year, on rebounds and blocked shots alone. Comparing potential PF targets for Morey LMA is #28 this year and #21 last year. Millsap is #33 this year, and #15 last year. Josh Smith is #25 last year but only #54 this year. Love was #9 last year, I think we can give his numbers this year a miss due to injury. So even with a Love, or LMA/Millsap/Smith, we won't come close to OKC/Miami's 3 top 15 EWA/USG, but what we do have is players on better contracts like Asik (#59 this year), Parsons (#61) and Lin, getting good bang for the buck with Asik and Lin on $8M, and Parsons on a near minimum contract. So I guess for Morey, failing to get top 20 players, he'll try to surround Harden with maybe top 50-60 players but at half of a max contract (like Asik and Lin), and try to get lucky in the draft with players like Parsons. And finish the roster with veterans on cheap contracts like Delfino, players on rookie contracts like Jones, DMo (and Patterson the last couple of years), and overseas great finds like Beverley.
Harden must improve in the following areas: * His AAU defense is atrocious and he has the ability to do better - Last night he just left his man to double team and it left his man wide open for an easy layup * Leaks out way too early for potential transition baskets, should stay back to rebound. J Lin and Beverly kills him in this area * Holds the ball, while the shot clock clicks down and then at 3 seconds throws to the 3 point line for a bad shot. (Now this is dumb!)
Okay, I want LaMarcus Aldridge! I like Love and don't want Millsap. An LMA and Harden PnR would be murder. Also give Asik even more opportunities for clean up baskets. I also like LMA's d over Kevin Love. But I do Love's ability to shoot the 3 and rebound at a high level. However, we need better D not better O. So all of you stat geeks, please project how LMA or Love would help our D.
I dont' like it that Harden doesn't wear a bunch of gold chains on the court to go with his haircut and beard. I pity the fool.
Who said KMart is at Harden's level? I simply applie our other players' offensive efficiency to Harden's to measure the record this season assuming everything else is constant. There was not a single mention of KMart, Garcia, or Anderson in my post. And how am I drinking the hatorade. I don't recall bashing anyone? Yes some good weed might've affected the conclusion but def not crack.
It might not be bashing but estimating that Harden only netted us 4 more wins this season is crazy. Were you not assuming that Martin would be starting still if we didn't have Harden? Or are you saying Anderson would be filling in? Either way I think you're still crazy. You can't count the handful of games we played well without Harden, the sample size is entirely too small. Someone in another thread made the Cavaliers (with Labron) reference. They beat some very good teams when he was out for a few games. Offensive scheme change, extra energy, etc. But when he was gone for an entire season they were awful.
