Believe it or not, I've always found Lowe to be somewhat of a fair commentator on the Rockets, and he does really value Harden's game unlike some other schmucks out there (although I was really disappointed to know that he left out Harden on his all-nba team selection last season.) He praised Harden a lot during 14-15 season, and I hope he finds his love for Harden back this year. Anyways, thanks for the great article.
Pretty good and spot on imo. Some worrying signs: - dead last in passes, so while we have plenty of assists, they are mostly off of straight passes from Harden. I'd like to see more passing, because some of those tough threes that for example Anderson makes he will miss at some point and often he already does because he immediately wants to hoist it up, no matter how deep. - we are going to switch more, according to our master of defense Bzdelik - we are just relying on a little bit of extra effort, not so much a grand scheme on how to defend. Very worrisome, expected but disappointed as well. Guess even Bzidelik was like, what am I going to do with this bunch since they don't understand ****..
The Morey in a hot seat (sources say) comment is old, right. Les said that after McHale firing, but not mentioning names. And Morey even alluded to it himself. Is the media just now saying something about it to report on some new Rockets drama. The also tried articles about stirring up old Dwight/ Harden drama. Not enough to just talk basketball about Harden-led new offense with poor defense, must take a jab at FO now. Not blaming Lowe here, but there is another thread with only that angle. It's last year's news that, sure, still persists -- what have you done for me lately stuff from owner. Media Need that click bait angle like the title of the other thread
This is what I noticed about the new offense. A lot of it is: Harden brings it up, 1 pass, shot. Not sure if it's just getting familiar with the offense or part of the attacking, 7 seconds or less style.
I'm unclear if the Rockets are even going for "seven seconds or less." They play so slow. Are they still learning how to run or have they decided it's really not in the cards for a team with Harden as the point guard?
Spoiler Leslie Alexander, Daryl Morey & Ryan Anderson: the that keeps on giving. The Houston Hardens! No assets, no [high] draft picks, so spend like bat-**** crazy! You can try & polish a but it's still a . Just try & play HARDER! Great question.
They are not playing like the old Phoenix teams. They only sometimes run, but are not playing defense and have too many turnovers. They play S. A. two games in a row. Now is the time to show us what kind of team they have. If Harden gets injured this team will not beat anyone.
James Harden looks like the second best shooting guard I've ever seen right now. He's everything Kobe never was with his passing and would have multiple championships if he had a player like prime Shaq next to him.
Great article. Nice to see acknowledgment/confirmation of Les's meddling in basketball affairs. Also smh at how bad the defense has been this season. The Cavs game was really bad, interesting that he commented on that as well. 65% seems on par, if not lower than the eye test lol. Got lots of work to do. There have been short stretches where the defense has been good, just gotta keep improving on that end.
I'm not that high on Kobe either. Forget passing, Kobe was not even a better scorer than Harden. His career TS is only 55%, whereas Harden routinely posts 60+ TS%. Same story with eFG%, which doesn't account for free throws and strictly measures ability to score on jumpers, Harden is still higher than Kobe. If Harden averages 30+ ppg while maintaining his usual 60+ TS%, that settles the debate for me.
haha, true. My working theory is that it's against Harden's natural rhythm is fast break as a matter of course. He masterfully probes the defense with herky jerky movements, fakes and off speed stuff, and in the process sees the court well enough to make the right play, but that stuff slows the offense down. When Harden runs he can't react as much and probably feels a little out of control. In other words, Harden's offensive genius is that he reacts perfectly to what the defense gives him. Fast breaking requires you to do the opposite, rather than react, just act, and let the defense react. And that's not in Harden's nature. I hope I'm wrong because I think the offense could be better if he did have the ability to push more. With that being said, there's no excuse for not running when Harden's out of the game. Whoever handles the ball should run after every miss or made shot. Maybe Beverley will be better at that.
If our winning streak continues thus far , I don't see any problems whatsoever bothering our team by any opponents . Harden's catch and shoot capability is well known to all , question is , can Corey , Pat and Gordon make up for the change ?
We may not be able to add a star this season but if we get back Beverley and Dmo ; and KJ and Dekker continue to improve then we may have enough. It's going to have to be a situation where the team is more than the sum of its parts . The chemistry will have to be top notch
Is it really that much of a surprise? The coach is preaching: "when James gets the ball to you, shoot it, and then run back and play hard as heck." >> which is where Harden gets his assists. That's why we don't see Anderson taking contested 3's with time on the clock. That IS a problem to me. I'm surprised MDA is preaching this. Secondly, Harden is the best scorer in the league and he has the ball. More than 20% of what would be assists aren't going to be assists. And that part is fine. It's a numerical thing. Its good to have a lot of assists in general, but if your best scorer is your PG that number is going to take a hit without seeing a decline in scoring efficiency. Essentially, Harden is assisting himself and those assists are not showing up anywhere. Still, we should have a better team assists number than we currently do. A contested 3 is not a good shot, and we take it very often.
