Don't want to start a debate, but in some basketball community, Kobe is known as a notoriously overrated defender. Better than Harden? yes, but Kobe took a lot of defensive possessions off, especially when he became the main go-to-guy w/o Shaq.
If this team tries hard on defense I can see us finishing top 15. I can tell Bzdelik is not going to give up on this although MDA appears board with it. Harden, however, does not seem content with breakdowns on defense even if MDA does. I think we will improve, but this team's defensive ceiling imo is 15th.
Our defence will only get worse from here. Why? Because we play very fast with very little depth esp at the bigs and that will take a huge toll on D when the legs in midseason get tired and secondly because we have some notoriously injury prone players. Bev and DMO? They will not fix that.
It's not really a surprise, but it's pretty bad. I seriously think they're instructing our guys to shoot when they get the ball from Harden straight away, so he can get the assists and thus for stats only. Why else would they take so many horrible shots?
You gotta be kidding me. Houston leads the league in True Shooting %, 2nd in FG%, and 7th in 3PT%. They are not taking poor quality shots. Do you know why MDA said that? Because he KNOWS Harden throws beautiful dimes for his teammates, which means don't hesitate to shoot when given good opportunity.
Anybody comparing Harden to Kobe and saying Harden is the better of the 2, is absolutely mental. I hated Kobe with a passion but man there was not another player I feared for my team, or had respect for, more than him. KOBE>>>>>>HARDEN and its not even close.
We still look like the team from the McHale era with too much hero ball. Harden has more weapons to work with and we have better shooters but we still aren't making that extra pass enough. It's not just harden too.
Agree , but it's 6 games in . Our players can get more comfortable in the system . Bev and Dmo are also decent playmakers so if we get them then the extra passes go up
"Maybe they find a mid-salaried wing with longer arms, and the ability to do a bit more off the bounce than Ariza." Rudy Gay?
Not really. Harden is pretty much better in every meaurable way on offense at this point in their careers. Young Kobe was a hell of a defender, but his court vision was never as good as Harden's is now.
Personally believe it is silly to aim for more passes. Don't have the numbers in front of me but I doubt the number of passes per game is correlated with top offenses / good teams. We already have an elite offense, we need to be focusing on how to get better defensively.
In offense efficiency, yes. If Kobe wanted to become a great rebounder, he would. If he wanted to be the best passer, he would. Id take Kobes skill set/mind set over Hardens any day of the universe. There are intangibles you just can not measure and Harden doesnt show it to me; Lazy, frustration when an opponent locks him down, lazy, no killer instinct. KOBE>>>>>>>HARDEN and its not even close.
Sorry, not gonna work. Your argument is essentially: Kobe is better than Harden because I say so, and I have no evidence to back that up. Kobe did want to be the best scorer, and the best passer, and the best rebounder. He wanted to be the best everything, and he just wasn't. He was a consistently good player, for a long long time, who had some quite favorable circumstances, which translated into a lot of success. But as an individual player, no, he doesn't compare well to many of his peers.
This season is a "transition year" to improve the team's outlook. So far so good in terms of team chemistry and Harden having a good season, being a leader and team player. These are the first steps to getting back into the game with FA and retooling.
