Agree with most of this. MDA is not gonna rock the boat. This is the Harden and Les show. So we just gonna let the big dog run. Maybe we pull a rabbit out of a hat and trade for Paul George.
Perhaps. If Harden doesn't win a ring before he retires it will be the worst tragedy in Houston sports history even surpassing Nolan Ryan in disappointment level.
Do you have stats or proof that the team is better with Harden playing off the ball rather than playmaking? Harden's TOs may be high but that's because the rest of the team are catch and shoot guys, so basically the team's TOs are all front loaded to Harden rather than shared to each individual team member, you can see this because the team's TOs aren't high and is actually normal compared to historical championship teams. The Rox need more talent, but what they don't need or what they need the least is more playmaking. Harden is already good enough as a play maker. You keep arguing that the Rox need another playmaker to contend but need to offer proof. What I can see is given Harden's average-to-low TS% this season the Rox will actually struggle if you force him to play off the ball, you will lose out on all the genius assists he's doing and have to settle for more of his hero ball stuff. Having Harden turn into Klay Thompson without the above average defense is just dumb.
No question. Talent is there to win a championship as the best player on the team. Humility and flexibility are the missing components to Harden that will prevent him from winning a ring unless he adds them.
I have plenty of evidence that Harden should be scoring the ball more out of the triple threat where he can catch and shoot as well as drive. I have plenty of evidence that Harden should be the second distributor playing alongside a great distributor who dishes up him the ball which frees him to score even more while helping him minimize his own turnovers. There's no question about it. Look at the history of championship teams. You simply can't turn the ball over in the playoffs a bunch and expect to win a championship. Simply doesn't happen.
Bwhahaha this joker started a freaking thread. Wow yeah keep talking to him Mike. Tell Harden to keep doing his thing because we are rolling baby. 24-9 is all I can say.
3rd best record in the West and 5th overall. And you are still complaining about Harden's turnovers. Wow
No one probably outside of Lebron in todays game could have carried this team to the #3 seed in the west with that insane schedule clustered with road games and elite teams along the way. No one could have done that. However some idiots with Personal agendas are making a case of downright personal because they have their own issues and dislikes with James. Really sad
The turnovers are a function of the high pace that the Rockets play and the fact that they blow out teams so much they end up playing Ennis and a bunch of scrubs almost every other game. The more possessions you have, the more you try to run and gun, the more opportunities for turnovers. In the playoffs the pace will slow down and Harden and the key players will play all of the minutes. You always vacillate between team and individual stats depending on your argument. If you say Harden hates sharing the ball and would be better off the ball and somebody tells you Harden is the assist leader and MVP candidate you tell everyone basketball is a team sport. When people tell you Rox's turnovers aren't that high as a team compared to other championship teams you ignore that and keep fixating on Harden's individual TOs. Which is it? This is why I keep saying you keep ignoring the facts, the game Harden had 7 TOs the Rox blew out the Suns! And this game Rockets had 19 tos to Dallas' 9 and they still got blown out by 20+ pts! Turnovers are like the 4rth most important stat after pts, rebs and assists, nobody pays attention to it because you can have a such a large discrepancy like in this game and you still get blown out. Harden had 6 TOs this game how come the Rockets still lead by as much as 29? Maybe the Rockets do end up choking in the playoffs and while TOs can be a factor it's gonna be behind other things like defense and bad shooting percentage. You know why? Because Harden's 5.5 TOs are like only 1-2 below other superstars. A max of 2-4 pts don't matter as much compared to other stats, it's the same as Ariza being the steal king with 3 steals a night, doesn't mean he's a franchise superstar even if he leads the NBA in the entire category.
What makes you think this is a valid argument bro? To me less dogmatic and perhaps more accurate is to say it didn't happen but we don't know if it will ever happen. Don't you think history is not repeating itself and the game is ever changing? In my humble opinion what worked in past may not work today or tomorrow and this is something characteristic of every area of human endeavor not only basketball. I am sure you know about this principle and use it in your thinking and daily life. To use some random stats (except points scored) and to say you got to have these or avoid these otherwise you wont win doesn't makes sense. It is contrary to the very rules of basketball. Cause you can win in multiple ways as long as you score more and you can even win if you score less and I challenge you to envision the scenario where you can win the game of basketball even when scoring less, cause in theory you can win even if you scored less.
Brilliant examples/analogies, 10 years old would understand but the expert mind can be confused with the dogma and emotion.
It's not a random stat. It's a data set including the four factors and other starts/analytics accumulated over the last 36 seasons bro. Yes the game keeps evolving and changing. Could there be an anamoly? Sure? You want to bank on that? Banking on an anomaly is the equivalent of losing every in hopes of getting the #1 draft pick in hours that that #1 draft pick becomes a generational superstar. Only...banking on an anamoly to win a championship is about 1/10 of the odds of losing your way to the #1 pick who becomes the generational superstar that will stay healthy and win you a championship before skipping town in free agency. That's why I'm saying we have no chance of winning a championship with the current data set. Because there are currently 6 teams that have the minimum data set and we don't. Yes there's a number of ways to fix our data set to fit into the MINIMUM historical data set for champions. One of them would be to increase our ORB% without increasing our defensive efg. Good luck with that. Another would be to raise our 3P% about ten points. Good luck with that. Or we could increase our defensive turnovers substantially without any increases to our defensive .efg. Good luck with that. The simplest way to get out data set into the historical minimum data set for champions? How about decrease our turnovers? It comes down to a very simple thing. Decrease our turnovers without decreasing our own efg. Here's how the game keeps evolving. The data set of champions continues to rise Bro. Championship teams are becoming more efficient. We made a huge step to fix our shooting woes from last season. But.....even last season sitting wasn't our biggest problem. It was third. Our biggest two problems last year were defensive rebounding and turnovers. We've kinda mitigated the defensive rebounding problem with style of play and hitting shots. But we haven't addressed our turnover issues. That problem is still there and is our Achilles. It will put us out of the playoffs without a championship if it doesn't change.
Dude, you're going to use blowout wins against Phoenix and Dallas to attempt to prove that turnovers don't matter very much? Hardens turnovers are 30% out of max turnover range for historical championship playmakers. That is huge. And his net turnovers, which is to say his offensive turnovers minus his defensive turnovers minus half his offensive rebounds, is even further out of range. He's not even close. The teams turnovers matter. And Hardens turnovers matter because he is on the team and he's responsible for a huge share of the teams turnovers.
This is the most fun we have had for a long time. Just relax and enjoy. Can Rockets win the championship this year? Are you not thrillled just to be able to have this thought? Remeber the 3rd quarter game 6 against the clippers in the 2nd round playoffs. At one point,they had us have less than 1 percent to win the series towards the end of the quarter. Then the odds just keep climbing as we were killing them in the 4th. Basketball is not just stats. Even if they don't win it all this year, I am already happy and enthused to see how this team will elvole. The superstar free agents didn't come to Houston not because of Harden. They didn't come because they didn't see us as a good career option to raise their stocks. With us wining, that will change.
