Harden has an excellent chance to win the MVP. And many of you will be thrilled. Great individual accomplishment. We can all praise Harden like the Spurs and the San Antonio fan base did David Robinson. But it just doesn't amount to much in lieu of a championship.
All the Rox can do is try to improve the problem areas, make the playoffs and play your game when you get there. Winning a chip involves ALOT of variables going your way (most notably is your health and the health of your opponent) so all you can do is control what you can and let the chips fall where they may. MDA will have more of an impact from the sideline than most people think. He's a major upgrade from Bickerstaff & McHale. It will be interesting.
Yes, we are not a perfect team, and we have flaws. And it is not a profound statement by anyone to say Harden could stand to protect the ball more and to predict that's likely his next point of improvement. Hell, Harden said it after the game. Harden agrees with you, and so MDA doesnt need to have a serious talk with him, or he already did and the Thread Title is a moo point We all know he gets careless, but the difference is ranking that among our weaknesses and areas of improvement But do you actually believe MDA considers this our weakest link vs rim protection, rebounding and another star to match with Cle, GSW and SAS. When you make the obvious comment about TOs that we ALL know, and make a point of mentioning it over and over you are saying Harden's TOs is our weakest link, and how teams will beat us Yes, his TOs can grab the headlines and high lights of a loss, biut do you actaully rank it ahead of blocking and tackling keys to the game like rebounding and rim protection and missing stars to match with the big three Prioritorize our weaknesses to winning 60 games and making it to the Finals, and lets see where you rank Harden's turnovers. And btw, we still might win 60 games regardless
We don't have a big body that we can throw the ball to down low on a steady diet. "Conventional" basketball wouldn't work for us. The genius of Morey has already seen that. We push the ball a lot. Every team is different. We will see. Let's all enjoy this wonderful season and the teams's success so far. We have all been watching basketball for a long time to know how excessive turnovers can hurt a team. This thread could have just been in the individual game threads.
Durvasa isn't saying anything more profound than dozens upon dozens of us. We all know Harden gets careless with the ball and he has lost some playoff games due to it. but we also all agree we had no real chance to beat GSW the last two years in our playoff matchups regardless of those turnovers. We all say he should focus on improving that area of his game next. But we also all know he once again has surprised the fsck out of us with his improvement. So include us all in that statement wrt how Harden sees himself improving even further. Where you are alone is saying Harden will prevent the Rockets from improving as a team. And looking to fix everything by taking the ball out of his hands or trading him for another superstar or bag of 1st rounders. You are on your own island when you say Harden, Les, Morey and MDA are holding us back because Harden is not a winner.
MDA has to have a serious talk with brewer about his 3pt shooting and with trez about his height. Every single player in the league has his flaws, they are no robots. Brewer can't hit threes, harden turns the ball over, LBJ can't hit free throws .... real life is no 2K where you can give your player 99/99 in everything, you got to take the good with the bad. Also, a lot of times we get freakin easy baskets because of his high risk/ high reward style of play. The moment we get capela back, our defense will be better again like it has been at the beginning of december and our offense will be as potent as ever. Who cares about 5 TOs a game by harden if were winning 130-105 like every game? I really really don't.
Firstly, I don't believe there is any evidence that shows that an offense that shoots a lot of threes is anymore likely to go on a "drought" than one that depends on something else. No matter what you're good at, it is possible to go cold. To me, it's always sounded like one of those cranky old man "back in my day" arguments that never really had any substance, but I'm certainly open to being proven wrong if there are stats that can do so. I think every elite team today depends heavily on the three. Secondly, I think the Rockets dependence on the 3 is slightly overblown. Yeah, IIRC, it is our main source of points, and we obviously make it a point to shoot them whenever possible, but we are also getting so many of them because our guys are really good at getting in the paint and finishing inside, which opens up some of those looks. We get a lot of points in the paint. Remember when we damn near beat the Spurs at home despite having our single worst 3-pt shooting night of the season? No Capela that night, too. Similar story in our previous game against them. I know, I know, almost doesn't count, etc. But it was pretty good evidence to me that this team has other skills to fall back on. None of this is to say that we don't have weaknesses, and that there aren't some teams that could likely expose them if we played today. But I feel like you may be overstating some of our issues.
What is wrong with you?? Why does your agenda always come before the team?? Can't you just celebrate like a real fan without trying to piss on everyone's cornflakes?
I don't really disagree with anything you said. I think the Rockets are probably playing the right style for the personnel they have and the head coach they have. I'm enjoying our wins as much as anyone else. I'm just not very confident it will translate well in a playoff series against the top contenders. If this is an obvious and unnecessary comment to make, I apologize.
Oh yeah, I was at Jersey Mikes the other day. Was standing in line behind D'Antoni and he ordered an Italian sub. I yelled, Mike, "make sure you get it Mike's way.... and don't forget the provolone cheese."
Your last two paragraphs are false. I have never advocated any trade of Harden, never. I did make the comment once that if he isn't going to change we should trade him because we aren't going to win any championships until Harden changes his game. But I have no idea whether he's going to change or not. I just wished he'd change soon so we could maximize our title chances while he's in his prime. Also I've never advocated taking the ball out of his hands. But I have consistently pointed out that the problem we have is James doesn't want anybody else taking the ball out of his hands.....ever, not even for a single play. This factoid makes us one dimensional. We have no other perimeter playmakers on the floor with him. Everybody is a spot up shooter or a dunker/finisher. Yeah, Gordon can make plays too. But he's just like Harden in his propensity to turn it over too frequently. And when he's out there with Harden he's spotting up. One dimensional does not win championships. Period. What I've told you repeatedly but you just came seem to get is that Harden should be the second playmaker, not the primary playmaker. That would be akin to how LeBron is playing. That's not taking the ball out of his hands hardly any at all. He's still be able to run the circus solo for 16-18 minutes when the primary playmaker sits. And he'd still have an extremely high usage with a few more open catch and shoots which would boost his scoring efficiency, save his body shine wear and tear, and also cut his turnovers in half and make us true contenders. Remember this next factoid. Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and John Stockton asking many others are winners. But their not champions. They never topped the mountain. They could not get past Jordan and Hakeem. I've never said Harden wasn't a winner. He is. You can write whatever you want but it didn't make it true. Harden is a winner. Your problem is you hand to use the word winner. You cannot use the word champion to describe Harden. You should fess up to that. Not only have I stated Harden is a winner. I've also said he's championship capable. I know he has the capacity to win a championship, even multiple titles, as the franchise cornerstone. But here's what I've said that flat pisses you off because you cannot refute it other than to disparage my posts and try to make them appear to say something they do not. I have clearly said that WE WILL NOT WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP UNTIL HARDEN ACCEPTS A MORE EFFICIENT PLAYMAKER PLAYING ALONGSIDE HIM AND HE AGREES TO BE USED OFF THE BALL AS THE GAME SITUATION DICTATES THAT WE SHOULD MOVE HIM OFF THE BALL. I've stated it 9 ways to Sunday because guys like you keep distorting what I'm saying. I'm going to keep pointing it out too every time you distort or lie about my position on this. Agreed, there are only a few of us that see it this way. You could say we're on an island. But not the island you are attempting to put me on. Guys like you think we simply need another Prigioni rerun sitting on the bench to have adequate playmaking. Or you make the case for adding another high turnover playmaker which would be a disaster for this team's chances to win a championship. Or you make the case for status quo which won't get the job done. Or you make the case that we're somehow going to acquire another superstar down the road who will be a great #2 playmaker while deferring his game to Harden all the time. That's sheer fantasy. It's not going to happen unless Harden agrees to modify his game and play off the ball some to make room for this mystical player that you won't name. So good luck with that. Keep drinking the Harden-spiked kool aid and stumble drunkenly along thinking everything is just going to fall in place and we're going to be picking off LOB trophies like our opponents pick off Hardens passes. Good luck with that.
This has nothing to do with his turnovers though. If the rox dont win a ring its due to lack of talent, not hardens turnovers. Your reasoning makes no ******* sense, just as dumb as calling the assist leader selfish with sharing the ball or Harden needing to play off the ball when the Rox got theost success the year he stopped playing sg and became the pg.
So basically if we lose in the playoffs the only reason is because harden is handling the ball? It cant be because the defense sucks, we lack talent, key players are injured etc. If we lose its because harden is the primary ballhandler and he gets 5.5 tos instead of 4 tos like Curry, Lebron etc? No wonder you always put YULE C, you think the evidence is the end result. "So why'd you think the butler did it?" "Because the victim died" Thats basically your argument in a nutshell, and the funny thing is Harden must've been reading your posts the last 6 games have just been a huge SFTU to this thread.
What your diatribe has forgotten is we've tried this Harden off the ball nonsense ever since he arrived, wasnt this the scenario when Jeremy Lin was on the team? Mchale has been trying to get Harden off the ball since his tenure, none of those teams have been as effective as this year's rockets. Why does cutting harden's turnovers help the team when the drop is due to him moving off the ball and not due to better playmaking? Harden's decrease in tos will just get transferred on this mystical playmaker you keep ranting about. You're not gonna find a better playmaker than Harden unless you get another franchise superstar on the team. Why dont we sit Harden the entire game? That would make Hardens TOs zero, which in your world will make us world beaters.
