I'm not so sure about the credibility of that website. And when talking about +/-, people usually refer to ESPN's RPM or BPM from http://www.basketball-reference.com BPM RPM (You can see that no other Houston player is above Harden)
Please tell me this is sarcasm. You make Harden sound like some type of comic book villian, lol. God are the posts around here getting dumber? Are you guys actually trying to make sense or going full out troll because of how the season has gone?
I'm pretty sure most players, if not all, in his position will tell you it comes down to results. If you're winning, then you're making all the right decisions, but if you're losing, you're making all the wrong ones. Harden has been Harden for a while now, we're just losing now. Lebron was said to be too passive, when he'd give up the ball and the others missed...it didn't matter if that was the right play. A big issue with this team though, is lack of competent offensive players. Plays and passes don't mean much if others can't shoot, dribble, etc. They have to be spoon fed at the rim or in catch and shoot situations, which still forces Harden to do much of the work.
I didn't realize there were different gauges... figured it was a universal point differential of their team vs the other team when that player was on the floor.... that's why I figured Harrell would be at the top - seems he's always in the positive everytime I look at a boxscore...
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Asked about Rockets poor finishes, Harden twice cited his TOs, specifcally "trying to make a tight pass" and trying to "thread the needle."</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/713403411924815872">March 25, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
No villainess involved - it's big business... hundreds of millions of dollars in endorsements... you get the money by either A) winning championships B) showing up on the highlight reel C) stats/awards or D) overall high visibility/profile ....or ideally a some combination of the above... James is a guy that obviously works his brand image - the hair, the beard, the loud clothes, the high profile 'relationships'.... james is gonna do what's best for james... it is what it is...
You can't be taking that many shots a game when you are a doormat team. Players will revolt. Things would be different if the Rockets were cruising to a top 4 seed, but they aren't, so players are less willing to tolerate hero ball.
For Harden to become an elite player he must do a few if not many things. 1) share the ball. Morey said it but didn't say it. 2)He must shoot the three ball better or less. 3)He needs to drive more and post up, like kobe posts smaller weaker guards. 4) He cannot hold the ball 3-4 seconds before making a play. He stagnants the offense and allows the defense to set up. 5)He should drive right more often. Harden needs a little more variety to his game. 6)The offense most move when he has the ball to be more of a facilitator. 7) play defense. Period, which can lead to easy offense (transition points) .
Well up until this year, James' "brand" has directly led to his teams winning more often than not. This years has been different, and we could argue the reasons until we are blue in the face, and never agree. I will simply say a bunch of **** went wrong. Next year is a huge year for James to see how he responds to all the criticism that has and will continue to come his way.
In other words, to paraphrase the oft-cited CF classic, your feeling is Harden needs another year, but team direction has shifted and shifted hard. It goes without saying — next year is going to be a very important year for James Harden.
I fully agree... next year is a make or break year for James Harden. Get the guy a REAL coach and let's see if he will respond. If he's willing to play off ball, put in CONSISTENT effort on D and operate WITHIN a system (as opposed to iso/hero ball) then he'll be aces! If not... kick him to the curb cause unless you're Bron or MJ or Kobe, hero ball is only going to take you so far.... As much as I rag on the dude, I do sincerely hope that he gets his priorities straight and helps the team get to the promised land.
I don't think Harden has problem trusting his teammates. And I don't think Harden is a selfish player in the sense that he wants to pad his stats to look good. His problem is he doesn't seem to be able to stay focused in the game unless he has the ball in his hands. If the play does not directly involve him, he just drifts. He is totally capable of playing well off ball. He just can't stay focused enough to do that much. He does the same thing on defense. Well, playing defense is by definition not having the ball in your hands. He can play good defense when he is focused. He just doesn't do that for very long. He holds the ball too long because nobody moves when he's in iso. And nobody moves because (1) that's what other players tend to do during iso; and (2) we have no offensive system to make it easier for him.
I think this is a GREAT point when contrasting this year vs last! I think it relates even more to defense... when you're winning, folks will let stuff slide - but not so much when you're eating losses... I think this plays signficantly into Dwight's downturn... I think he got tired of being the little dutch boy with his finger in the defensive dyke (on a losing team) while others weren't giving 100% on D - so he figured screw it... (Insert joke regarding 'finger in dyke' here - lol)
Also, don't forget to bring in players who can score and be our 2nd and 3rd offensive option. At least give Harden some help on the offensive side and see how things turn out, because right now, it's just ridiculous the amount of load James is carrying offensively on daily basis. All elite teams have two or three big names on their squad. How many do we have? Howard is not even an all-star anymore and is declining fast, so basically it's just one. Hire a real coach that can set up a legit system in which players can execute their plays, and vastly upgrade our supporting cast. Then we can judge whether or not Harden can be a leader on a championship caliber team. But it's just not fair to come to any conclusions yet, given our shi,tty coaching staff and below average roster.
If the competitor in Harden won't allow him to give up the ball and he has this phenomenal desire to win and do whatever is necessary....then 1. Why did he come to camp out of shape? 2. Why does he not knuckle down and play defense? 3. Why does he not want to play defensive PF when the matchups call for it? 4. Why has he not worked on chemistry with Dwight for the last 3 seasons? 5. Why has he been out late partying constantly practically every night, including nights before games and after games? Don't get me wrong. I believe Harden wants to win. But Harden has convinced me he wants to win in a certain way....with him doing everything offensively and everybody else doing all the dirty work of defending and feeding him the basketball, setting picks for him, and getting out of his way so he either gets buckets or assists on the offensive end and has a bloated box score. Harden has demonstrated to me a selfishness to his game this season. It doesn't matter that he throws 16 assists in a game. It's still selfish play. He gets all the glory for putting up a 16. He's not willing to make the pass before the pass. He's not willing to swing the ball. He's not willing to be a decoy. He's not willing to play off the ball. He's not willing to set a pick for somebody else. He's not willing to nut up and stop somebody. Harden, at least for this season, hasn't been willing to do anything that doesn't show up in the box score. He's playing for numbers. He's trying to out-MVP Curry and Lebron instead of out-win those guys. We need a playmaker that we haven't been able to acquire because Harden doesn't want to be the secondary playmaker. And we need bigs that play D and rebound and he's about to run off the best defensive/rebounding big we've had on the roster in over 10 years. Oh, he's got his buddies. Guys just like him. They take up a lot of possessions shooting and scoring the basketball and committing a lot of turnovers. At least Love rebounds somewhat. But I'm having serious doubts about bringing all Harden's "buddies" to town. It doesn't seem to ever work. We WASTED, I mean WASTED, a first round pick on Lawson because Harden wanted him. Unless we miss the playoffs the pick is gonzo. Now, here we are 10 games from the end, and Morey is talking about how competitive Harden is..........................??? give.me.a.break.
You guys don't make much sense and it's actually quite shocking, I feel like Im talking to people who just hate someone and just want to say things about them no matter the avenue or proof or logical reasoning. You cant pass and be selfish, you cant ask for help and want to just do everything yourself. James Harden doesn't have help so who else exactly is he suppose to share these duties with? It's mind boggling? If you guys were talking about his defense then I would I agree yes James Harden bad at defense.. but selfish? really? Every other indicator and stat points to the opposite. Harden can score and facilitate and the Rockets want him to do those things not because he's selfish because he's good at it and he's the only one we've got whose good at it. So exactly who is James Harden supposed to give the ball too?
Just another delusional drivel from a DOF. Where is the evidence that Harden does not want to be the second play maker? He tried to play along Lawson, it just didn't work out because Lawson sucked ass. Lawson sucked even when he was not playing with Harden, so how is this Harden's fault? BTW, Lawson is still sucking on the Pacers. The rest is just pure hatred-filled speculation. You moron, if Harden was so selfish he wouldn't even commit that much turnovers. He would just jack up shots all the time, in stead of trying to get his teammates involved and pass to them. And best defensive/rebounding big my ass. Dwight is the one who's not playing up to his salary level here. He's having a career low season, offensively AND defensively. We play like D-league scrubs when Harden is on the bench - which is part of the reason why he plays so heavy minutes - but this team suffers barely when Dwight sits. In fact, our record is BETTER without Dwight this year. So, get your priorities straight and see who's the real culprit here, and stop spouting your delusional nonsense.
A lot of them are Dwight-only-fans trying to deflect blame on Harden. Don't expect much logic from them. They have an Agenda.
Hey Rookie, The evidence that Harden does not want to be the secondary playmaker was in front of your nose all season.....again. Harden did not give Lawson the basketball. Play after play after play after play after play Harden ran point and sent Lawson to hang out in the corner. The only time Lawson ran the point was when Harden was gassed..........for one possession. Secondly, Morey just stated Harden is so competitive that he won't give up the basketball. Are you blind? You mean you're going to try to argue that Harden is willing to give up the basketball?????? Talk about moronic, foolish drivel. As far as the catty DOF comment.....I realize you haven't been here long kiddo. But I am anything but a DOF. I don't really care for Dwight personally very much. Don't care for the whining. Don't care for the high maintenance. Don't care for his personal life having babies by a bunch of different women. Just don't care for him as a person and he's for sure far from the top of my list of favorite big men. However, I am a ROF. You know what that is? That is a Rockets-Only Fan. You know what that means? That means I really want my TEAM to WIN!!! Get that through the little grapefruit perched on top of your neck. The fact of the matter is for the team to win we have to have rim protection/paint defense/rebounding. No team in the Association wins anything of any merit while having average to poor paint defense/rim protection/rebounding. And NOBODY on this squad is anywhere as good as Dwight is at that. In fact, there's not 5 players in the entire league that are as good at that combination of skills as Dwight is. The other facts are these. No team has ever won a championship with their primary playmaker committing as many turnovers as Harden does. No matter what measure you put on turnovers, per game, per 100 possessions, per plays, etc. Doesn't matter. No team has won a championship with their primary playmaker committing this many turnovers....ever. And that's not about to change. Harden has hogged the ball. Morey has admitted it and attempted to justify it. And we are 2 games below .500 at the moment. This season is on Harden (and by extension Morey). Harden is the best player. Harden is the player Morey has built the roster around. Harden is the player the system is built around. The disaster that is this season rests very clearly on Harden. Go back to eating your marshmallow bunnies with the yellow sugar crystals and let adults converse.
