It could be that everyone was exhausted. MDA and his stupid seven man rotation bit him in the ass. Or, it could be that the Harden iso play was what they wanted. Harden gets the ball and everyone takes their position on the perimeter. I don't like it, because with Gordon and Williams we have other options. I'm sure everyone has noticed that when Harden sits down that ball movement and pace improve. We've all heard both MDA and McHale talk about playing with pace and ball movement. As great as Harden is, I think he is part of the problem at times.
Harden does not have enough handle to deal with opposing point guard defenders. He's got more than enough handle to embarrass and destroy every big man, small forward, and shooting guard. But if we don't get the switch when we're playing tough defensive teams who have a tough, quick, small defender at the point that can slip the pick then Harden's handle is no advantage to us. He needs to give up the ball in those moments to another creator who then has a mismatch. The problem is we don't have that guy on the roster. And the reason why we don't have that guy on the roster is because Harden doesn't want that guy on the roster. Harden wants to solve everything by creating switches to a matchup which favors him. So he can continue to run the show at the point. As you can see, you can get by with that against lesser defensive teams. But against the better defensive teams your cannot simply switch your way to a favorable matchup. That's why we need another creator on the court that can run the top. Not simply more gimmicks and trickery to attempt to keep Harden on top with a favorable matchup.
