I'm not cherry picking. I've literally gone through years of game logs and detailed it in prior posts. But to summarize for you, this year 3 of 11 postseason games with a game score under 10. That's compared to 4 of 81 regular season games. 2 of 11 post season games with a game score over 30. That's compared to 22 of 81 regular season games. He has meaningfully more (% wise) crappy games and meaningfully less (% wise) dominant games. It's just what it is. Doesn't even really address the wtf of game 6. As concerning, even with better players more suited to his style around him, his turnover numbers went up and his 3 point percentage went down relative to past postseasons, yet he shot more threes. I've laid it out before: - not as a good a three point shooter as he thinks. In fact in the playoffs as likely to be a below average three point shooter as above. Yet he takes a ton. - too many turnovers. Turnover numbers keep going up and up - no defense. The NBA is filled with two way superstars. Look at all defensive team histories. Even guys like John Stockton makes multiple all defensive teams. Harden has improved this year to not an embarrassment - though let's be honest as Rockets fans often he still is in the sense he'll unexplainably lose a guy, whiff on fast break defense or let Danny Green blow by him for an and-1, lol - too much reliance of ft attempts. He still gets calls in the playoffs but it can vary by game and ref crew which when single games matter so much can be a problem He's got tons of positives. Unfortunately I think these key negatives become magnified in the playoffs where possessions matter more. Obviously they will continue to try and build around him. Add an all star. Maybe that helps lower his 3 attempts and turnovers by virtue of lower usage?? Still I question how another all star player will fit. I think James is more than willing to share the ball. I think he is completely unwilling to become a free flowing, moving offensive player once doing so. He typically shares it and camps out at the 3 point line until he gets it back, still guarded. It's been multiple seasons since the guy really ran any sort of off ball movement. Is what it is. I see no reason to extend him this offseason. Pick up another all star. See if that combo works any better. Extend next offseason.
What's his physical gift? Elite speed? No. Elite height for his position? No. Elite length? No. Elite athleticism? No. You mean "when the Rockets were at their best, the Spurs couldn't stop him." We're unstoppable when the majority of our shooters shoot >=40% from the 3pt line like they did in Games 1 and 4. Other than that, the Spurs absolutely exploited Harden's weaknesses. Defensively, they didn't switch on pick and rolls and let him take as many step-back 3's as he wanted. That's exploiting his poor 3pt shooting. The defense also used lengthy defenders who kept their hands up to neutralize Harden's foul baiting tactics which is a crucial part of his game. The Spurs also forced Harden to guard Aldridge since they knew that Harden was incapable of guarding any Mills/Green/Leonard. In other words, they exploited his poor off-ball defense.
another strong point. not just ball handling but scoring, so anderson too. these guys can be more involved in the offense but for w/e reason they're not and mostly restricted to spot up shooting? harden cant be that stupid can he? yes some of you are thinking im dumb as hell for saying he's not a superstar. well when is he gonna dominate a series like one? why does his efficiency drop down big in the po's? why cant he carry his a-game int he regular season into the po's? why is he getting shut down by wes matthews and jj ****in redick? the word superstar is thrown around so much now. fans dont think this era is weak compared to previous ones. putting up gawdy regular season numbers doesnt cut it. you have to do it in the po's where it matters most.
It's on D'Antoni to involve the rest of the players to the max. He calls out the plays, not Harden. I do agree that Harden has got a lot of steps to take before he can be considered as a superstar. I think James, didn't do too badly, until the last minutes of Game 5 and the entire Game 6. He should take the positives, and work to improve his mental and physical strength.
It seems to me as the season went on the offense slowly devolved. There were virtually no plays used in the playoffs. Only occasionally with Gordon they'd have plays to get Gordon open. Otherwise it was all Harden PnR driven. I believe MDA has already talked about adding secondary layers to the offense for next year. Which sounds nice on paper. And I think will definitely happen and allow them to have a great regular season again. But it remains likely the offense will devolve again in the playoffs. Truly and honestly... what are the chances of Harden participating in an offense all the way through a playoffs that includes significant off ball movement for him??
people overrate calling out plays a ton around here. The rockets do not call out plays as much as people want to think. It's still very much read and react which has a lot to do with their higher pace offense. They have their sets and it starts with that as far as preferred options and what opens up
Well, I don't think there will be significant off ball movement, but I do hope that he will recognize the need for sharing ball handling duties in the playoffs. I don't think James is selfish. He should learn from Lebron, who has no problem playing with Irving.
Lebron could have both arms succumb to cramps and be forced to dribble the ball with his dick and he still wouldn't turn the ball as much as Harden has in a critical Play Off game even if he was super dead tired and depressed. This is no knock on Harden but it is what is.
Definitely agreed. The problem is that without continued ball movement, Harden becomes somewhat useless even as a decoy. The only positive that could possibly come out of it is when he's being played tight by a good defender and they just want to make it a 4 on 4 game, eliminating a good defender on the other team. I'd rather see more motion in the offense...
You can't make too much out of the turnovers. Sure, some of them are preventable since he attempts high risk passes. But you look at any of the super high usage players and they will accumulate a high raw turnover count. The one thing Harden can do to improve his efficiency drastically is to either improve his 3pt % or attempt less of them.
Superstars are players with the capabilities of being a #1 option on a title team. Is Harden that? Yes. Why is this even a question? Give the guy his money.
Players tend to put up inferior statistics in the playoffs compared to the regular season where they're facing bad defensive teams and teams that can't or don't make pre-game adjustments. This is not surprising. Also, the Thunder and Spurs are bad matchups for Harden since both teams' best defensive players happen to play Harden's position. Sure, Harden's stats and efficiency are down in the playoffs, but this year, he was really good in 8 of 11 games -- against 2 teams that were designed to stop him. That's not exactly bad.
These are all basically "he can't be perfect" responses. I get it. I'm trying to figure out if he can be great even for one entire post-season, or good enough consistently enough to lead a squad to a ring. And to do it in the superstar/superteam era. I grow weary of the "bad matchup" excuse. Thunder with Thabo. Blazers with Matthews. Thunder with Roberson. Spurs with Kawhi/Simmons. James has shot 31% from three or worse 3 out of 5 playoff years - yet he shoots it more and more. He's turned the ball over 4.5 times per game or ore 4 out of 5 playoff years. He's ended the playoffs with HORRIFIC WTF games 2 years. Another year they were upset in the first round on a play that is the defining moment of another players playoff career to date (not James' fault, but his directing of traffic on that play was very strange). His ORtg is always worse in the playoffs. His DRtg is always worse in the playoffs. his PER is always worse in the playoffs. Fine, you don't like gamescore. There's a trillion stats you can look at. ORtg, Drtg, and PER aren't flawless either. They're just more stats that support what the eye test tells you. I get the playoffs are harder. If you want a team to win a ring eventually, the #1 guy will have to prove he can truly shine. I haven't seen that yet. He has no game winning shot. He hasn't put the team on his back and carried them past an opponent they really shouldn't have beaten. He's never locked down a guy on a critical possession. Honestly, I don't even know how its an argument. By all measures, he's not excelled in the post-season. He's played with another all-star, but in retrospect that wasn't a good fit - though it was that all-star that was in the game, impacting it DEFENSIVELY, shutting down Blake Griffin, in the 4th quarter of the team's best comeback in a playoff game probably ever. Harden does need more talent around him. I hope he gets it and hope he puts together an epic playoff performance. I hope I'm wrong.
Not to nitpick, but he hit a game winner against Golden State last year. Other than that, I agree with everything you said.
No, you're absolutely right. My bad. I remember now, though I've tried to put last season out of my memory! They almost gave that game away to an Ian Clark shot first.
Morey definitely need to offer him max, but I kind of hope Harden take a little less so Morey can spend more somewhere else.
I mean if we can offer max to either Westbrook and Harden, it's a nobrainer to give it to Harden over the "MVP".
Bottem like is you extend Harden asap if you can. Ideally you would try and sign some max level player first and then re-up harden. But if he says ok sign? You do it. Locking up top 5-10 players long term is never a negative. Now what harden needs to do in order to truely be the best player on a championship team? He's gotta start taking the damn mid range shot. Number one he can get it almost any time he wants and it's usually wide open. Number 2 he's actually really good at mid range jumpers when you consider the ones he takes usually are last second step backs. Number 3 every player james is competing with in terms of league wide stature (Leonard, Lebron, curry,KD) all use the mid range a lot, and there all in the playoffs still. Harden has the talent to be the best guy on a championship team. He just needs to make some tweaks to his game. Last thing, if you don't think Harden is a star? Your fooling yourself. You don't have to like him you can hate him and like curry Leonard Lebron KD Russ more. That's fine. But outside of Lebron nobody in the NBA swapped for harden with this roster would do any better regular season or playoffs. They might put up different numbers, sure but the results would be the same. I'm a big believer in Harden but he did disappoint me in game 6. Game 5 late happens, guys get tired and when the body goes so does the mind. And frankly late game playoff ball is 90% all ISO anyways. None the less MDA and harden should have re grouped with the score still tied in OT after 2 min and given the ball to Lou or bev to start the offense. It was the right thing to do Iv seen Lebron do it and harden needs to figure that aspect of the game out. Game 6 is something that I hope harden thinks about all summer and then never thinks about it again come training camp. That can just never happen again. I can deal with bad shots and bad shooting even some high TOs and not great d but you can't have that type of effort in the playoffs win or go home at home. That can never happen again. Look harden is not going to win a championship every year and he may never win one. Lebron is the best maybe ever and in most likely scenario will have been to 8 finals and only won 3x. But outside of Lebron his first finals in Miami he has never played with poor effort harden needs to follow the leader of he wants to one day possibly be a champion. MVP can't matter anymore and I hope that going into next year and the rest of his career he had this mindset.
