With Harden out and the win today, I decided to look at the games he's missed this season.

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Someone post a pic of jocann guy.

 

He didn't run over my puppy, but he has run over my expectations of him. Perhaps my expectations were too high?

 

if you watch the games where we lost to bad teams, it's all clear that Harden is not playing seriously.

The best way to beat a bad team is to let Harden rest.

Let him play only when we are playing tough ones.

 

Mac overplays Harden and Parsons all the time. Should play them for 35 minutes per game.

 

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Good idea.

 

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I agree. Let him recover fully and reduce his minutes and keep him healthy for playoff. Mac is not being wise by overplaying him.

 

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Let's see if jocar looks like a joker. Can't believe the guy posts a pic of OP.

 

James hasn't been his best this first trimester, and the injuries are a part of it. The other part is pressing a bit, trying to do to much with the ball, maybe because of the greater expectations.

But to say he's not a team player is just wrong. He played great team ball for OKC, and will play for us. James is one of the smartest players in the NBA. It was Russ Westbrook who was the hotheaded balloon on that team, not Harden...

 

Meant ballhog, iPad autocorrected into ballon...

 

Offense runs smoother with.harden on the bench. BOTTOM LINE! Why is this so painful to read by supposed "rockets fan's "? He stands at top of key waisting time, he doesn't move without the ball, .he shoots.a low % from the field etc etc. He's considered overrated by many people and this year its true. He's not playing at an elite level like d wade. He's not hitting jumpers with efficiency like jj reddick and he doesn't have a variety of ways to score like Kevin Martin. These are plain facts and can't be disputed by someone who is a real bball fan and watches more than rockets games

 

I hope Harden's incentive-based contract isn't affecting how or how much he plays. I wouldn't think so, but I'll wonder until he hits one of the marks that guarantees the other half of that fifth year.

He does have a tendency to masturbate the basketball and try to do everything himself. I'm not comparing the two players' skill levels, but MJ was the same way....until he learned how to spell "team".

Granted, Harden should already be trusting Howard, Parsons....

And Harden has the worst possible coach for all this. McHale can say, "The ball got sticky all he wants" but James isn't gonna get the message with the same coach whose save-my-job game plan is to "iso Harden and let him kill the other team like he killed mine when he was with OKC".

In any case, Harden needs to heal, not play. You'll make All Star at least once in the next three years, James. You'll score at least 20 ppg. Etc. Just give the ankle---and our EKG's---some rest.

 

And yet, you post on clutchfans....

 

People really going in on harden, some is true but I'm not going to talk bad about him because he is still the best SG in the league. He just needs to get out if that 6TH man mentality.

 

McHale has no control over Harden. Every time after these types of games where Harden failed, all McHale say is the same thing every time "ball was sticky" or "let the ball do the work". Yet, do you see much changes? Sometimes, Harden would come back after a horrible game and start to distribute the ball more, but that usually only lasts 1 game.

 

Am I the only one who finds this post so ironic?

 

The truth is that, besides Howard, no other player on this Rocket's team is the ultimate difference maker. Whether Harden or Lin is out the impact is going to be very minimal. This team has so many offensive threats that his defensive liability is more of a threat to the team than his offensive prowess. Very few players can command that type of attention and Harden is NOT one of them.

 

Harden is shooting better from mid-range and around this basket this year.

His defense sometimes looks good, but more often looks awful to barely passable. Even in his better defensive games, he still has a tendency to not get in a proper defensive stance and move his feet.

His 3-point shooting is obviously not as good. I wonder if this has anything to do with him focusing more on mid-range shots in the off-season. While its nice to see that he wanted to make himself a more well-rounded offensive player, with Dwight Howard in the middle last year's version of James Harden who was deadly from long range would have been a better complement.

 

I hate these kind of threads - when your best player is out, the whole team steps it up a notch. They can do this and bring more energy for single games, they can`t do it for a season. And in th playoffs when defenses get better, you need those elite scorers.

So in short: no, this team is not better without Harden and there is no as good but more cost effective solution for this team. We are very lucky that we have both Harden and Howard and we are far from a finished product. This team still has to learn how to best play together and Morey will tweak the lineup.

So stop these knee jerks threads...

 

Thank you for my laugh of the day. The name "McHale" and the phrase "right coaching move" are polar opposites.

 

This doesn't mean that we play better without Harden per se. But it does show that when we play as a team and don't rely so much on one individual, we typically have good results. Add Harden to the mix and have him embrace the concept of team ball and I think we have a recipe for more success.