For quite awhile I've heard this as the reason that we are constantly underperforming. However, we already have James Harden dominating the ball and playing PG. This is why we had success last year playing Jason Terry next to James Harden. People complain so much about Ty Lawson being trash, but don't realize that Ty Lawson had success when he could work with the ball, instead of just walking it up halfcourt just to throw it to Harden like he is this season. He didn't just turn into trash overnight. Terry did not demand the ball and played the role of a spot up shooter, and rarely ever made mistakes (I believe him to have the best basketball IQ on the team. Just my opinion). In my opinion, there are two solutions to this problem: 1) Harden must mentally move to his natural position as a shooting guard, catching and shooting like he did in OKC with Durant and Westbrook. Why this is necessary: Harden plays like a PG but his assists to turnover ratio is not an acceptable rate (1.6 A/TO compared to Ty Lawson's 2.3 via ESPN's stats). Will it happen? Probably not. Harden has already established himself as the top dog of the team and management has done little to ask him to step down. This is crippling our team from becoming great, among other things. 2) Harden must play next to a catch-and-shoot shooting guard in Jason Terry. He is a high IQ player who makes the right passes and shoots consistently from all around the court. Why this is necessary: Since Harden demands the ball to initiate the offense, someone like Terry who can space the floor and is willing to contribute in anyway possible is crucial. Will it happen? It can. "But we already have Beverley! He can catch and shoot! His defense is better!" Beverley is a much streakier shooter than Jason Terry, and has shown his immaturity when he fouls for no reason except out of disapproval from a previous play. You're not hurting them giving them two free throws. Stop. Also, Beverley has regressed as a defender tremendously personally, I much rather have Jason Terry's basketball IQ change the flow of the game when we're in a slump.
"1) Harden must mentally move to his natural position as a shooting guard, catching and shooting like he did in OKC with Durant and Westbrook." refreshing to see more people realizing how bad Harden affects Ty
I liked your post man. Was a good read. But as you stated, it doesn't seem like Harden will play his natural position. Repped tho!
Harden consumes 32% of the possessions while he is on the floor.Why can't Lawson use those remaining possessions? Lawson's numbers weren't much different when Harden was on the bench. Why is that? Harden's fault too?
Why do people keep saying Harden was only off-ball at OKC? He played a Ginobody role. He was a play-maker, too. Hell, that's how OKC beat SAS to make it to the Finals.
Harden isn't perfect but you can't blame him for Lawson going from top 10 PG to 15th man. Even when Harden isn't on the floor Lawson is playing terribly. And yes, Terry is more consistent than Bev this year on 3s - he consistently shoots a lower percentage. And the guy is old, so no we can't really increase his minutes much. So basically OP wants a better version of Bev, which I think we all want. Hell, I'll take a better version of all our players.
Is anyone still saying this? I thought that chatter was shut down with the failing Ty Lawson experiment
Check out this video of Harden highlights WCF vs Spurs. The second half of the video is worth watching, the first two games were blowouts for the Spurs. Clearly shows Harden handled the ball a ton, OKC often put the ball in his hands as the playmaker to close games, even with Westbrook, and Durant on the floor. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sChRD7ZOaFo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I think we're all resigned to the fact the Lawson experiment is a bust. As pointed out, when Lawson is on and harden is on the bench, Lawson still does very little. To be honest, the 1st quarter against Phoenix we played such a different offence with Beverley as the primary ball handler and I FREAKIN LOVED IT! I'm happy having Beverley as PG myself.
This silly narrative again. When Harden is on the floor, we basically have one of the best offenses in the league (5th), when he is off we have one of the worst (27th). With Harden on the floor, the team scores 1.089 points per possession. http://nbawowy.com/70o0aupm43voyldi#/70o0aupm43voyldi With Harden off the floor, the team scores scores 1.025 points per possession. http://nbawowy.com/gvcr49pnzim86w29#/gvcr49pnzim86w29 If this team wants to focus on improving its 8th rated offense, which BTW, is pretty much identical to last year, the Rockets need a guy who can carry the offense when Harden is not on the floor. I thought Lawson could be that guy, but he stopped being good. Trying to "fix" Harden by moving him off the ball continues to be the dumbest, yet popular idea, that Clutchfans has ever come up with. Get another offensive impact player who can carry the bench and call it a day.
The only way I see Lawson turning things around is to play at a faster tempo and get out in the open-court more. The Rockets as a team play at a fast pace, but Lawson himself walks the ball up the court too often, plays tentative, and looks like he's stuck in the mud. The bench unit is full of great athletes (Brewer, Harrell, McDaniels, and Jones) that should be great targets for him in transition. He needs to be much more aggressive pushing the ball. I think if he plays that style he will start to gets easy assists and maybe start to get his confidence back again.
Here at the Houston Rockets, we don't believe in power forwards. We only allow Clint Capela, Ariza, and Brewer to play PF. Occasionally, when the moons align, we will allow Josh Smith to play PF.
We dont know how to treat real pgs... We bring em in , have them as spot up shooters, then let them thrive for other teams..
