I'm getting really tired of seeing Rivers, Tucker, Clark, and others pass up open shots. Rivers keeps looking for Harden like he's his mommy, can't wait to dump the ball back to him. CP drives, finds the open man, the ball moves around to Tucker, and with nobody in front of him, he passes it and it ends up back in CP's hands with 5 seconds on the clock. There was one hilarious exchange where Rivers and Tucker kept tossing the hot potato back and forth. Like they're all afraid to waste the possession by actually trying to put the ball in the basket. Look, I'm glad these guys are thinking about efficiency and are aware of their limits. But if they're not gonna take the open shot, they're letting the opponent get away with double-teaming away from them. And they're making our stars do extra work. It's the Ryan Anderson disease. Is it their fault? Or does Harden induce it by signaling to everyone around him that he wants the ball and will carry the team? It's starting to feel like a dependency issue. The role players have been more aggressive and creative when Harden's off the court. Maybe he needs to send them a stronger message to step up.
this all goes back to using the rest of the season to find this teams true identity and what they will carry over into the playoffs. They played a chunk of the year due to missing personnel for obvious reasons a certain way. it's not going to be fixed overnight. gradually guys will be more aggressive and the balance will improve. harden also has a role in this as well, so it isn't just on everyone else
Rivers and Clark aren't good shooters and should not be anything more than insurance players who are not in the rotation unless we have an injury or resting someone. Rivers' FT% is appalling and Clark can't even sell a pump fake let alone actually drive to the rim. We need Shumpert and Faried to eat up their minutes. While we're on the subject of untenable players, Green needs to become an insurance player too. Replacing those 3 with Shumpert, Faried and House would be so good for the energy and confidence of this team. Tucker is having a momentary crisis, he will get over it. He's shooting 38% on 5 attempts. No one is going to leave him open, and if they do he will burn them in the playoffs. He has that playoff soldier mentality.
yeah and id rather not have a entire team shooting all the type of shots he takes. because in reality a ton of his shots aren't high quality. but those are make able relative to him. that's his role, not anyone else's
It's the "Harden-bail-me-out" mentality that shows in Harden's recent 28+ FGA games. Yes it was historical performance but at times the streak goes the other way (and that correlates with badly officiating games). I think defensively the team starts to look much more locked-in lately, but offensively they need to step up this binary style.
Agreed. He has a clear, we defined role: Go shoot threes. Although sometimes I wonder that he realizes he just shot after the ball leaves his hand. It's like a reflex for him.
I like his defense too. He doesn't deserve minutes over Harden, Paul or Gordon in the backcourt. Those 3 will play at least 90 of 96 minutes even if MDA is careful with their minutes. If we want to move Harden between the theoretical SG and SF spots, you're much better off adding Shumpert to that rotation. He's a better defender and not a worse shooter this season, but has greater length, versatility and championship experience. A solid contender has a guy like Rivers on the bench as insurance. It's not a waste. That's how it's supposed to be if we fancy ourselves serious contenders. You have guys like that as insurance or tactical options who can be next man up.
Did we lose the game or what? IIRC we are on a five game winning streak and you guys are acting like the team is still 2nd worst. Hey, maybe Tucker and Rivers are scared to shoot because they are primarily defensive players and Raptors are a top defensive team? They have Kawhi, Lowry, Ibaka and Spicy P all of whom play great defense.
It still throws me off with Rivers because coming out of college there was this talk about him being a elite 3 point shooter. That never happen but it’s still stuck in my head.
the second you see GG thinking about whether or not to shoot, its probably not going to go in his favor. He has his games where its obviously not going for him but when he's knocking them down, its great to have. Gotta take the bad with the good if were going to get the most out of him
It's their fault. They get front row seats in the Harden Show and remember they can't perform well night in night out. This happens regularly in the playoffs when everyone's favorite spot or play is taken away and they have to adjust to their second or third option. Then when the whistles stop blowing, it all falls on harden to "choke". Six out of the last seven years...
I just want to win Friday night any way possible. After that, we can use the Mavs Hornets Suns TWolves Hawks Grizzles run to fine tune our offensive style.
