When Lawson was starting with Harden, a lot of people felt that Ty needed the ball in his hands and Harden had to play off the ball for it to ever work. That just didn't seem right to me. Surely, in the past there have been 2 drive and dish backcourt players who thrived playing together. Had difficulty thinking of a pair until the obvious hit me - Francis and Mobley had great individual (if not always team) success playing together. Neither one changed their styles to be pure off-the-ball catch & shoot players. They maintained high usage. We ISO'd like crazy. So, why can't Harden and Lawson both thrive together playing the style that made their careers just like Francis and Mobley did? Is it the different illegal defense rules? Is it the coaching? Is it just lack of effort on Lawson's part? Why can't you have 2 drive and dish backcourt players as your primary weapons and not make one a liability? It's so frustrating......
They had chemistry. They always knew where each other were. James and Ty have never played together before this year. They have to play together more and maybe they'll figure it out.
Harden need the ball all the time to be effective. And pls don't bring up the OKC stint. That's long gone and he was a 6th man rookie there playing behind 2 superior players. Now he got the $$$, the fame and the MVP chatter and wants to be the man. Have you seen Harden trying to play off the ball in Houston? In most cases, he will stand in one position asking for the ball. He will rarely move around, back door cut, come off screens etc. Some if it is coaching and lack of accountability and lack of plays to free him open (under McHale) and some of it is on Harden himself
You seem to be talking about getting Harden to be a Rip Hamilton clone. I don't want to change the style of the MVP runner-up. I want both Harden and Lawson playing their style, like Francis and Mobley did.
I agree. I don't know WTF happened during pre-season (did not follow it much). If it is this, I would think they should be playing Lawson more to get it figured out.
We have a serious coaching problem in Houston…we have no system at all…we just roll the ball out. That’s the problem, let’s say the Spurs were missing Parker and Aldridge, they would still be competitive because they have a system in place that encourages multiple people to have a hand in scoring. We had a system under Adelman that’s why we were always competitive (in the West!)even though we had no all-star talent. That lack of a system also includes our defense.
OKC Harden was more or less the same - he was like a Jamal Crawford 6th man that provides scoring spark off the bench but still played pretty much ISO ball. He just didn't do it for 38-40 minutes.
What I am telling you is for some reason Harden has shown a reluctance to not play off ball even for short periods. That makes the offense very stagnant. Harden wants to be the one to initiate the drive and dish most of the time for some weird reason even when Ty was there. If not, he would just stand around the perimeter and jack a 3 when he got the ball Go re-watch the earlier games when ty was starting
if Lawson could play not terrible, I like the chances of him playing successfully next to James Harden. Thus far he has not been anything but terrible hence his DNP-CD from last night.
Exactly which was fine in the 30 odd minutes he got there. But to do it 40 minutes a game for 82 games is tiring and come playoff time will have an adverse effect.
Like I just said, I don't want to turn the MVP runner-up into a poor man's Rip Hamilton. Can they co-exist and actually thrive playing to their strengths? IMO, Francis and Mobley were effective doing this, so it should be possible, no?
It looks like it's not possible because Harden wants to initiate the offense almost every time relegating Ty to a perennial spot up shooter which is not his strength. Part of it is James reluctance and part of it is Ty Lawson seems broke right now. Absolutely clueless out there. He is just not used to brining the ball past half court, handing it to James and spotting up I'm ok with Bev starting for now but eventually for this team to win big, Ty has to be incorporated into the offense and play about 28-30 minutes a game at the level we know he can play.
The main problem is that Ty is either incapable or unwilling to play off the ball at any capacity. At his size, he can't really be a slasher and his spot up shot has been so bad he's refusing to take it as if he were a PF/C. He needs/wants the ball. Harden came in out of shape (as usual) and really isn't athletic enough to execute effective cuts on the best wing defenders. When he gets by people in game its because of his excellent crossover and Euro step. His quickness is extremely overrated. Harden is usually pretty good spotting up from 3. So, that should work in the long run. The problem is - the team is better with Beverley spotting up while Harden goes to work than when Lawson goes to work with Harden spotting up. Also, Francis and Mobley were very athletic for their positions and were very effective slashers. Lawson and Harden are both heavy set guys that get by on skill. Still, if Lawson was taking and making his wide open 3s, we wouldn't be talking right now.
oak, thing is i'm not so sure about ty's 1on1 scoring ability. he is much more of a facillitator who needs strong finishers around him. when he drives into the paint his lack of height makes it difficult to finish himself. and on the perimeter his shot isn't good enough to be a consistent threat. to me he's like a shorter rondo who is more able to keep the defense honest from outside, but is still much more effective in a pure distribution role (and on passes he is spectacular). it also hasn't helped that our D has sucked so far, which has limited his transition game. and dmo being out plus the other role players bricking from outside has closed down the lane for him to drive in. it's on the coaching staff for not finding a way to get him integrated into the offense, running plays for him to get more comfortable, confident, and in the flow. instead they've tried turning him into a 5'10" spot up shooter (so dumb) and when that didn't work just let him and his talents rot on the bench (beyond dumb).
I would look at a more recent ball dominant tandem that played together, Wade and Lebron. No, not PG and SG but both players played styles where they had the ball in their hands a majority of the time. And then they also had a guy in Bosh who had been a guy you could simply give the ball to to let him create offense. The heat had trouble initially. Those guys changed their games some to make it work. Also, The coach found a good rotation to stagger their minutes to give Lebron and Wade a good amount of time on the court without the other. I have no idea how much Spoelstra had to do with that, but I do remember Wade talking about how he went to Lebron and told him it was his team now and to just play his game. Wade was older. Lebron was better and he was the one that was going to carry them. Not the same situation here, but I only point to those guys as being ball dominant ball handlers that found a way to make it work. I DO think that Ty and James can work, but I think instead of one guy completely changing his game they need to 1) have their minutes staggered a lot, maybe even bring Ty off the bench and rarely playing with Harden (more rest for Harden if possible) and 2) Eventually these guys should get to a point where they are comfortable with each other on the court. That means more off the ball movement and cutting for them both. Work on catching on the move and creating quickly rather than having to yo-yo the ball and set everything up so deliberately.
