He hasn’t been playing bad at all. Although it’s on an extremely small smaple size, he’s averaging 14 points and 4.5 assists on 54/50/100 splits. Turnovers are an issue as he’s averaged about 3 per game. I’m pretty confident in saying Harden will not play offball for any significant amount of time. What do you think we can do with Harden?
Ehh…
I think there isn’t a single person on this sub that likes the way it’s looking right now. But you are putting it on Harden simply because he’s that one kid no one wanted in a group project and now everyone blames him simply because it’s easy instead of looking at real issues.
James Harden is NOT THE problem. He has his issues but that’s expected when a guy averaging 11ast per games switches teams. It’s obvious that to get 11 assists you need to pass a lot and when the rest of the team doesn’t know your patters it can get ugly.
What you fail to point out is how the rest of the team looked in that span…
Against Knicks: Zubac and Westbrook combined for 9 turnovers
Against Nets: Harden had a lot of turnovers but he also had 5ast and was 4/9 for the game. Meanwhile PG was 7 for 20!!! 2/10 for three!!
Against Mavs: Harden had two turnovers. Same number that Westbrook had. But only one of the guys was whooping -26 +/- for the game - guess which one
This team requires good series of practice before they get on the same page. But looking at this team now the problem is not Harden - the problem is that rest of the team thinks they can win WITHOUT Harden.
You’re looking for fixes? Make Harden 1st or 2nd option on the floor at all times (except lineups where Kawhi and PG are both on the floor). We cannot allow a situation to happen where we play a lineup of Harden/RW/Norm/TMann/Tucker and Harden is watching RW and Norm try to ISO their way into the basket. This is Kawhi’s and PG’s team. But expecting these two to carry the entire load has lead us to disappointment time and time again.
You want to win? Harden has to be put in a position where he can get 21ppg 11ast. Not a position of Nicolas Batum where he’s just a cone on the floor looking at less productive players then him take all the action.
Put in a position to average 22-11? I just don’t understand why people bring this up he was the main ball handler playing with an MVP in embiid there’s a huge difference to where games he”ll be the fourth primary ball handler it’s just how it is. Not a slight but there’s a reason people did not want the trade.
Touches, usuage, pace and defense all four of which which were spread evenly and well Amna ahead now are coincidently our main issues. You also can’t mention 5 assists with turnovers and say that’s any different with 4 assists and 4 TO same impact. Harden is not the same guy and you guys have to see that. It’s a lot like the Russ fit with the lakers.
None of them are as good as harden in terms of ball-handling. They’ll have to realize that. It is better to have one elite ball-handler than 3 mid ones.