Wow...this really puts everything into perspective. Going to steal this. Numbers don’t lie. Going by the eye test, you wouldn’t think things were this heavily skewed. This is a prime example of how Harden rarely gets the credit he deserves for aesthetic reasons or the so called eye test. Westbrook is an athletic freak and exciting as hell to watch whereas Harden simply methodically just gets the job done, yet even many of our own fans that watch all our games think Russ is doing most of the heavy lifting because of how it looks. Love the fact that they are looking more dynamic on the floor together now. That’s huge. The fact that they are an absolute force together is what I care most about. Also having a guy capable of dripping 40 when the defense loads up on Harden or he isn’t shooting well is refreshing.
Simple +/- stats are not really conclusive. Hence why analytics has gone beyond simple +/- box score stats. It doesn't provide enough context.
It’s a piece to a larger puzzle for sure, but it shows that lineups with Harden have been good even without Westbrook and Hardenless lineups have struggled. Also confirms what I thought I was seeing with my eyes that the lineups with Harden AND Westbrook have suddenly been the best, which hasn’t been the case for the majority of the year.
Yeah the +16.6 net rating together over the last 12 is HUGE! It’s something we never saw with the Harden CP3 combo. With CP3 we were pretty much just solid with both him and Harden, Harden alone or Paul alone. Never a huge drop off or jump up. The way the roster adjustment has made the two together become our most dominating minutes is a very good sign.
If rockets lose first round trade james harden to new Orleans for Zion Williamson, Ingram, and Reddick. Definitely support that trade!
You could also say, Russ’s attack game and scoring gives more opportunity for harden to create. I say the whole system gives both of them the opportunity. Two of the most elite one on one scorers with that much space is why we’re wrecking teams right now. They’ve also managed to work together... can’t say the same for George and Leonard.
Lol didnt you say he sucks and has the worst TS% of any player before? I still havent seen your apology to Russ in the Cp3-Russ thread. I told y'all the doom and gloom about WB was premature but you guys wouldn't believe me.
Right. Harden looked off last night, shooting 4-17 from 3. Westbrook looked awesome. Yet Harden was +9 and Westbrook was -3. Mostly this is because we were losing the matchup with the Celtics when Westbrook was running the 2nd team alone. Westbrook is not the MVP until he can dominate without Harden drawing defenders.
Through the first 30 games or so he had a sub 50 TS% and was shooting it 24 times and posters were trying to tell everyone that Russ was ballin out and winning us games. The denial was unreal. I merely pointed out the facts that during that stretch Westbrook was absolutely killing us and that it was Harden averaging nearly 40 on like 63 TS% that was saving us from the disastrous Westbrook start. What we have gotten in this calendar year is the complete opposite. Fairly certain you won’t find any posts of mine since he’s changed his entire game to become a positive impact player. I have no bias. If a player is helping us win I’m going to love it. If he’s actively killing our chances to win, I’m not gonna like that. And he was. Now he’s not. Also I don’t believe I recall anyone saying that Morey and the coach were going to eventually devise this small ball plan that they would implement to completely unlock Westbrook.
Yao only/lin fan trolls like the original poster are trying to create crap again. They did it with a cp v harden threads and now this. These people have no shame
In the context of this OP's narrative, that tweet takes on a meaning that Bontemps didn't mean. Just read the article. it's more like this type of article: Consider D'Antoni's response to a question before Saturday's game about whether the days of Harden being relentlessly double-teamed -- as he has been so often in recent years -- are over with the style Houston is now playing. "I think in certain situations, what we're seeing now is he gets doubled sometimes in the pick-and-roll," D'Antoni said. "End of clock, they might double him. "But I think the random, as-soon-as-he-crosses-half-court double, is gone." And Boston admits the gameplan was to stop Harden, and they forgot about Westbrook @hikanoo49 The difference now in Houston is that, when he doesn't, the Rockets have the Plan B that throughout his tenure -- even when playing alongside other future Hall of Famers like Dwight Howard and Chris Paul -- both Harden and the Rockets have never fully embraced. "I think we guarded [Harden] well," Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown said. "I think we accepted his challenge. We just didn't do a good enough job with Westbrook. "We had a lot of attention on James Harden, and forgot about the other MVP over there. He came out and asserted himself early and took over and dominated this game."
20 year old Williamson compared to 30+ harden. Come on, you do the math! If ariza can go ..ok. If cp3 can go... ok. If Howard can go...ok. If carmelo can go...ok. If warriors can let iguodola and Durant walk, finals mvp go too.
