I think Harden has played well. Noticeable step back on defense from G3 and G4, but still playing well. Everybody else? Yikes And that’s the problem. You can’t pay CP3 $40M and *expect* him not to show up in a crucial Game 5. Same goes for Clint and his salary.
Harden is playing well but is playing with no force. He is coasting, you can tell by the way he is bringing up the ball and not getting back on defense. People in the thread say he is just saving himself. I hope so.
He hasn’t been bad but he hasn’t been a superstar either. I think he really needs to see a 3 ball go down. Maybe a couple of em. They’re not closing out on him and he’s not looking for the shots, everybody knows his rhythm is off and that’s leads to getting stuffed on drives as well. More than points id like to see him drop about 30 dimes in the next two games. I think when he’s going to run the play, Harden needs to get in the corner. He doesn’t have to move, Harden himself looking to conserve a breath here and there but having him 40 ft out on the wing is allowing GSW to sag off of the biggest threat we have to clog up the driving and passing lanes.
Before his horriffic game 5, cp was doing mostly good in the limited pick n rolls he did have. I think it was game 3 or 4 that JVG was calling and he too was noticing how open of shots we were getting from cp's pick n rolls versus harden's. The problem is that because his shot is sooooo off, it's really limiting his options to do much else. He'll make the right pass most of the time, and penetrate off of kick outs (versus creating by himself), but right now, his usage rate and lack of decisiveness/inability to shoot is messing up the pockets minutes he does have as the primary ball handler. And then when Harden comes in, I don't even know what he does.
