I don't think this team would be as good with Harden. This roster was not constructed to maximize Hardens skills, previous ones were. He needs a 1) top flight second guard that can knock down 3's, 2) a center for lobs, and 3) a roster of players outside of them who can consistently hit three pointers and cover for him on D. When those 3 are put together, you have a recipe that can compete for championships. It will be an offense that runs through him, has a lot of iso, but is very efficient. That's not Silas's offense. Harden did not make sense in this system. Wall is still adjusting to it and we see the growing pains as he gets into iso mode at times. Silas's offense is about ball movement, multiple players that can attack the rim and shoot mid range, about getting everyone touches and of course playing your heart out on D to generate O. It's a much more elegant and fun system to watch, but would not have been as successful with James, and that's no fault of his nor Silas.
Nets just lost the Wizards without Harden. KD and Kyrie could not beat the F'ing Wiz????? Russ had 41 and Beal had 37. Game was almost 300 points total.
I saw the game too. As great as Durant and Kyrie are, neither controls the pace of the game really well. One of the things that Harden is uniquely gifted at is controlling the pace of a game. Durant basically catches the ball in the post or on the wing and looks to score, and Kyrie dribbles a couple of times to score quickly. Neither one sets the offense, gets players moving, gets other players involved consistently, etc. KD is definitely a better scorer than Harden (he's probably the best scorer in the league) and Kyrie probably is on most nights though whether he's offensively better is debatable (there's definitely a lot Harden can do as a scorer that Kyrie can't), but neither KD or Kyrie know how to run an offense which is probably why Kyrie's played on so many bad teams while scoring a lot of points. I think the Nets are just a bad defensive team. They desperately need a player like PJ Tucker. But even then, Kyrie is uniquely bad at defense. He is small and doesn't do well when switched on players, and for a guy with his speed lets guys by him all the time and puts the rest of the team in a bad situation of having to switch and leave their man to cover his. Basically everyone scored on Kyrie and I thought the Wizards, even scoring as much as they did, should have been more explicit about targeting him on D. One of Harden's gifts is that although he struggles against really fast players, he is actually very versatile defensively and as we know can cover exceptionally well in the post, probably better than most big men. When we played Golden State in those tight series, Harden would regularly cover Kyrie, Steph, Draymond, and KD, all for long stretches and often one-on-one. He also did very well defensively on Lebron last year in the playoffs.
Yes of course, i was thrilled with the trade. What sucks to me is it looks like the goal will be to get on the treadmill if mediocrity instead of a real rebuild. Gotta trade pj, victor, everyone.
Monies and fame always get you the overperformers in looks. You might get to know a better personality when you do not possess those.
The drop in defense was probably less of a reflection of Harden as a terrible defender but more that they lost a upper-tier perimeter defender in Prince and an elite shotblocking big in Allen. What I found interesting a few games back was when Nash started Harden at PF, which I could definitely see as the position Harden eventually finishes his career in. He'd be a better fit on defense at PF to be honest with that frame of his and his tendency to fall asleep on off-ball defense on the perimeter. Also interesting to see how they plug their needs at center and wing defense in the coming months...! I'm still rooting for them to implode
This. @Clutch Are you opposed to starting a sticky that's for an all encompassing Harden thread and either in that same one or a separate one have all discussions about management (e.g. Tillman, Morey, Stone, etc.) there? I'm personally guilty of getting under the skin of some people the last week or so (I take full responsibily and will stop moving forward) but I think everyone would agree this has gotten out of control. Regardless, IMO we shouldn't even be allowing so many posts about someone who is IRRELEVANT and isn't even on this team anymore. This, along with about half of the other threads on the first page right now, belong in the Dish. People should go participate on the Nets board or the 76er...or go burn a Saltgrass down for all I care but I'm just sick of this board becoming almost unreadable with all the crap posted on it right now.
Plus Levert was a good defender too...definitely better than Harden. Also, Kyrie had been missing games and he's straight trash on D.
I truly don't think half of you understand the salary cap concept. This isn't NBA 2K with the cap turned off where you can just "make a move"...also we traded for Covington last year. Jeff Green was a huge help. Pretty sure we traded for Austin Rivers. I'm going to spell this out for you and the rest of the financially illerate on this board... Players.Simply.Just.Have.Not.Chosen.To.Come.Here.After.Being.Bought.Out.
