Go through my post history and try to find anywhere where I stated that Lillard overall is a better player. Harden is obviously the better scorer due to his strength and size over Lillard.
James Harden isn't a point guard. Asking him to pick up the scoring load and also rack up 10+ assist is crazy. But, per 100 possessions. Harden as a rocket: 35ppg, 9apg, 5topg Magic ages 22-31: 26ppg, 15apg, 5topg Zeke 20-31: 26ppg, 12apg, 5topg Goat chicago years: 45ppg, 7apg, 4topg Wade ages 23-30: 37ppg, 9apg, 5topg Lebron: 37ppg, 9apg, 5topg Westbrook: 32ppg, 11apg, 6topg Lillard: 30ppg, 9apg, 4topg Curry ages 24-27: 35ppg, 10apg, 5topg So basically a lot of people who are demanded to play ball handling roles usually hover around 5 turnovers per game per 100 possessions. Assists and points usually vary and there are very few who can do both on an elite scale. Truthfully the biggest difference from Harden and a lot of those guys other than Westbrook, Lillard, and Curry is that all of them were magnificent defensively and Harden is just awful at it. Harden's turnovers kill the Rockets. Those are wasted possessions.
You've got it backwards. It's impossible for McCollum to play great unless he gets the ball. Therefore, Lillard's willingness to share the ball allowed for McCollum to become great. That number can be misleading. For instance, look at the Rockets. When we get a defensive rebound, it's usually Beverley who brings the ball up-court. He then gives it to Harden to run the offense. That sequence may seem irrelevant, but it reduces Harden's time of possession. And if Lillard didn't share the ball, how could McCollum average 18 field goal attempts per game?
Yes, Harden is a better PG than Lillard. I don't know if you've seen him play much but Lillard's biggest knock is that he's not a great facilitator. He has 100 more assists than Lillard, his assisnt % also higher, apg also higher.
Basketball is more than just stats and numbers. It's a team sport. Yes, Harden is a better player than Lillard on every aspect on the field but it is Lillard's leadership on and off the court that has helped Portland into the playoffs when they're a projected sub 30 win team this year. No disrepect to Harden but the Rockets only got in because a combination of Utah choking and Harden balling out the last three weeks of the season. Lillard sets an example on and off the court that people respect. Whether Stotts is involved in all this, I don't know but when Lillard is going out of his way to get the team together to put scouting reports, to starting training camp early, to staying after practice to run a few more drills, it just creates a positive vibe and unity for the players and organization. It gives everyone a sense of purpose of what they need to do to get a job done. It motivates the less talented players in going up and beyond to improve different aspects of the game. All of this doesn't show up in the numbers. Portland is massively lacking in the talent department against the Warriors, but you can at least see everyone putting an effort to get the best result possible. I don't know about other fans, but it really infuriates me to hear Harden going out to clubs in between games, getting tangled up with the celebrities, and coming to training camp overweight when you hear stories about Curry applying new workout regimens, and Lebron/even Carmelo doing a diet plan to help them prolong their career. Long post. Expecting grammar errors.
no, you've got it backward. a player can showcase his ability even in limited minutes and chances, which McCollum has. That's why Lillard was FORCED to share the ball, but actually he didn't. And Lillard also doesn't have the bruden of always have to score the ball for his team because he has McCollum on his side. So, he can let McCollum get more touch and hence reduces his time of possession. But he still led the league in that category, which proves Lillard is a ball hog.
Like I said before, last year, DMo established himself as one of the best post players in the league. And how did we use him this year? We largely ignored him in the post and used him as a ball-moving stretch 4. If your franchise player doesn't want to share the ball, you can't force him. By saying that McCollum forced Lillard to share the ball, you're implying that McCollum's clout is greater than Lillard's.
D-mo has not been as good this year, and there's no evidence Harden didn't want to use D-mo more. And I'm not saying McCollum forced Lillard to share the ball. I'm saying the media and fans would crucify Lillard if he hadn't, so there's always that pressure to share the ball no matter what.
Dmo was largely ignored? what, Dmo barely stayed on the court this year because of injuries. Even then, in the playoffs Harden was consistently feeding him the ball, even sometimes force feeding him off after rebounds on fast breaks causing turnovers. Harden have always liked passing the ball to Dmo, the two people he probably passed to the most in the playoffs were Beasely and Dmo because they can actually do something other than the rest of the team.
Harden dictated the Rockets' offense. If Harden wanted to use DMo more, then DMo would've been used more. Similarly, Harden didn't want to utilize Dwight in the post. As a result, Dwight got very few post touches. Frankly, you seem like a guy who can't see the forest through the trees. Nope, wrong again. Portland was projected to be one of the worst teams in the league. If Lillard had played selfishly while leading Portland into the lottery, the media narrative would've focused on the Portland losing Aldridge/Batum/Matthews/Lopez. When a team is expected to be bad, there's not much criticism when they turn out to be bad.
Pretty much. Lillard leads by creating an inclusive culture, his teammates have recognized him as a leader, they show consistent effort on court and overachieve relative to expectations. Harden, from what I can gather in this thread, leads by win shares, other advanced metrics, good individual play, and the belief that leadership doesn't really exist, a myth. Team doesn't play consistently hard, but that's because they suck for some reason, just a couple of months after they didn't suck. Good leader, suck teammates.
Harden doesn't dictate the offense, the coach does. And D-mo was not playing as well due to injuries, but when he did play Harden fed the ball to him plenty of times. Also, there's a difference being projected to be bad and being bad in actuality. Underestimation is not the same thing as being bad in reality. It just means that analysts don't always get it right. Portland has much more talented players than Houston, especially offensively. it's not even close.
Yes, he was largely ignored in the post. Was it because of injuries? I think DMo's under-performance is more attributable to poor coaching. Look at the minutes he was getting per game. 20 minutes. Then 7. Then 10. Then 5. Then 20. Then 8. Then 26. With those sporadic minutes, how can you expect a player to develop a rhythm? I'm talking specifically about post touches. I don't care about DMo getting the ball when he's 20 feet from the basket. DMo had a 5 inch height advantage over Draymond Green yet his post touches were few and far between.
Going to break some hearts here but.... There is no such thing as a player making his teammates better. None. Not in the literal sense. This idea that guys would just play better if they all went out to eat is silly, something only fans say. Harden taking the guys out to eat doesn't make Ariza a better dribbler, doesn't make Beverly a better facilitator, doesn't make Dwight into Hakeem on the low post, doesn't make Brewer hit shots. That's not what happens. What you mean to say is that a great player makes the game EASIER for those around him, that's true. That can happen. Curry makes the game easier for those around him because teams are forced to throw two guys at him, forced to stick their best defender on him (and not on Klay, so Klay gets an easier guy to break down.) Harden does this too. Instead of having Tony Allen guard Ariza or Brewer for instance, he'd guard Harden. Therefore those guys get an easier man to break down. Harden drives into the paint, collapses the defense, and gets guys OPEN shots. That is making the game easier for them. This idea that guys would just play better if Harden rode the team bus is silly. They are grown men. You insult them to even imply that they can't play well because they are too busy pouting about Harden wasn't on the team bus with them or that they were angry that Harden went to the club during the season (Something nearly every player does apparently) and yet still outplays them. Now. Would guys play worse if they didn't like each other? Certainly. But relationships are complex and to blame Harden for the schism that may be on the team seems to ignore all the other strong personalities we had on the team. Also, coaching is always understated in these conversations.
There were only like two Blazers that actually got better from previous years. CJ obviously and another. I think Allen Crabbe. All the others were pretty much relatively the same and improved in one area or increased in minutes/fga. The Blazers started 11-20 which means that even with all their off-season bonding they still weren't clicking until the middle of the season. This wasn't Lillard doing anything special. This is what happened. They got together and they figured out their roles. They figured out what they were supposed to do. Terry Stotts did a good job at this. I'm not sure how many starting line ups there had this season, but I kind of want to bet it was much less than the Rockets. You can't form any chemistry if your coach gets fired when the team is 4-7. (Dumb move Morey.) Now they got a bunch of people coming in and out of the line up and Ty Lawson confused as **** as to what the hell is going on. Dwight is being Dwight in the corner and you got incompetent #1 and incompetent #2 both trying to play basketball. #2 eventually gets kicked out of rotation and #1 becomes a running meme because he's so awful. Thronton comes off the bench with a trigger finger because he has no idea what the team wants out of him so he does what he knows best and that's score. It's like Beverley, Terry, and Ariza were the only ones that knew what their role was. Differ to Harden, try my best to play defense for Harden, and make the open 3 point shot I get from Harden. (thanks JBB/McHale. It's not that hard to form a game plan) James starts the season off awful, so that's another problem. Yet the Rockets are still always hovering .500 somehow, but now it's too late because everyone is panicking and no one knows what their role is supposed to be because for some reason things are different compared to last season. Lawson stick for almost the entire season. Beasley comes in and takes of Thornton's role of "well, idk what to do so I'm just going to score." and Dmo returns and is like "well, wtf is happening here?" Everyone is so confused and this is why the team had no chemistry because there was a terrible training camp, the coach was fired too soon, and no one knows their role. On the other hand the Blazers are also starting off poorly, but guess what? They weren't panicking. Stotts figured out all the rotations and the starters. Gave Lillard and CJ the green light, and the rest followed afterwards. They started playing like a team that knew their specific roles, and eventually played like a 53-54 win team. So basically on one franchise there is a whole bunch of ?????? going on and on the other they're slowly figuring out to the point where they creep into the playoffs and snag a #5 seed by a difference of 2 wins compared to the Rockets. We struggled the entire season and never got it. They figured it out around game 31. It's not about Lillard being a good leader. It's about a team actually being competent
If this were even remotely close to being true, there wouldn't be so many lengthy DMo threads in the GARM. Underestimation provides a built-in excuse. If you expect a team to be bad, you're less critical of them when they turn out bad. That's why, even if Lillard led Portland into the lottery, the media wouldn't have crucified him. As such, the media wasn't pressuring Lillard to share the ball (as you stated earlier).
