in these, the waning days of stern: 2013-2014 NBA regular season thread (part 1)

Always hated a lot of things about Hardens game. Glad to see the pile on. The head on a swivel waiting to whip one way or another upon any touch just kills me. Also he's really pretty boring to watch. He's like Kevin Martin where they score a lot but it's rarely fun to watch. I don't hate the rockets mainly cos Beverly parsons Lin and even mchale are all pretty root-able. Dwight harden makes it hard tho.

When Houston acquired Harden, iirc ILH was lukewarm toward the deal and thought the rockets overpaid. Then Harden put up all-star numbers and won some (sometimes grudging) admiration. iow, a 'what has he done lately' attitude comes naturally in his case around here. Bulk-shooter-type players with mediocre defensive skills are always on the cusp of becoming a millstone on their team's neck if their stats fall off even modestly.

Lol @ this harden turnaround. We all loved the beard

loved harden as plucky 3rd wheel manu redu in okc
hate harden as half of h-town crynamic duo, gil arenas redon't

simple as that imo

Worth pointing out Harden has been playing hurt just about all season

not worth it

i totally loved the beard for sure, but enough time in the spotlight and the guy just doesn't do anything for me anymore. grinding drives for free throws and poppin contested 3's, like please man .

basically bise otm

Oceania has always been at war with eastasia

He's also picking up disturbingly Wade-ish tendencies hanging back to argue with officials rotating late etc and Wade is terrible so

― z-time champion (agent hibachi), Saturday, December 21, 2013 8:00 AM (11 hours ago)

wade was an elite defender unlike harden though

and whoa i still like harden obvs i just want him to play better. like wade actually , when he struggles he can be really ugly to watch

yeah i was gonna say, harden's bad games, like his 3-14 nodder last night, are just unwatchable

time to shave the beard IMO

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XGdyICbQLCA/USQGGVTywYI/AAAAAAAAAZM/O5MIUaI8ry0/s1600/Harden_NoBeard.JPG

the whole team comes off like this imo. they seem like self-satisfied punks.

― Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, December 21, 2013 12:59 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Leave noted beautiful creature Chandler Parsons out of this.

my biggest fear when they got Howard was that I'd no longer be a fan of the cool hipster likeable team but a douchebag team. oh morey what have you wrought.

portland has always been the likable hipster team, as if there was any doubt

Only similarity to Wade's game is probably that free throws are deeply baked into his offensive game.

And even if Howard is clogging up the lane for Harden's drives, Howard is also probably the best big man he'll ever play with, so he should really start leaning of those Lob City interior passes, esp since Harden maneuvers so well / is actually a much better interior passer than his assist numbers indicate.

Also Ryan OTM.

(about Harden maybe losing the beard, which really emphasizes that expressionless, smug look)

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly6p5kun5G1qzbwkjo1_400.jpg

blazers have been hipster for awhile

as if on cue Howard is out of his mind tonight

When Houston acquired Harden, iirc ILH was lukewarm toward the deal and thought the rockets overpaid. Then Harden put up all-star numbers and won some (sometimes grudging) admiration. iow, a 'what has he done lately' attitude comes naturally in his case around here. Bulk-shooter-type players with mediocre defensive skills are always on the cusp of becoming a millstone on their team's neck if their stats fall off even modestly.

― Aimless, Saturday, December 21, 2013 7:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This feels very revisionist, or maybe I've just been more sensitive to it since I've always thought harden was kinda fools gold outside of his spot on those OKC teams, where he was obviously overperforming. Iirc rest of ILH loved him most when he was having more of those 25 pts on 6 shots type games.

Lin otoh is fun to watch. There's something pretty graceful about his game, I think he actually looks better on the court than he really is, whereas Dragic, an unquestionably better pg, looks kind of gangly and awkward.

Bulk-shooter-type players with mediocre defensive skills are always on the cusp of becoming a millstone on their team's neck if their stats fall off even modestly.

― Aimless, Saturday, December 21, 2013 7:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This seems otm, but it makes me wonder -- is Carmelo really much better than James Harden? I'm not convinced he is.

Howard's offensive game looked smooth against Hibbert, esp since he wasn't overpowering but rather hitting sweet lefty hooks and stuff. Actually looking forward to seeing Houston 2nd half of season when they've had so e time to play together and can read each other. Like, Howard hasn't played for a team withh this much talent in maybe ... ever? It would be cool to see him be in sync with some all star caliber players running with him.

Lin so fun when he's on. Painful when it's a turnover fest.

When Houston acquired Harden, iirc ILH was lukewarm toward the deal and thought the rockets overpaid. Then Harden put up all-star numbers and won some (sometimes grudging) admiration. iow, a 'what has he done lately' attitude comes naturally in his case around here. Bulk-shooter-type players with mediocre defensive skills are always on the cusp of becoming a millstone on their team's neck if their stats fall off even modestly.

― Aimless, Saturday, December 21, 2013 7:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This feels very revisionist, or maybe I've just been more sensitive to it since I've always thought harden was kinda fools gold outside of his spot on those OKC teams, where he was obviously overperforming. Iirc rest of ILH loved him most when he was having more of those 25 pts on 6 shots type games.

― Call me Shitmael (CompuPost), Saturday, December 21, 2013 8:20 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dont think anyone thought houston was overpaying considering that they gave up not that much, i do recall extensive discussions of whether harden was max contract worthy

Think the general sentiment was Why Not? And even tho I'm no booster, I think Harden can be a top dawg on a great team, but he really can't regress for that to happen. And so far this season, you can't really say that he's improved. Even if the team is a bit wonky now, I wouldn't be surprised to see them end up in the finals soon if they ever sir themselves out.

Also, at the time no one could be sure he'd be able to produce at those same rates if his usage skyrocketed, but it basically had. Doubt many Rocket fans ATM would say the contract was a bad idea. It's more, OK, maybe it's time to improve yr overall game maybe?

Melo is an interesting comparison point, although he's worth way more on the defensive end. Feel like Melo plays better D with Chandler helping out than Harden does with Howard right now, ie Melo knows how not to leave Chandler high and dry whereas Harden is just kinda idk lol defense no thx.

idk melo is a pretty terrible defender

anyway feel like harden is right now still a very valuable player and can be great if he just tightens his game up a lil

Lin otoh is fun to watch. There's something pretty graceful about his game, I think he actually looks better on the court than he really is, whereas Dragic, an unquestionably better pg, looks kind of gangly and awkward.

― signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Saturday, December 21, 2013 8:21 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i disagree with every word of this post

I agree except I think Lin looks clumsy and weird too and is likely much better than he looks (but fun to watch nonetheless)

lin is super herky-jerky to me and dragic is smooth, almost a poor man's manu. also i think lin is better

Yah dragic is super fun to watch. All kinda weird awesome turnaround pivot up and unders and such.

lin has a pretty wide variance between "completely take over a game" performances and "make 10 mistakes in a row and get pulled" performances. still wish mchale let him go a little more.

dragic is fun to watch, I just don't think his moves are exactly pretty

thunder have a great chance to win it all right now

boris!!

BOOOOOOOOOOORIS

what he do?

I still want to like harden and when he is on he is devastating

If he could figure out how to give 45% of the effort on defense he gives to offense he would probably be a top ten player overall

Obv staying in the Manu role in OKC would have made them unstoppable

marvelous catch w a glorious spin xpost

I'd also still give him another half season to finish adjusting to being the first option esp w Dwight there I think he can still clean up the bad threes and what not but if he doesn't he probably ends up just being a briefly more exciting Stephen Marbury or Gilbert or whatever yikes

jogged a little, too

ha

http://m.sporcle.com/games/jfey5/0009NBAMVP

got 138 but having the team names felt like cheating

Ibaka shooting corner threes is kind of a nice wrinkle

yeah i was just gonna say, makes 100% sense for him to be shooting that shot. probably shoots it in the high 40s

Totally unfair but when I appraise Lin all I can think of is that first Miami game where Wade and Bron went all Jordan/Pippen-on-Kukoc on him.

Keep fighting it
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/21/lebron-says-heat-shooters-already-upset-about-christmas-day-jerseys/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs