Steve Nash believes James Harden is unfairly treated by the new rules

[bamheat]

Funny because all those Harden moves could be called as an offensive foul.

[nfmos]

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That last one is why I dislike him. He’s already beat Bam and just needs to go up with his off hand yet he tries to manipulate the refs and draw the foul. Great no call

The sad part, and the part i would worry about if im a Nets fan, is that he did have Bam beat but he is so slow and plodding right now that he basically would have instantly lost that advantage. He might not be able to beat as many people anymore. He figured he could get calls even being out of shape, so he completely ignored his fitness, now will he be able to get back in shape and beat people off the dribble and finish anymore?

[nfmos]

There will always be legitimate fouls that go uncalled simply because refs are human and can't see everything. It's part of the game.
But when fouls are being called when there is no contact, or worse, because an offensive player initiated contact and flopped, that is inexcusable imo.
Refs should only call what they see, and if they're missing too many they should bring someone else in. But you can't have them out there just guessing.

Of course mbut I'm saying that because of the new rules, legitimate fouls are getting called at a lower rate than before.

Legitimate fouls go uncalled in every sport. I can live with it.
Can't stand the made up calls though. Rather err on the side of calling real fouls and incentivizing playing the game rather than incentivizing manipulating the refs or pampering certain players. Much better product.
Everyone agrees legit fouls should get called but don't expect perfection. Try to get buckets, not fouls, and it won't matter. That's the whole point of the game.

Yeah to add to that, err on the side of calling less fouls and maybe missing some, especially at the start of this change, so players will no longer stop playing whenever they get the slightest contact like they have been. How many players just expect and yell for the call anytime they get bumped and stop trying to actually make shots? Players need to learn to play until the whistle again instead expected calls every trip down.

[lambchop]

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That last one is why I dislike him. He’s already beat Bam and just needs to go up with his off hand yet he tries to manipulate the refs and draw the foul. Great no call

The sad part, and the part i would worry about if im a Nets fan, is that he did have Bam beat but he is so slow and plodding right now that he basically would have instantly lost that advantage. He might not be able to beat as many people anymore. He figured he could get calls even being out of shape, so he completely ignored his fitness, now will he be able to get back in shape and beat people off the dribble and finish anymore?

Yea Harden doesnt have the athleticism to legitimately get by athletic defenders, but that still should have been an easy read into a side step mid range J cause there was space there and bam was recovering, instead of attempting what essentially looked like a glitch on NBA Live 2004 beta version.

[Memories]

Now we see what Harden REALLY looks like as a player who has more career free throws made than field goals made.

He managed to make more field goals tonight with 4 vs 3 free throws. Way to go Harden! Way to show you don’t need free throws to score!

[Memories]

Harden is hard to watch, all his flopping and foul baiting makes him boring to watch, when I see him drive, I am always praying someone Bill Laimbeer’s him in the face

We need another Metta World Peace elbow.

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[TheGOATRises007]

Harden is really getting exposed out here.

[queridiculo]

The sad part, and the part i would worry about if im a Nets fan, is that he did have Bam beat but he is so slow and plodding right now that he basically would have instantly lost that advantage. He might not be able to beat as many people anymore. He figured he could get calls even being out of shape, so he completely ignored his fitness, now will he be able to get back in shape and beat people off the dribble and finish anymore?

It's not just Harden though.

On that play you've got Mills covered in that corner, and Millsap on the dunker spot.

If he had somebody like Capella in that spot he could have just pressed that gap to Morris and threw the ball up for an easy dunk, but with washed Millsap in there and the corner covered he hesitates, gets caught in non-mans land and caughs it up.

Those deficiencies this roster has are a lot easier to cover up when you've got Kyrie out there able to manufacture offense out of thin air, but with Harden out there playing on the ball unable to get his shoulder past anybody it's just going to be really difficult for the Nets to be dominant on the offensive end.

It doesn't help that Brooklyn doesn't run any kind of real offense.

[Wolfgang630]

Harden is hard to watch, all his flopping and foul baiting makes him boring to watch, when I see him drive, I am always praying someone Bill Laimbeer’s him in the face

We need another Metta World Peace elbow.

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The comment section is **** hilarious.

[Jables]

I could've sworn Nash was complaining in the opposite direction last year. A monkeys paw was curling.

[HEAT33]

I hate hardens game, if he retired tomorrow, I would not miss him at all

[Hello Brooklyn]

Harden is coming back from a serious hamstring issue and is clearly not in basketball shape. I don't know how much of that is injury and how much of it is Harden just not putting in the work.

Either way acting like the rules have taken away his ability to score is just idiotic. Were talking about one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. You think one rule change is going to stop him?

[Haldi]

I get all the sentiments, and the jokes write themselves, but do people really think there hasn't been collateral damage in the form of legitimate fouls being called at a lower rate? Say what you will about Harden, but when he gets fouled it needs to be called, regardless of his reputation.

There will always be legitimate fouls that go uncalled simply because refs are human and can't see everything. It's part of the game.
But when fouls are being called when there is no contact, or worse, because an offensive player initiated contact and flopped, that is inexcusable imo.
Refs should only call what they see, and if they're missing too many they should bring someone else in. But you can't have them out there just guessing.

So its inexcusable if its in favor of the offensive player but if its in favor of the defender, its a ref human error.. right. Overzealous defenders like Beverly or the fiasco that was Tyron Lue on Iverson in the 01 finals is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in basketball. Its not good defense, they’re repeatedly fouling the offensive player so much that the refs don’t call it. Its terrible for the sport and its something thats been largely gone from the sport, minus a few exceptions like Beverly. Not gonna lie, I am worried with this that it’ll shift back to that. I saw Durant drive on Buttler and Jimmy was pushing him the entire drive forcing KD to trip up as he was gathering and he tripped up and rammed right into a perfectly positionned Kyle Lowry. Offensive foul.. what a joke.

[Snakebites]

Harden is coming back from a serious hamstring issue and is clearly not in basketball shape. I don't know how much of that is injury and how much of it is Harden just not putting in the work.

Either way acting like the rules have taken away his ability to score is just idiotic. Were talking about one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. You think one rule change is going to stop him?

Everyone assumed when Harden came back out of shape in Houston that it was part of him trying to be traded.

This casts doubt on that, I’d think.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Harden is coming back from a serious hamstring issue and is clearly not in basketball shape. I don't know how much of that is injury and how much of it is Harden just not putting in the work.

Either way acting like the rules have taken away his ability to score is just idiotic. Were talking about one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. You think one rule change is going to stop him?

Everyone assumed when Harden came back out of shape in Houston that it was part of him trying to be traded.

This casts doubt on that, I’d think.

He was REALLY out of shape in Houston. This time it looks more about his conditioning than him being fat.

[dhsilv2]

Harden is coming back from a serious hamstring issue and is clearly not in basketball shape. I don't know how much of that is injury and how much of it is Harden just not putting in the work.

Either way acting like the rules have taken away his ability to score is just idiotic. Were talking about one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. You think one rule change is going to stop him?

Everyone assumed when Harden came back out of shape in Houston that it was part of him trying to be traded.

This casts doubt on that, I’d think.

He was in better shape as the season went on and was looking like an MVP last year...while not getting to the line like he used to. Now he's come off an injury and likely isn't in game shape (don't have to be fat harden to be out of game shape). Give him till christmas and see where he's at. No reason to speculate before the real season starts.

[CIN-C-STAR]

I get all the sentiments, and the jokes write themselves, but do people really think there hasn't been collateral damage in the form of legitimate fouls being called at a lower rate? Say what you will about Harden, but when he gets fouled it needs to be called, regardless of his reputation.

There will always be legitimate fouls that go uncalled simply because refs are human and can't see everything. It's part of the game.
But when fouls are being called when there is no contact, or worse, because an offensive player initiated contact and flopped, that is inexcusable imo.
Refs should only call what they see, and if they're missing too many they should bring someone else in. But you can't have them out there just guessing.

So its inexcusable if its in favor of the offensive player but if its in favor of the defender, its a ref human error.. right. Overzealous defenders like Beverly or the fiasco that was Tyron Lue on Iverson in the 01 finals is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in basketball. Its not good defense, they’re repeatedly fouling the offensive player so much that the refs don’t call it. Its terrible for the sport and its something thats been largely gone from the sport, minus a few exceptions like Beverly. Not gonna lie, I am worried with this that it’ll shift back to that. I saw Durant drive on Buttler and Jimmy was pushing him the entire drive forcing KD to trip up as he was gathering and he tripped up and rammed right into a perfectly positionned Kyle Lowry. Offensive foul.. what a joke.

Yes, it's excusable to occasionally miss a call. It's unavoidable, actually. No one is perfect.
But I'm not sure what the excuse is for calling a foul that didn't happen. Much harder to explain how you saw something that never actually happened. In non-referee world, that's called delusion.
And what you are describing is more of a function of how the game is refereed for stars imo. Jimmy Butler is deemed a star, and thus gets away with more on defense. The same way Harden suddenly became a "good post defender" years ago because he was allowed to put two hands on whoever he was guarding in the post, even though you couldn't breathe on him at the other end.
I'm not a fan of that either. Stars shouldn't get special treatment on either end of the court imo.
But fear not, there are still plenty of phantom calls being made for stars. If you have League Pass or can get a replay of the Lakers-Thunder game last night, go watch the end of the game.
At 1:47, Westbrook gets a bogus call on Dort that is overturned on challenge. Then immediately after the challenge, AD gets a bogus call on Giddey and 2 FTs in a close game.
2 bogus calls in a row, in the last two minutes of a close game, both favoring "stars".

[iLLmatic860]

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[Hello Brooklyn]

The sad part, and the part i would worry about if im a Nets fan, is that he did have Bam beat but he is so slow and plodding right now that he basically would have instantly lost that advantage. He might not be able to beat as many people anymore. He figured he could get calls even being out of shape, so he completely ignored his fitness, now will he be able to get back in shape and beat people off the dribble and finish anymore?

It's not just Harden though.

On that play you've got Mills covered in that corner, and Millsap on the dunker spot.

If he had somebody like Capella in that spot he could have just pressed that gap to Morris and threw the ball up for an easy dunk, but with washed Millsap in there and the corner covered he hesitates, gets caught in non-mans land and caughs it up.

Those deficiencies this roster has are a lot easier to cover up when you've got Kyrie out there able to manufacture offense out of thin air, but with Harden out there playing on the ball unable to get his shoulder past anybody it's just going to be really difficult for the Nets to be dominant on the offensive end.

It doesn't help that Brooklyn doesn't run any kind of real offense.

Youre talking about the "deficiencies" of a roster that has played 5 games together.

The role players on this team are entirely different from last year. The guy "like Capella" is Nic Claxton. Hes literally on the roster lol.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Steve Nash was like Jeremy Lin in that you could basicly punch him in the face, draw blood, and had the option of breaking his nose without a foul call. Harden could deke into you and hook your arms and as soon as he touched you the refs had already timed their previous inhale so the could patently blow the whistle with the timing of a high tier jeopardy contestant. It's strange.

DennisMillersmiling.gif