Mr. E wrote:baki wrote:I know, we all should be happy to have this much talent around us but the team had to make sacrifices (particularly Asik/Lin's playing time) to accommodate 2 "prime" players in Harden and Howard, I guess some of us aren't impressed with Howard's track record at Orlando and LA and Harden who is still playing with a 6th man scoring mentality.
If you're still basing your opinion of Howard off of his time in Orlando and Los Angeles then I don't know what to say. I'm basing my opinion of Howard off of his time in Houston where he's helped to lead the Rockets to their best record in almost 20 years. As for Harden...6th man scoring mentality - that was something that you could say last year and the early part of this season, but he's clearly rounding out his game now. He's starting to accept the role that this is his team, but that he's not alone.
Several things come to mind when I think about Howard:
- Howard is all athleticism, which gets him individual accolades such as defensive player of the year and league's best rebound, but not enough to beat Detroit, LA or Boston when he finally realised that basketball is actually a team sport where you also need to score and set up plays for the rest of the team
- Howard turned crybaby after the first round loss to Atlanta during the 2010-2011 season and wanted his coach fired, he's been playing halfheartedly ever since
- For all the hype of becoming the next Shaq, he has yet to live up to expectations let alone win 4 championships
And for the record, Howard WAS one of my favourite player, but his attitude during the last season with Orlando and LA left a big question mark on his commitment as a player, particularly at LA where he had all the right players with him (not around him) to win a championship. He proved to be a difficult player to coach and play with. I just feel that after trying so hard during the early years at Orlando he just wants to cruise into a championship-ready team and win it lazily, not that Houston is ready but it was the next team he thought would be best...for now. I'm not even sure if Houston is going to be Howard's last stop with an NBA team.
Harden started out as 6th man because of his offense and his ability to score, not much of anything else defensively. As a starter, he's still the same player but with substantially more minutes and more plays set up for him, and he is playing exactly the same way as Melo. Like Melo, I believe he will develop his passing skills and maybe some toughness defensively but as long as there are Lebrons and future Lebrons in this league he will probably just put all his energy in shooting the ball, just like Melo did.
