It is the years 2018-19 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) - The Regular Season

"You could argue for him as the best offensive player of all time," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey told ESPN. "To be able to say that with a straight face, and not have it be GM speak or coachspeak, is pretty amazing. There's a whole bunch of ways to measure it, but he's for sure in the conversation as the greatest offensive player ever."

just as long as you dont measure the playoffs haha

"You could argue for him as the best offensive player of all time," lol i guess you could but why would you

i just can't get past the foul hunting. even that game winner last night, I haven't broken it down Zapruder style to see if he actually got contacted but obviously he did wind up on his ass, leading me to believe he was hoping for a bailout call if the shot hadn't gone in.

that said, I really enjoyed this piece from the Ringer yesterday:

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/1/3/18166695/james-harden-3-pointer-archetype

it's pretty much the most basic thing ever but I don't think it can be emphasized enough, that if you can make a reasonable percentage of threes, there's really no reason not to push the upper limit of how many you take per game. just duh-simple math that if you take 20 a game and make 7, you've done better than making 10 out of 20 twos.

"There's a whole bunch of ways to measure it, but he's for sure in the conversation as the most offensive player ever."

the best argument against hardens game is that it isnt built for the offs which punish ball holders, if he can hit those step back 3s at ~40% wldnt he with some ball movement get easier 3s which he cld hit at a higher rate which wld also be more playoff ready, also he naturally doesnt get as many calls in the playoffs

his game has a hacked-the-nba quality but really hes hacked the regular season

i know Harden's game annoys people but i swear sometimes i think he's the most skilled offensive player ever

idk man he has like 2 moves. he's really effective at them tho! and so doesn't need any more variety. when I think of "most skilled" I think of someone with a huge repetoire (shoutout to marv albert).

his touch around the basket is tbf pretty much supernatural

he is v v v good scorer

he only has 2 moves because he only needs 2 moves

exactly!

visionary passer too feel like that part of his game is underrated

I consistently get outperformed by guys who have 1 or 2 moves but execute them well, while I struggle to decide which of my 50 mediocre moves to implement oh whoops it's too late they stole the ball from me

i'm saying i don't think variety is a measure of skilled, but that's just imo.

i'd like to see him have a great playoffs one of these years just b/c the excuse-making, speculation, etc. is getting tedious.

the blazers are all coffee snobs http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25667397/the-game-day-caffeine-routine-keeps-portland-trail-blazers-nba-most-well-traveled-team-running

i thought he had a good playoffs last year but just checked the numbers...

didnt realize he hasnt eclipsed 30% from 3p for the last two playoffs
http://i68.tinypic.com/65wykm.png

the blazers are all coffee snobs http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25667397/the-game-day-caffeine-routine-keeps-portland-trail-blazers-nba-most-well-traveled-team-running

― call all destroyer, Friday, January 4, 2019 1:15 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol nice

man hardens playoff efg%s woof

harden getting the 3pt line changed instead of the warriors would be a good twist

hah

So we doin the #BirdBoxChallenge during NBA games now huh 🤔

— Chris Paul (@CP3) January 4, 2019

that was maybe the worst call ive ever seen

cant think of a worse one considering time and score

isn't there generally a ref on the baseline??

harden was pretty crazy last night. and his stuff CAN work in the playoffs, it almost did last year. but he cant beat the warriors 4/7 alone. has to have someone like cp... and everyone else needs to ball out. like can you rely on austin rivers to hit 4 threes a game again?

warriors were up by 20 in that game, used to be if they ever got a 15 point lead in a game they m/l never lost. there's some things they need to address and one of them is KDs weirdness, his body language on the court when he doesnt get the ball is very pouty of late (hasnt stopped with the draymond explosion towards him about that very thing) he's clapping for the ball and being demonstrative (slightly less so than he was in the blowout game tho), a lot of it directed at klay it seems. he's playing less within the offense and more iso ball, standing around more.

basically this: https://theathletic.com/749673/2019/01/04/can-the-warriors-win-and-keep-kevin-durant-happy-at-the-same-time/

and yeah xp, there was a ref on the baseline who was looking directly at it lol

this is getting absurd

Reporting with @ramonashelburne: Philadelphia’s Jimmy Butler has aggressively challenged coach Brett Brown on All-Star’s role in 76ers offense, complicating an already-tenuous chemistry among team’s Big 3 hierarchy. Story on ESPN. https://t.co/DYqEAZNzM1

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 4, 2019

man wtf he's screwing himself. cant even be a good soldier for a few months to secure the bag. what a complete knucklehead

lmao who tf would sign jimmy butler when he hits free agency, i wonder

Didn't take long for Butler to start up his usual bullshit.

knicks.jpg

or kangs

Buried in that story is this Embiid gem - "I felt an elbow on my face and I kind of freaked out because that's my same face I had surgery on." Thankfully, the face he didn't have surgery on was perfectly fine.

Well, something something replace all the cells in your face every something something

kings are a bad org but not really a desperate one. knicks have the right mix of both to end up paying troublestars

As long as Philly's offence is built around the severe limitations of their primary ball handler, no other star will feel entirely comfortable there.

Whether or not he gets the bag comes down to how he does in the playoffs more than a soft target story in January. He shows out and he won't be short of offers.

I loved Jimmy, loved his backstory, loved how he seemed to relish playing D and his offense was almost an afterthought. But NBA fame seems to have really gone to his head. Hollywood af.

Whether or not he gets the bag comes down to how he does in the playoffs more than a soft target story in January. He shows out and he won't be short of offers.

― tsrobodo, Friday, January 4, 2019 1:59 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but the amount of teams looking to employ him will drop (has dropped) dramatically. his rep was already beaten before this and maybe he could explain it away a bit but 3 times in a row is the biggest of red flags.

strange that the big three weirdos isnt working out

lagoons philly skepticism has been noted multiple times and is now filed into the 'ILHers being OTM' folder

thank u for yr support

wonder if brown will make it through the season cld see a post season firing-resigning butler 1-2

idk man, this aint on brown

yeah but its just what teams do when they cant fire the players

(tho i dont think hes a great coach)

the process might actually be cursed something to think about

thread of 76ers spacing

Butler allegedly wants to play more pick and roll or ISO.
I think Brown has done a good job of designing a strong pick and pop scheme given the personnel he has, but running traditional pick and roll is essentially impossible with Simmons off ball and not the screener pic.twitter.com/v2t3bUkd4x

— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) January 4, 2019

yup jimmy-joel pnr shd be deadly but its impossible with simmons on the floor

it's funny that the process is over and their best players are a traditional post-up center and a traditional ball-handling wing who could both really use a traditional point guard

someone, like say.... markelle fultz could work

thread of embiid quotes

Over the past few days, Joel Embiid and Brett Brown talked extensively about the ongoing process that is getting the Sixers' Big 3 to mesh.

Here are some relevant quotes.

— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) January 4, 2019

but the amount of teams looking to employ him will drop (has dropped) dramatically. his rep was already beaten before this and maybe he could explain it away a bit but 3 times in a row is the biggest of red flags.

― тпсбlack (Spottie), Friday, January 4, 2019 9:41 PM (fifty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I dunno, this story isn't as much of a thing as it purports to be.

Player with history of relational controversy speaks out to coach on issue everybody with eyes knows to be true during one of the slowest periods of the sports news cycle. Observer said it was disrespectful but "disrespectful" doesn't generate talking head fodder so he "aggressively" "challenged" the coach. Coach says it was fine but of course he would and now we get to relive one of the more intriguing and meme generating stories of the season.

The emerging pattern might give a few front offices pause but they all love to imagine their setup can crack the code and be the geniuses that reclaimed the pariah.

I think if he continues to be as good as he is on the court he'll never lack options. Then again, If he can't show it because he's been reduced to a spot up guy then it weakens his negotiating position this summer in a way that's less ephemeral than all the character stuff.