Things Found In James Harden's Beard: Nov.2012

James harden has had a busy November.

Who Be Ballin? James Harden 10-31-12

James Harden (I know, I know, not again) was lookin good in a game against the Pistons with 37 points, 6 boards, and 12 assists.  He had a hot hand and his teammates knew it.  There were a lot of good lines out there today, but to put up these numbers in a system that you JUST joined.  I mean, its like he just stepped off the bus then put up almost 40 points.  He basically played point and Jeremy Lin kind of disappeared (Im calling this out Linsanity snobs).  Althooooooooooooough, I do hafta give a shout out to Dwight Howard who put up 33 points, 14 boards, and 5 assists.

Houston, We Got a Swingman

Houston is slowly molding a team together down in Texas. After they did everything they could to make a move for Dwight Howard and it failed, they again made headlines by officially snagging reigning Sixth Man of The Year from the Oklahoma Thunder.

Alongside PG Jeremy Lin, who they stole from New York with their backloaded offer sheet this past summer, it seems Houston will be looking to make their franchise revolve around their 2 backcourt additions.

I'm nervous if the moves are enough to change the direction of the team, however. It's a step in the right direction, for sure, but I feel both players will have a difficult time performing in their new roles. Both flourished with their former teams in smaller roles, where emphasis was put on other players while they more than successfully accented their play. Lin did shine when he took over the the Knicks with Amare and Melo out back during that magically run earlier in the year, but I think its going to be rough for Lin to do it again with so much expected out of him. Harden is a similar situation. He came off the bench with OKC. He swung games but he was never asked to do what Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had to do every night. 

Can Harden put up 22+ pts a game as a starter next to Lin? Can Lin get double digit points and assists, without constantly turning over the ball?

The Rockets are going to be locked into huge contracts with Harden (most likely signing a max contract in coming days), Lin, and Asik. Can they afford to surround him with another superstar? Josh Smith, maybe, next summer? 

2012 rookies F Royce White and F Terrence Jones will need to defy expectations, while former Houston Rocket 1st Rd picks F Patrick Patterson (2010) , F Chandler Parsons (2011), and Marcus Morris (2011) need to step up their games. Big man, Asik will need to prove he wasn't extremely overpaid this summer, too.