The team was BY FAR at its best with him on the court, the defense was far better, the turnovers were much lower. While it’s a valid point of criticism, what’s the individual shooting stat worth against all the overwhelming positives? Team lost in part because of minutes distribution

I think the defense needs to be simplified: Play up and drive people off the 3 pt line. If the other team can’t get 3pt shots off, then we’re gonna win most games. Double on an obvious mismatch off a non-shooter, but otherwise let the match up play out. A contested 2 is better than an open 3 or backdoor cut leading to a dunk.

Sac had that type of mentality tonight. They held Kawhi to three 3PAs, when he’s been shooting a career best. That effort alone might have won the game for them.

But more than that, Harden and Kawhi have to be much more disciplined about moving the ball and making a decision quickly. If a defense wants to overplay at the 3pt line, move it to the sideline and attack from there. That requires the coaching staff to tell Mann/Coffey/Norm/Zu et al to look to shoot a lot. When those guys establish that they’re gonna score, it disrupts the defense.

Harden is not only not held to a higher standard (he takes up 8x as much of cap space, plays in better lineups on average, has consistent minutes and doesn’t play as many different roles), he’s not remotely held to the same standard. Defense, number of turnovers, shot selection, avoidable turnovers, misses, momentum killers – Russ gets scrutinized every single time.

Harden played twice as many minutes at -25, Russ +10. Defense was far better, offense played with better pace and movement, too. Instead of looking at what’s best for the team, we look at one negative with Russ and talk as if they played a similar game. Not in the slightest. But that is what gets lost when you standard A for one player, standard B for another and standard C for everyone else. Sacramento scored 36 points in Russ’ minutes. That’s a 96 point pace for the game. They scored 87 over the other 30, a 139 pace… We scored 46 in his minutes, with better pace, energy and reduced turnovers.

Does the coach buy those narratives, too? Did he think Harden would hit his 3s at the end or get to the line a ton or move the ball or play with better pace? There was an easy fix to give us a chance. It wasn’t for Russ to shoot more, no, but it was most certainly to play more.

–> Russ’ fault that Harden doesn’t play fewer minutes I guess.

The amount of trash narratives going on here, it’s not funny. But I know I’m the bad guy for defending the unpopular player, regardless of how many facts and context supports that. People have become pathetic with regards to taking accountability, in particular when it’s about crapping on human beings on the internet. And it’s regularly the best human beings they try to drag down

Could have gotten so much more out of anyone not named Zu and it wasn’t exact difficult to avoid half the turnovers or defensive lapses they had.