The Clippers are now 4-7 since trading for Harden, or 0-1 in his “ready” state.
Memes aside, he was okay this game, but okay isn’t good enough when you’re with a fully healthy Clippers vs a Reggie Jackson-led Nuggets.
Harden isn’t exactly playing terribly as a Clippers, but at this point in his career, it’s hard to justify an offence-first player on a team as offensively stacked as the Clippers when they’re in desperate need of some more off-ball movement.
Harden is looking to secure a max extension, we’ll have to see what kind of contract he can muster as he gets more into game shape as the season progresses.
Russ isn’t bad for a $3+m contract. He’s a solid high energy sparkplug off the bench.
Wasn’t he doing just fine before Harden got there? Lmao
Sure, but that’s because they’d really only played the Blazers and Spurs before Harden showed up.
He also played some with clips last season. Was he an all star? No. But he was still a positive contributor to them overall.
They had a worse record once he arrived tho; he makes too many mistakes
Yep. His record with Kawhi and PG last year was only 5-5, and the Clippers had a worse record after getting WB than they had before they signed him. Plus for all the talk about the “great playoffs” he had, he led them to a 5 game 1st round exit. He was stuffing the stat sheet with empty stats that just led to losses. It wasn’t much different than what he did in Washington.
The chemistry looked good with Russ as a hustle guy to start the season, doing all of the untangeables. I can’t even watch now.
They can’t play together so its funny they’ve ended up together so often. Russ needs the ball in his hands because he can’t play off ball, and Harden gives zero effort and doesn’t care unless he’s the primary ball handler
At this point, Russ is just a net negative. Not having him on the court is better than having him on the court.
He’s a lot better than “not bad” with that contract. He was a legitimate starter on a playoff team before the trade.