James Harden & Even Jeremy Lin Shouldn’t Be Forgotten Because of Dwight Howard

詹姆斯哈登＆甚至林書豪都不應該因為戴維霍華德而被遺忘

原作者：Greg

 

There’s no doubt that the arrival of DwightHoward to the Houston Rockets is the biggest move of this offseason, but itdoesn’t mean that what stood at the basis of the enthusiasm from last year’steam, which was mainly the arrival of James Harden and a bit earlier than that,Jeremy Lin, without forgetting about Omer Asik and Chandler Parsons as well,won’t be as important as it was last season.
無須懷疑霍華德來到休士頓是此休賽期最大舉動，但不代表，頂起上個賽季的那支隊伍的熱情——也就是，主要由詹姆斯哈登的到來，以及更早些，林書豪，也不要忘了歐莫阿西克和錢德勒帕森斯——會因此變得不如過往重要。

 

The NBA has changed, and while it’simportant to have a dominant big man in a league that doesn’t seem to occupy asmany as it once did, but the decisions on games and series being won are made outside the paint, or at least being away from it. The Miami Heat have won twoNBA titles by playing without a center. The San Antonio Spurs have an excellentTim Duncan, but what was their bread & butter was the ability of theirguards and perimeter players, which eventually failed and were outplayed in thefinal two games.
NBA已經改變了，有個在聯盟裡主宰的大個兒很重要，但已經不如過去那樣佔據那麼多地位，更重要的是為比賽下的決策，在禁區外贏來的一系列賽事（此應指球員和教練討論出的戰術，不一定需要中鋒），或至少是遠離禁區的。邁阿密熱火在沒有中鋒的情況下已經拿下兩屆NBA總冠軍。聖安多尼奧馬刺有傑出的提姆鄧肯，但滋養這支隊伍使他們脫穎而出的是他們的後衛和外線球員，儘管最終失敗，在決賽的最末兩場被比下去了。

 

The Houston Rockets had a solid center lastseason in Asik. He averaged 10.1 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, getting achance to start in the NBA for the first time in his career. In the postseasonhe was just as good, and maybe even better. Not that it was enough to beat theOklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
休士頓火箭在上個賽季有了一個堅實的中鋒，即阿西克。他平均10.1分，和11.7個藍板，在NBA生涯當中第一次有了機會作為先發。在季後賽他表現仍然好，甚至更好。盡管仍然不足在第一輪擊敗奧克拉荷馬城市的雷霆。

 

Howard is a star, the best in the league athis position, and all of the hate spewing from anything having to do with theLakers won’t change that. He says he’s willing to upgrade his offensive game inorder to finally become the low-post threat he should have become years ago,and working with Hakeem Olajuwon and maybe Kevin McHale as well (an NBA headcoach doesn’t really have time for individual workouts) is probably the bestschool to fulfill that ambition.
霍華德是個明星，他是他那個位置上的聯盟第一，所有厭惡來自任何關於湖人的都不會改變這點。他說他願意去改進他的進攻，為了最終能成為他幾年前就該成為的低位威脅，正在與歐拉朱萬以及或許也有麥克海爾工作當中（一個NBA的總教練其實真的沒有時間做個人培訓），或許是達成他目標的最佳學校了。

 

However, Howard can’t give himself theball. James Harden has it in his hands most of the time, and the rest of the playcallingis usually done by Jeremy Lin. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like Lin is goingto lose his starting job, and Patrick Beverely, besides injuring RussellWestbrook, hasn’t done anything special to overtake him as the starting pointguard. He’s one-dimensional more or less, and besides a bit more speed andexplosiveness isn’t the playmaker that Lin is.
無論如何，霍華德不能給自己球。詹姆斯哈登大部份時間都把球握在自己手中，其餘的戰略執行通常是由林書豪完成的。在這裡時刻，看起來林不會失去他的先發工作，而派翠克貝佛利在受傷的韋斯布魯克Russell Westbrook的旁邊，還沒做到什麼特別的事讓他超越林成為先發。貝佛利可以說是單維的（即沒有深度），除了多一些速度和爆發力外，完全不如林那般的戰略組織者。

 

James Harden is the key in this. The ball will be in his hands, and the team, more or less, is his. Just like Dwyane Wade needed some time to pass over control of the Miami Heat to LeBron James, Harden isn’t just going to accept being a second fiddle after tasting what it’s liketo be on top of the hill, and proving he’s one of the very best in the NBA onthe first season he got the chance to be a starter and a leader, a number oneoption like he was always meant to be but couldn’t next to Westbrook andDurant.
而詹姆斯哈登在這件事情上則是關鍵。球在他手中，那整支隊伍，差不多就是他的。就像韋德Dwyane Wade需要有時把邁阿密熱火的控制權交給LeBron James，哈登，在嚐過站上山頂的滋味，在第一個他得到機會作為先發和領導者、證明自己是聯盟數一數二好手之後，他不只是要去接受作為第二提琴（即不是主角），有一個第一選項他一直要去做到、但在Westbrook和Durant身邊一直沒有做到。（註，這個「第一選項」作者沒有明說，但應該是指作為配角，放下掌控權？）

 
Jeremy Lin is more of a question mark, but his forgettable postseason erased the excellent impression he left from a verystrong finish to the season, averaging 17.3 points per game in April andshowing when he’s the man in charge of the ball while Harden gets more time offof it, the Rockets are a better basketball team. Not that it matters if thedecision about him to be a spot-up shooter 80% of the time has been made.
林書豪現在的情況看來充滿問號，除了他需要被遺忘的季後表現，擦去他在常規賽末做的強而有力的完結所留給人的傑出印象，四月份平均17.3分，以及展現了當他是那個主導球的人、而哈登更多時間遠離球的時候，火箭是個更好的球隊。更別提關於林、已經為他做了的決策是80％的時間讓他作為定點射手。

 

Howard and Harden need balance, and notjust in scoring. With Howard demanding the ball and Harden loving it in hishands as well, some mediator needs to be put in. Jeremy Lin is that guy, orshould be it. He makes better passing decisions than Harden, and probably hisless of a need to prove he’s the alpha-male on the court, which he isn’tanyway. Dwight Howard arriving makes the Rockets genuine contenders (althoughit might take them a season to figure it out), but it doesn’t make him the mostimportant piece of the puzzle.
霍華德和哈登需要平衡，不只是在得分而已。也是當霍華德要球，而哈登想要它在手中，一些調停需要被擺進去。而林書豪就是那個人，或是應該要是那個人。他比哈登還能夠做出更好的的傳球決策，也或許是他少些證明自己是球場上的阿爾發男性的需求（註，alpha是拉丁字母的第一個），反正他現在也不是（註，作者實在太嗆了吧我快笑死）。霍華德的到來讓火箭變成真正的冠軍爭奪者（雖然可能要花上他們了一個賽季去弄出那個樣子來），但這不會讓他成為拼圖上最重要的一塊。