Clippers coach Ty Lue believes James Harden is being ‘too polite’ and should shoot more

The Clippers have just accumulated their fourth-consecutive loss, this time against the Grizzlies, currently one of the worst records in the league. Even though coach Tyronn Lue saw some improvements, he can’t ignore the fact that his squad is winless ever since James Harden‘s debut last week. 

“I saw some intriguing things but we just got to be better,” shared the Los Angeles coach. While his new player dropped 11 points coming off the bench and hit a tying three-pointer in the final minutes, he also missed another in the closing seconds.

“He’s being too polite,” the coach said of Harden, who will earn $57 million this campaign and has averaged just 14.3 points per contest since he joined, his lowest mark in over a decade. James’ average of 4.7 assists per game is also the lowest since the 2011/12 season.

Kawhi Leonard shares a similar sentiment to his coach. “I think he’s being aggressive when he is getting the ball,” the star said about his new teammate.

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue says James Harden has been too polite and needs to be more selfish… pic.twitter.com/GT74Ob2Qrq

— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) November 13, 2023

The Beard has been struggling in all his games so far in L.A., as he only dropped 12 points and handed out 5 assists in his third match vs. Brooklyn. He owned up to that defeat admitting he had lost some important possessions which resulted in crucial points for his opponents.

“Tonight was on me as far as letting the ball get away. It’s really the fourth quarter… tonight, I turned the ball over, they get easy points,” the veteran player said after his squad lost 100 to 93.

In this Sunday’s match, Memphis was led by Desmond Bane‘s 27-point performance as they achieved only their second win of the season. “Our guys were pretty dialled in,” said Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins. “We tried to make it extremely tough on these guys and the defence set the tone.”

Memphis improved to 2-8 while waiting for All-Star guard Ja Morant to return. As the young star’s 25-game suspension is set to end next month, he’s doing everything possible to be ready for when the time comes. The two-time All-Star can’t even be in the arena when his teammates are playing games, but he sure spends time around his squad the rest of the time.

“He’s fully involved in practices, film sessions, individual workouts, team dinners, the social things that they’re doing in the hotel room after games,” coach Taylor Jenkins said before Sunday’s game against the Clippers.

Paul George reduced his contribution to that of being the team’s ‘glue guy’, and then had to further explain his remarks as it infuriated Clippers fans

Once the game ended, Paul George said he was looking to focus his energy on defense and rebounding, and to “just be the glue guy tonight, which put me in a non-aggressive attack mode, which I won’t do again. Just felt out of character on the floor.”

However, his comments weren’t well received by the Clippers fan base, as he’s expected to perform just as well on both sides of the court.

The Los Angeles guard felt the need to clarify his remarks after his squad’s fourth-consecutive defeat at the hands of the Grizzlies. “I know who I am and what I am in the league,” he explained. “That approach purely came from – You lose guys like [Robert Covington], [Nicolas Batum], the guys that were the glue guys for us… somebody’s gotta fill in that void of doing the nasty work, the dirty work, getting the hustle points, the hustle plays…

“So that’s where the mindset came from. It wasn’t to defer or tale a step back, it was just try to figure out how can we f–king win?”