you have many good posts, but this one? so anyone who does not believe a harden-led rockets team can win a title is an idiot? k. btw, my view on harden has been consistent since after a couple of months he's traded and played here.
rockets scoring in 4q and ot of blazers game, from a james-centric point of view 4q: james fallaway 2 pointer james assists corey catch and shoot 3 jason elbow jumper off dwight screen james layup in transition james assists corey catch and shoot 3 james posts, spins, jabs, step back james posts, fouled while shooting (2/2) james assists capela layup corey drives in transition for a layup james assists trevor catch and drive layup james drives from top, fouled while shooting (2/2) corey drives in transition, fouled while shooting (2/2) dwight fouled while grabbing offensive rebound (2/2) james drives from top, fouled while shooting (2/2) james quick 3 james gets fouled intentionally (2/2) corey quick 3 (technically assisted by james, but not really) ot: james posts, jabs, spins, step back james posts, pulls up for and 1 (1/1) james posts, jabs, pump fake, drives for layup james gets fouled intentionally (2/2) james is a beast
I was talking about the national media.... its fine to criticize Harden because he still has a lot to prove on and off the court. With that said yes A lot of the bashing around here is warranted but overblown because really who are you going to trade this guy for and improve as a team even 5 years down the line? The answer is nobody. There's only 5 players that are better than him in the league and besides Davis who I don't think is really doing well either this year are all older than Harden. We're not getting LeBron, KD, Curry or even Davis in a trade for a Harden. We can get a number one pick in the draft for him and assets sure but why? So we can hope we get a player maybe close to the talent of harden because some of you are fed up with his play this year or even past years? We're he's been 1st team all NBA the last 2 years? We're he's been top 5 in mvp voting the last 2 years? Were he's taken the rockets further in the playoffs as the best player on the team, than in the past 17 years? Sure he still needs to do more because we as fans want championships but I'm sorry I'm not trading harden for a Paul George type guy who plays hard and is a fine player but gives us no chance to ever win a title with as the best player on a team. So yes ppl who criticize harden arnt idiots because everyone is entitled to there opinions but if you want to trade harden at 26 years old who has improved every year and yes this year is still way to early to say he didn't this offseason, you are an idiot and don't know how the NBA works. You live and die by your stars and harden is the brightest best star we've had since Hakeem and the numbers and success back it up and its not even disputable.
Not according to some ppl on this board... If you listen to them you would think he's one of the worst players in the game. Dude is a beast there's only 4 players in the game that can do what you just posted Lebron,KD,curry and Westbrook. Harden is absolutely in that class. He just needs to be engaged all the time and bring the effort hopefully that will happen from now on with new coaching.
nothing wrong with wanting your best player who believes he's the mvp to actually play tolerable defense consistently. I mean tbh it shouldn't even be this big of an issue at this point in his career. You definitely wouldn't hear this much criticism had JH showed the effort and energy every single night on the defensive end. We'll find out soon enough how truly serious he is about wanting to be great and winning after all of this.
100% agree with what your saying. His talent is not debatable he's great but yes effort even from me has been questioned way to much this season. Last year I didn't ever think he wasn't trying hard I really thought he turned a new leaf. I'm a big harden guy but even I realize that ultimately he's the reason our record is 2 games under 500 right now and it has nothing to do with his shooting which was this bad through 12 games last year but we were 9-3 or 10-2 because he was bringing that energy every night.
This. He needs to be a man and try to finish instead of only flailing his arms in the arm hoping for a foul.
But he is legitimately fouled almost every time. He doesn't really flail his arms so much as he comes up (necessary to be a shooting foul) and through the arm of the other player. Sometimes it knocks the ball loose and he doesn't get the foul call, but he was still fouled and it's not like he doesn't try to rip through and finish anyways (when it's not knocked out when they grab his wrist/forearm). What frustrates me about Harden is when he isn't shooting well or even passing well, he seems to quit. His defense gets worse. His turnovers increase. It tends to be a snowball effect with him, I feel. It frustrates me that he makes one shot, after missing 8, and the tries to take home run shots the next time down the court. It's like dude, make some easy shots before you start taking shots like you did last year. And, like I've said before, I feel like he has been ignoring Dwight on the lob. He doesn't seem to trust that Dwight can get up anymore.
He does need to go to dwight but man dwight had terrible hands. He fumbled so many passes that are on point it drives me crazy.
There was this sequence just right now where Harden played great defense, leading to a steal and fastbreak 3. From that point on it seemed like everybody's intensity went upto another level, you could tell from their body language. The way your leader responds is contagious. Next play, suffocating defense once again (harden and whole team) --> and confident play which leads to a 3 by brewer on the other side. The reason I hold harden so accountable is because as I just saw he is PERFECTLY capable of playing the type of defense we need him to and knows that the other players will play as hard as he is. He knows he can rally them. So much talent, so much power to rally and motivate his teammates but rarely uses it. Thats what pisses me off.
Yep. Just look at Adelman's second year, when McGrady checked out. When he played, the team sucked. When he sat, the team was great. He was so lethargic and it rubbed off on everyone else. Had McGrady sat the entire year, the Rockets could have done much better than a 5th seed. All they needed was 2 more wins to be 2nd.
Les seems like a guy who doesn't like being made a fool of. Harden is taking his money for nothing in return on the court. I can see Les authorizing Morey to trade him. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Is there an analytical model for this? <a href="https://t.co/72Bz9hrYi4">https://t.co/72Bz9hrYi4</a> Asking for a friend.</p>— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) <a href="https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/671536611373555712">December 1, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
First time I saw that, I tried to tell myself it wasn't that bad so I saw what I wanted and it wasn't. Seeing it now...I don't have words. Also I think you are right, for the right package Les might do it. He liked Mchale enough and god rid of him even when he wasn't the main problem.
I would keep Harden. HIs offense is too good to just trade him after a poor start. Even if the Rockes don't make the playoffs this year, seeing how he responds for the remaining games will tell a lot.
