- 5th in scoring - 1st in Free throws made and attempts - 5th in efficiency - 7th in steals - 8th in 3 pointers made - 1st year starter and number 1 option on a new team - Leads team(youngest and most inexperienced) to 1st post-season appearance in 4 yrs - NBA All-Star - Only 23 years old
"People love bright shiny objects. Can't concentrate anything for more than a week." that's how it is around the internets but it was a good quote.
Ok, how the hell has he fallen off? He put up 20, 36, and 30 points before this last game, against arguably the 2nd best team in the league. Rockets barely lost two of the three games with hardly anyone else helping offensively. Seriously! This sh** needs to stop already!
After that 15-pt game 4 showing, he's still 4th in scoring in the playoffs. Funny thing is, those same people saying that he's not a star are disappointed because they're expecting him to put up elite numbers every game. The irony..
Harden is a year younger than Curry and look what he did with his first season as a starter. At least he stayed healthy. Heath will always be a question for Curry.
Your agenda is transparent. You're citing contributions from teammates to try and downplay his domination against the Spurs, all the while ignoring teammates when it doesn't suit your agenda. Those series you reference against the Lakers and Heat? He was the third option, and in 10 games, shot more than 11 attempts... once. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's a ridiculously small sample. It's not at all inexplicable when you factor in the volume of attempts that went into his regular season TS% and then compare them to three games. You can make any player look great or terrible if you twist numbers like that. The fact is, he hit big shot after big shot in that SA series (by the way, he hit another one against the Spurs about a month ago), and you're trying to diminish that by citing contributions from his teammates. By that same token, his performance as a high-usage guy in these playoffs is similarly explainable. There isn't a single other player on the court for the Rockets, with Lin out, that can consistently create his own shot. There isn't a big man finisher, with the possible exception of Smith in very limited minutes. Sefalosha is a solid perimeter defender and Ibaka, the best shot blocker in the NBA, is free to aggressively help whenever needed. That's a combination that's going to lead to a lot of forced shots. Advanced scouting reports aren't forcing Harden to shoot 16% from three. He's just cold. Advanced scouting reports aren't contesting his shots better around the rim. That's a great shotblocker in Ibaka on help defense because they don't have to respect Asik. Advanced scouting reports didn't help the Mavs and Spurs last year when Harden torched them down the stretch. Since you love advanced stats so much, James Harden had a PER of 23 this year, at 23 years old and in his first year as a go-to player. The highest Joe ever had in his entire career? 19.5. Take your absurd comparison and suck on that.
Although Harden be slumping right now, I agree Harden should have the ball in iso mode 100% during the last 2 mins of the game. Now the iso sets (can you even call them sets? No off ball movments at all) hes running needs to change though
Also worth noting that in head-to-head this year Harden's team went 3-1 against Curry. And Curry had an All-Star selection playing with him this year.
what's the debate? Aside from Curry's ankle problems in the past, he's better than Harden at everything. Shooting, whether from the 3 or midrange, better slasher going either direction, finishes left hand or right, better foul shooter, better passer, better ball handler, much less turnover prone...like what's there to even debate? houston fans would drive hardens ass to the airport if it meant getting curry.
If not for Curry's glass ankle, I'd consider taking him over Harden to build my team around. But that's like debating about a healthy Yao vs Dwight Howard.
Harden PER: 23.0 Curry PER: 21.3 Harden TS%: 60.0 Curry TS%: 58.9 Harden scoring: 25.9 points on 17.1 shots Curry scoring: 22.9 points on 17.8 shots Advanced numbers favor Harden. He scored more points on fewer shots and averaged more rebounds, blocks and steals. He also did all this WITHOUT another All-Star alongside him, while Curry had David Lee. Oh, and Harden is 23 years old. Curry is 25 and has chronic ankle issues. Try speaking for yourself. If GS called me with that offer, I'd laugh in their face and hang up the phone.
We all know Harden is an all-star and we wouldn't in the playoffs without him, but he's still playing like hot garbage. 10 TO's WTF. I'm just getting tired of his subpar play. Don't tell me he's tired or burnt out from carrying this team. All I hear are excuses. Did Jordan, Kobe, Durant or LeBron ever make excuses? No they gave it their all every time on the court.
No time to watch a team grew and succeed. We want results now! (Except for Lin because this is his first full season)
