(VICE Sports) James Harden, Not LeBron James, Is Now Golden State's Kryptonite

Sadly there are still a number of ass hats that claim to be Rockets fans that wish he wasn't on the team.

 

Nene?

That's who you're going to say matches up with green as an all world defender?

Nene and Carmelo Anthony. The people quoting me have suggested nene and Melo as all world defenders.

Jesus Christ monkey balls.

 

I honestly think Harden would get Lebron Status if he played as a Laker. Just saying.

 

didn't this dude set the playoffs turnover record against gsw?

 

Good read. It's a little far-fetched to turn this into a positive, though:

 

"I think Chris is gonna help me out," Harden said. "I can do more off the ball and be more effective that way: defensively,

nice to see this is the first thing he think he will improve.

 

Did Curry have TOO MUCH help that he won the championship?

 

But if that's not what you're saying then why do we have to have 1 all time defensive player to get over the top? Why not 1 more all time offensive player?

They have a pretty good stretch 4 in Kevin Durant. We don't need to match up with them. Any team would benefit from having 1 more all time defensive player. But there are many ways to beat GS, and some of those ways are not even known to anyone at present. No one even knew it was possible to be as dominant as GS playing the way they play with the personnel they had/have. No one knows what will supplant GS. Personally, I find it unlikely that someone will create a copy cat team that beats them, given they are using those players in their most natural roles and they are incredible players. With a coach like MDA, I don't worry about that. We have the tactical advantage. MDA is a pioneer, Kerr is just evolving what MDA pioneered and even that has made him an elite coach (Kerr is superior in the mental aspect though).

On the Livingston thing, I couldn't disagree more. Frankly I find that incredibly far fetched. We're talking about an all-time elite offensive PG in Chris Paul. As much as I hate iso basketball, I take that one-on-one an unlimited number of times and we bring the trophy home if that's their plan. I'm sure they'll have a better plan than that. More likely Green will have to help out and Klay will do his best to contain Harden. Green of course can't sit and watch Harden anymore. We will have him guarding Capela, Anderson or maybe even Tucker and he will have to help on both Harden and Paul. Good luck with that!

 

Yule C!

 

Equals:

 

Is it just me or are people disagreeing with me a lot for no damn reason?

You are outta your mind with this many ways to beat GS, they won 500 games last year but ok, don't have to matchup to GS business. Yeah, you gotta score more and defend better. Just pointing out who falls into those categories unless there's some 3rd phase of basketball I'm missing I think I've outlined it pretty decently.

Feel free to check out the clippers - warriors games of the last few years. Seems like they might've figured something out, but who am I to point out that this **** is available to anyone on this board.

 

Klay Thompson has to be the whitest black guy in the history of the planet! How on EARTH does that guy have black hair?? He is literally devoid of pigment.

 

Green scores 10 points a game, if he wants to shoot all day and let KD, Curry, Klay watch him shooting, I don't mind.
If Melo can score on him efficiently and not let Green score much, it's a win. And I think Melo can beat Green.

 

I come in peace dude. Just exchanging ideas.

I'm NOT disagreeing that we could beat them by acquiring an elite defensive player without losing much. I do think that's unlikely.

All I'm saying is that's not the only way. Matching up is not the only way to beat a team. The exact opposite is true too. Mismatching up is a way to win too, and it so happens our coach is the master of that. There is no ceiling on offense. We finished 10th ALL TIME offensively last season with Anderson and Gordon being our 2nd and 3rd scorers. We MIGHT be facing GS with Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony being our 2nd and 3rd best scorers AND Gordon coming off the bench. We still have MDA and Morey. We could outclass them offensively by a significant margin. A margin significant enough to not require us to be as good as them defensively, just in the same vicinity (top 5-10). No one had that last season. The Spurs were best defense but 8th offense - and they seemed very competitive in the unfortunately tiny sample size with Kawhi on the court. We would have played them better than the Cavs and our defense was a joke. The Cavs offense was exactly the opposite of ours - the different offensive weapons were yet again disjointed.

And yes I think there is a strategy that is yet to exist which could also be a way to beat them. It's almost always the case with teams this good. Brilliant minds figure it out. Lesser talented teams beat more talented teams all the time either tactically or through effort or both. GS is a particularly tough challenge, but not immune to that possibility. Heck there's a giant wild card which is that we've never even seen a defensively competent James Harden. Have you considered the impact of 20% of your starting line-up maintaining its offense while defensively going from garbage to average? Nothing to sneeze at. That's as impactful as a good acquisition.

Chris Paul's performance vs the Warriors or Harden's performance vs the Warriors is no different than Curry or Durant's would be with the same supporting casts and coaching staffs. I don't need to look it up because it's not relevant to how this Rox team will beat this Warriors team. Kevin Durant used to come up short all the time against great teams, and look at him now. I was never surprised that the Warriors dominated us, even if I was hopeful of overcoming it. I'm strictly talking about a Harden/Paul team with lots of depth coached by MDA. Would be great to get that defensive star, but if I'm looking into the weapons cabinet, I take another offensive star just as easily. We can blow the lid on offensive history, that's a real path we could take.

I feel like you might be underestimating just how much trouble we're going to give them just with the current roster. Any favorable trade/acquisition going forward is usable, whether it's offensive or defensive guys is not so important imo.

 

I agree that creating mismatch is just as viable as keeping up with opponent by position. It's the same in most strategy games. There are 50(or a million) different ways to win, you just need to make sure you score more in the end.

 

they don't have a capela

 

javale mcgee but ok

 

Harden never had a.... ? He played with both Westbrook and Durant. Writer idiot much?

 

if you truly understand what you read, he's clearly talking about Harden's achievements since 2015 as the franchise player of the rockets

i guess the hate didn't only blind you it also messed up your reading comprehension

"Harden's ascendance is no recent phenomenon—the 28-year-old has been cooking for the past three seasons. Houston's concrete franchise pillar is just about peerless when you consider his dependability, efficiency, and ability to make those around him better. Since 2015, nobody has topped his success as a one-man offensive machine; only LeBron comes close.

Harden's most accomplished teammate during this time had been Dwight Howard, whose streak of eight straight All-Star Games ended that year and who left for Atlanta last season after battling a number of injuries. Harden never had a Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, or Steph Curry. No LaMarcus Aldridge or Gregg Popovich. No Russell Westbrook or Paul George. No Blake Griffin or Chris Paul. No Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love. For Houston, Harden has been not only the straw that stirs the drink but also the ice cubes, the glass, and the juice."