Yeah there are others too but that's a good comparison. He just needed the right coach, system, and group of guys. He's also much worse on defense than Harden (despite what Harden's rep might suggest).
Obviously Harden is responsible for making his teammates miss wide open shots while scoring 18 points in a quarter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not sure how anyone can rag on Harden. He’s carrying the team in a ridiculous situation. <a href="https://t.co/V13f85a3de">https://t.co/V13f85a3de</a></p>— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) <a href="https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/725529491741806592">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I never thought I’d feel empathy for a guy who made the decision to date a Kardashian but here we are. <a href="https://t.co/OAFt5cJutj">https://t.co/OAFt5cJutj</a></p>— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) <a href="https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/725529859980664832">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
James Harden in a nutshell is that play where Livingston drove in on the fast break, Harden did his patented swipe and move out the way defense and turned around and yelled at Dmo for his laziness. THAT'S James Harden. That is the leader of this team. No way is this team EVER going to win a ring with that man at the helm unless he grows the **** up.
Ariza's final stat in this series : 6.6 PPG / 25.5 FG% / 14.3 3PT% 31.3 TS% 63 ORtg 110 Drtg -5.5 BPM and this is our role player, the main "3&D" guy
Who did McHale bench in the 4th quarter to win the comeback game against the Clippers? That game might be the seed that the players see they can win important games only without Harden.
Houston offense drops to one of the worst in the league when Harden sits on the bench. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01/on-off/2016/ 101.8 ORtg is only sightly better than 76ers and Lakers. Yeah, that's us without Harden.
How about a max player who sucks at both ends of the floor, but gets all sulky when doesn't get enough touches? I think that attitude is quite contagious. Didn't that guy have the same problem in the past teams also?
Who carried them in game 7? Who carried them in the first 2 games of the WCF to nearly beat the Warriors at home? It was one game!!! Unfortunately such games rarely happen for the Rockets. It is great that those games happen at times (every superstar has had bad games and has seen other guys step up in that moment), this is exactly what is needed to win championships. You can't win when you HAVE to rely on one guy only. Look around the league and the top teams. They have multiple threats. There is a list of things to try and do when facing them. When opponents play the Rockets the list pretty much looks as follows: STOP HARDEN and you stop the Rockets. So tired of people holding that one game against Harden when they wanna talk him down. Harden was happy the TEAM won. Basketball is a TEAM sport and it takes multiple guys to win. It was a great Rockets win, probably one of the best wins I ever witnessed. That is what Game 6 should be remembered for, NOTHING ELSE!
Harden is not without blame for the team's struggles because he's obviously the team's best player... but here's the thing: We didn't pay him for his defense. There are lots of guys on this team who did get paid for their defense and they folded. They literally built this team to cover up James Harden's weaknesses on D. A competent group of role players and a coach worth his salt could have accomplished that. Ask Rick Carlisle (Dirk).
Meet the world's top NBA gambler http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/2935/meet-the-worlds-top-nba-gambler
These Young generations of Fans are too damn spoiled.. and Howard was the cancer to this Team and Morey couldnt get that 3rd "real star" We should be lucky enough to have Harden.. a 6th Man turned Star overnight... Been different if these role players stop fumbling the ball.. and make open shots! not like anyone else was playing locked down defense.. Howard wasn't blocking any shots.. We need a real coach and a real offense and some shooters..
