Yeah, I don't think we get Harden or maybe we'd even trade Kawhi in said deal for Harden as Kawhi was a slow learner. He didn't come into the league tearing it up and would have probably filled Jeremy Lamb's spot in the trade? If there was a trade. Really hard to say. Some people would say that Popovic was instrumental in Kawhi's development too so who knows. Still, Kawhi was an easy pick there.
All your doing is making excuses for why he doesn’t show up in crunch time...Role players aside. He doesn’t. Is he the only reason we lost, he’ll no. Is his late performance in close games impactful to outcomes of games. Hell yes. I would argue that the game being close even with curry being scoreless had a lot more to do with our inability to get a rebound or defend properly then the Warriors role player talent being so much more superior to our talent in this game. And the fact remains that you can’t answer for curry showing up and making the winning plays while harden couldn’t.
I like how we call facts excuses now...facts are that Curry showed up for 3 quarters of a 6 game series...aside from that, he was TRASH...so congrats to him...he could afford to do that because his team is stacked...if Harden played like Curry did those 1st 4 games and most of game 5, the Rockets would have never even seen a game 6 Harden had an excellent series against GS, and for the playoffs he averaged 32, 7, and 7 on 41/35/84 shooting splits. This was a very good postseason run. I’d give it a B+. He made strides. He was better in the 2018 playoffs than he was in 2017, and he improved his postseason play yet again. Was he amazing in the clutch at all times? No, but for those trying to put all the blame on him, that is just garbage. 4 much bigger problems than him were CP3’s trash performances, the p***y play of Clint, MDA being outcoached, and a lack of rebounding. The biggest overall problem is that Harden ultimately does not have enough to win a title. The chances that 1 superstar and a bunch of role players win a chip in today’s NBA are extremely low.
But he couldn't shoot 3's, so he "didn't fit". Reminds me of when the Texans passed over HOFer Derrick Johnson because he wasn't a "3-4 LB" and drafted Travis Johnson instead because he "fit the system".
Texans are the perfect example of an organization stubborn about its system too and man...Travis Johnson...that's a name I haven't heard of in a while. Astros meanwhile while they were building their team drafting guys in the same position. Astros focused on filling the team with talent and figuring it out later. Imagine the Astros passing on Bregman because they already have Correa...
dude. You keep bringing up his overall stats and winning a championship and all that. That’s not what I’m debating here. Go look at my original response to your first post. It was about the last 5 quarters and how we had enough talent to win those quarters. Curry was bad for a number of those quarters, but he was good in the most pivotal moments of the games! For harden it was the exact opposite. He was good For 3 of those 5 quarters, but bad in the most pivotal moments. This was my point. This is what looking at his overall averages cannot tell you. So don’t just say “good for curry he finally showed up” he showed up when it was time to win. He delivered the daggers, the knockout blow. Whether or not the rockets could win it all, or hardens averages, or his teamates aside, the rockets did enough to give him the chance to win late. Instead he became less aggressive and couldn’t make the winning plays.
MCW and Rivers were desperation pick ups. It's just that the knock on Kawhi was that he couldn't shoot or basically that he was going to be a really bad offensive player... Some sites on his weaknesses... https://www.nbadraft.net/players/kawhi-leonard Weaknesses: Does not have one aspect offensively that stands out or which allows him to consistently score the ball … With his size and frame, will almost certainly be a perimeter player at the next level, but he lacks the polish and skill necessary to consistently operate on the wing … He does not have break down ability off the dribble and he is especially shaky handling the ball with his left hand … His jumpshot (while definitely improved) is still very inconsistent … The release comes high off his head and it is somewhat of a sling motion, which results in a fairly flat shot that goes all over the place … At this level, he has a size advantage on almost a nightly basis, but he still chooses to take the majority of his shots from the outside … Takes a high number of off balance shots, but does not show the ability to convert them at a good percentage … He does not have a great touch around the basket, and unless he can get inside position on the defense, he struggles finishing when contested … Not very disciplined defensively, he gambles far too often and leaves his team susceptible to giving up easy baskets … His lack of tremendous situational efficiency stems from the fact that there are a number of holes in his game that he'll need to work on, especially out on the perimeter. Leonard's most notable weakness is his lack of jump shooting ability. Connecting on just 32% of his catch and shoot jumpers and 28% of his pull-ups last season, the sophomore struggled with his consistency from range. As with all players noted for their hand size, there are questions about Leonard's ability to develop a reliable jump shot. While there is some merit to that stereotype, if will be necessary for Leonard to continue honing that part of his game to the greatest extent possible. - Source: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Kawhi-Leonard-5821/ ©DraftExpress Just a few examples. I have no idea why the Rockets didn't draft Kawhi explicitly but I think it's a safe assumption that this organization values shooting and here is a guy that people thought couldn't shoot.
At this point it feels like Harden is a perfect second fiddle to LeBron type. Just like Kyrie, he can keep team afloat but when its time to do business here comes the goat to handle it. The best we were looking in this game is when CP had flashbacks of his old self
This only shows that you can throw every scouting report into dumpster. They see the talent where everybody sees it while they supposed to have an eye for something everybody dont see. They don’t see the potential when it isnt handed on a silver platter, lots of talents got lost because of it and lots of fast learners went with high picks while being ****(like Ben Simmons, Lonzo, Wiggins or Fultz for example)
if Harden ever pulled what Curry did for most of this series, there would’ve been no “time to win” moments for him because we would’ve gotten waxed, so I can absolutely say “good for Curry”...he is allowed to play like garbage for 80% of the series and still win I am concerned about whether or not we can win a championship. U keep bringing up all these blame Harden talking points, I don’t care about that debate. We have much bigger issues. Fact of the matter is that Harden wasn’t all that good at the end of games 5 and 6, but overall had a very good postseason. Fact of the matter is that CP3 was extremely disappointing, Clint was embarrassing, MDA got outcoached again, and the rebounding issues we had all year came back to haunt us.
You call them “harden talking points” I (and the majority of others, outside of true rockets homers) call them significant factors in the rockets game 5 and 6 losses. Also, harden had one fg in the 3rd quarter of this game. So this idea that it was his “Goliath” effort that even got the rockets to a close game in the fourth is false. Also I looked at hardens fourth quarter: 2:47 (layup) rockets 102-100 (7 pts. ) Almost two minutes elapse and gs takes a commanding 2 possession lead before he scores again. 0:58 (driving layup) to bring us within 3 (9 pts.) The a garbage time 3 (12 points) He had a turnover and was dead silent in the pivotal two minutes where gs came back to take the lead. The box score doesn’t illustrate this
Good lord, after reading that scouting report it's a miracle he got drafted at all. Obviously the coaching he got in SA plus his hard work helped make him. Still, the Morrises were blah players, and I hated that pick the minute they made it.
I said if he played like Curry did in the 1st 4 games of this series and most of game 5 the Rockets would’ve been destroyed in this series and there would’ve been no “time to win” moments...that’s facts like I just told u, we had much bigger problems than the play of the best or 2nd best player in this series...u want to have that blame Harden convo, then cool, u can have it with someone else, Idc about that simplistic debate
Kawhi is a rare case, I doubt SAS knew he'd be what they made him and at the time they still had Duncan, Parker, Manu...they were fine with just getting a guy for defense. Popovic also sent the guy Jordan tapes and they spent time grooming him into what he is today. I think development plays a huge part in it. I think we bungled it with a few players, D-Mo mainly. Dmo was super talented, could hit the three, had a low post game, he's a super skilled big and we never really treated him like one. Dmo had a really good low post game but alas...we shoot threes here...so Dmo spent time spot up behind the 3 point line way too often in games... I'm not saying that DMO could have been an all-star...just that we didn't really help his development at all and that's the difference between us and that team. Spurs adjusted the system to their players, always do, meanwhile we try to fit players into our system and sometimes I think it hurts more. Instead of trying to make Dmo some 3 point big, let him gain confidence down low first and then use his three after. Let him go to his strengths. I think with CP3 we are trying to fit him into our system, I hate seeing him stand around the perimeter like a spot up shooter...but on his old legs, maybe for the best honestly. Ben, Lonzo, Wiggins, Fultz, all super athletic guys, those guys always get picked high. Ben just can't shoot period, Lonzo was overhyped, Wiggins doesn't really care about being good and Fultz has a pretty serious injury that he may never recover from. Yeah, he had a lot of knocks on his game and Marcus Morris looked like a decent scorer, but Kawhi was always a great defender. I think at most people hoped he would develop a decent shot to be a great 3 and D guy, even if that's his floor he'd still be a great player. Even still, even with all his flaws, I remember draft night most people easily wanted Kawhi.
You don’t want to have the debate. You know what that sounds like? “I know exactly what we have to do.....I don’t want to talk about it”
Kawhi Leonard completely changed his shooting form because of a professional shooting coach in San Antonio. I forgot his name. Kawhi shooting looked so different since his Rookie year. Chandler Parsons outplayed Kawhi in his Rookie year.
