Like I said. Needed him to be great. He wasnt. He was solid. But cf’s will say he just sucked And he’s not the only player that underperformed
Hes putting up like 2.5 more ppg and slightly bett4er 3 point shooting, both were bad. I told you its not really about scoring it was about how he was handling the rock and running the team. It could be our sytem(yea I am blaming Dantoni a little) or it could be that Cp was just really sloppy this year. Lowry has been better running the team. Lowry is even able to punish Cousins on switches.
idk if kawhi is better than james, but he has a team better equipped to deal with the warriors because of all the size and athleticism in the front court. gasol, siakum, ibaka >>> capela, tucker, (insert SF trying to play 4-5)
The difference in running the team isn’t that significant either if that’s what you’re going to hang your hat on. Just bc they’re up doesn’t mean that’s solely on Lowry. It isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Cp3, his competitive heart and Tuckers are the biggest on he team. But...regardless of whether he’s playing w a high usage player, a 27% 3-point percentage and less than 2:1 assist to turnover ratio is extremely disappointing. The former isn’t that big of a gap w Lowry, but the latter is significant imo.
Yeah hes more durable and not a diva and can single handedly carry a team offensively. Players mvp, mvp, would have been mvp twice... What do you honestly think the w-l record if cp3 and the rest of the rockets play without harden for 22 games being in the west? And you honestly dont think the raptors will be in this same position if they have harden instead with a 22 game rest in the regular season?
The best player on a team should be able to elevate the role players around him. All the players on the floor have proven they can perform. Having beautiful stats yourself is only part of it. Gotta do whatever it takes to get the whole team going, even doing the little things that don't show up on the stat sheet, and ultimately win games.
It doesn't help that House no-shows in post season and was removed from rotation. But Houston complementary players are not as talented as Toronto's who are built for playoffs with all their long switchable wings. Rockets best switchable wing is 6-4 Tucker.
That’s what hilarious to me when people claim Harden dribbles for 20 second then passes. The guy had Faried ballin, he creates so many open looks for teammates it’s not even funny! Now in the playoffs those shots didn’t go in and as we all saw Capela was non existent
didn't take the time to really go into all the posts in this thread ... but in response to the basic premise ... no, of course leonard is not 100x better than harden. It's very arguable to say he's a better overall player in general than harden. What he does do better is obvious. He can play lockdown d in spurts (he no longer guards the best player all game), and he is a better clutch shotmaker, with the latter being the main point of this thread probably, to which i'll mainly address in this post. Watching game 5, people tend to rave about kawhi's offensive dominance, but he routinely has shot harden-like percentages through the playoffs, gets just as many fts, and fewer assists (and turnovers). In effect, he's a slightly less good harden on offense. His playmaking isn't as good, and he tends to struggle in the more invisible moments of games (quarters 2-3), but also tends to show up and have monstrous bursts like the one in game 5. Harden on the other hand tends to get rolling early and go cold in the clutch (minus that one jazz game in the playoffs), resulting in similar shooting percentages overall. I DO agree that Kawhi is a better clutch scorer and has the tools to score against tougher defenses, while Harden tends to miss a lot of late game shots against teams like the warriors because he's bothered by length and refs are very shady on their consistency of game 1-like foul calls, and thus results in pouting/baiting until he gets those calls ... Which is frustrating at times. Regardless, Harden will routinely always play better overall offense in the regular season because he'll be way more consistent against most teams in the league, opening up a lot more playmaking that Kawhi could only dream of ever doing. But when playing the toughest teams, Kawhi seems to be a better guy to go to for the key bucket, and obviously less of a liability on the other end should the shot he takes not fall. But until Kawhi proves he can sustain this level of play and remain healthy, I don't know that many would take him over Harden just yet.
James and Kawhi are pretty even IMO. Kawhi has more size, better defender, James is quicker, more explosive scorer, and a better playmaker/passer out of a double team. Neither player has a high scoring number two option, but raptors more guys that can get you 15+ on a given night, more size, more athletic. The raptors success isn’t all Kawhi carrying scrubs. They are a talented team. It’s easy to look at their success and say well Kawhi must be better than James since he is sitting at home.