Nick Wright Believe Harden Is a Better Player Than Kawhi

It wasn't just the GS series in particular that elevated Kawhi. It was the nation watching him limp and carry his team past Philly and the Bucks. It was the Greek Freak shooting 55% in games 1 & 2, then 35% after Kawhi became his primary defender. No one picked the Raptors to come out of the East. His journey was impressive.

I hate that James is viewed only as a regular season wonder by the masses. The good thing is that he and the Rockets have a great opportunity to change that perception this year. James just needs a few signature playoff moments and wins. Then he will get his just due IMHO.

 

Bottom line James has to win a championship to get that type of consideration or play extremely well in the NBA finals. He hasn't reached an NBA finals with the Rockets. Kawhi has taken 2 teams to the NBA Finals and won 2 MVPs... Over their careers, yes James is better but when it counts, Kawhi has been better.

 

I mean we are talking about a handful of bad games 5 years ago. He has played a ton of playoff basketball and for the most part has played very well.

 

I know. The "Harden doesn't show up in the playoffs" narrative is largely BS. I've gotten into my share of fruitless Twitter spats on this topic, trust me.

But I do think that Kawhi's game and temperament is better suited for the challenges of the playoffs than Harden's. That said, it's also true that he's not asked to do as much on offense. You can't depend on Kawhi to orchestrate the offense like Harden and expect better results.

 

He had some real stinkers against the Jazz last year as well. He looked dazed and confused in some of those games.

 

Well, if we are comparing, then the 15th pick Leonard was pretty good 5 years ago already.

 

Man I am NOT knocking down Kawhi here I think Kawhi is absolutely a monster.

And for the record, I called the Raptors a title contender on this site to start the season and put them in the group of teams that I thought could win the whole thing, not just the East. That was when the Warriors were healthy. I had them above the Rockets. Nothing but love here for Toronto and Kawhi from me.

 

I like to think Nick Wright is not absolute garbage.

 

Also Leonard has rarely been a Regular season MVP guy, he is missing so many games.

 

Didn't see Kawhi on Harden hardly at all last night. I thought a defensive player of the year would be all over the other team's best offensive player if he "just wants to win" as we always hear about Kawhi. I guess when you have to carry the load offensively, it's a little tough to play lock down D as well...hmmm, don't we know someone that gets a bad rap for that?

 

That red shirt guy/doofus in the Glasses said Harden disappeared in the playoffs last year.

31.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 6.6 apg, 35% 3, 50% efg, 37% usage, 25.2 PER, against 2 elite defensive teams/peak Warriors - it's not the flat out rediculous h Wilt/Jordan heights he reached in the regular season, but you know, that's like, really really good after recording the highest usage ever and the greatest offensive performance in 4 decades?

 

This national media narrative will never change. Say Harden wins his first ring, they will say, well Kawhi or so and so has 2 or 3 or 4... When it comes to Harden going MIA in playoffs, that's just haters hating and ignoring the stats, and it will continue. It's also interesting to me how people easily forget how Kawhi cried his way to play in the City he wants to while backstabbing his teammates along the way. I don't know his health history, but from face value, his load management in every team he has played in and leaving his teammates in Spurs and Raptors high and dry is a selfish and a dick move because his highness wants to play in LA and nowhere else.

 

Kawhi always had more help than Harden. So less pressure on Kawhi.

 

Lol what

 

@6:39, homie actually said Harden has never carried a team in the regular season.

People will say anything to avoid being wrong.

Harden's durability is something that gets massively underrated (especially in a debate vs Kawhi).

 

I'd take Kawhi in the playoffs too. BUT, you gotta get to the playoffs first.

Harden can't load manage the Rockets into the postseason because Rockets would be a lottery team. James has carried his squad to the playoffs in the tougher conference for almost a decade (and usually gets a top seed). Kawhi has executed that burden once in his career ('17) and couldn't stay healthy in the playoffs.

 

I don’t care if anybody thinks Harden is behind Kawhi/Steph/Durant/LeBron/etc. I do have a problem with people saying it’s not close, and overstating Harden’s playoff resume. It’s much better than he gets credit for, even on this website.

 

the difference between Harden and Kawhi is that James is a more lethal perimeter player while kawhi is obviously better in the post. 3 points counts more than 2 and James' stepback is unguardable…..James harden has the whole other team guarding him the moment he gets the ball while you can get by with single coverage or a soft double against kawhi...If you account for how much defense the other team has to play because of harden and the wide open shots he gets for capela and 3 point shooters, there's no question harden is better....who would you rather have the ball with five minutes left? harden.....if kawhi was still the klaw you could make a case, but James was scoring on him easily one on one.....

Also...kawhi has always done well on stacked teams...its easy to play well on that raptors team or the spurs team...well rounded great teams...its hard to double or triple team kawhi on those teams....

 

Kawhi had better results. But harden performed better vs the warriors last year.

 

I don’t think Kershaw works. His postseason numbers are like orders of magnitude worse in the playoffs vs his regular season. Harden doesn’t drop off that bad.

Verlander maybe? Overall great everywhere, but winless in the WS and has some head scratchers every once in a while.