Harden is still a top 5 nba player

Yes. Before him, who was our last major FA acquisition? Him signing with us was a big deal.

Again, no one, especially the front office of a professional basketball team, thinks that a player will dramatically improve in his 10th season. We promised him a post-player role b/c that's what it took to get him here. That's how elite his defense was. Remember, at the time, there were a lot of teams trying to acquire him.

You're looking at it from the team's perspective, and that's irrelevant. Look at it from the player's perspective.

How is this relevant to anything?

LOL

 

No he is not. You have to be on drugs to think that he is a top 5 player.

 

A lifetime of not playing defense and setting back-to-back NBA records in turnovers has done a lot more than 48 hours ever will or would.

 

I think he's top 5, but yeah you're points about lazy basketball are completely on point. Harden is no Hakeem, and MDA ain't Pop. I still believe in Harden, but we need another top 10-15 guy with him to even get close to sniffing the finals. The high volatility of our team is the only way to beat a star-studded warriors with sheer high variance play.

Game 1 we see how great this team can be with Harden and tonight we saw how terrible this team can be with Harden. It's emotionally exhausting.

Not sure Harden can get much better, though, I think this might be his peak.

 

That doesn't matter, you said guys didn't want to play with Harden. Before him, our best players were Lowry and Dragic, so I don't even know why you'd bring that up.

I don't think they expected Hakeem, they expected him to be decent at it.. you make it sound like they didn't try.

They did. More than his other destinations actually, he had some of the best post teachers to teach him here in McHale and Hakeem.

You're saying that other players look at how we treated Dwight wrongly, it's not irrelevant, for the reason I stated below about the list of players that played with him that do not have favorable things to say about him.

It's entirely relevant when you think other players are whining about Dwight's lack of post touches or something. I doubt they even care.

How was this a loss? If you remember the story he was going to sign with us but Pat Riley made his big push to keep him. In the end the man chose family and location over coming here.

That's why it's not always so simple as you make it out to be and each player thinks differently. They don't all think like you do that Harden is a loser, there is no evidence to that at all.

Or that voting him MVP is lipservice...because clearly, they had no one else in the NBA to vote for, right?

 

There's a lot he can improve on. He needs to improve his conditioning which will help him both offensively and defensively. Beverley lost 15 lbs in the offseason and had a career year. He also needs to improve his ball-handling. He's not able to adapt on the fly like Curry or Irving. Instead, he has a tendency to reset at the top of the key and do the same crossover move over and over. Improving his ball-handling would also help with his turnovers. Next, he needs to improve his shooting. He shot under 35% from the 3pt line at 9 attempts per game. Frankly, that's not good. Lastly, he needs to learn how to integrate himself into the offense when he doesn't have the ball. More often than not, he's standing around watching the action.

 

Who should be top 5 over him.
Curry and Westbrook have bad defence, the one is a choker of historic proportions and the other has the bball iq of a brick. Durant hardly plays coz he's broken and is the most coward of all the league, Lebron is about to retire and Kawhi..is a robot. Noone is perfect.

 

Why they sign iggy then, curry is a **** defender who racks up steals playing passing lanes like harden. We need our draymon green... he is the mvp of that team.

 

Forget Durant and Horford. We couldn't even get Bazemore or Bogut.

Sorry, but no. You're absolutely wrong here. No one in their right mind realistically expected Dwight Howard to dramatically improve his post game in his 10th season.

That's just common sense. Think about it. How long is the average NBA career? And you're expecting significant improvements after 9 years?

You don't think potential free agents care that the Rockets management broke its promise to a major free agent acquisition? Seriously?

And at the end of the day, we missed out on another big free agent.

Again, actions speak louder than words. The players' MVP is absolutely lip service. They gave Harden the recognition they felt he deserved, but that doesn't mean they want to play with him. Harden was voted as the players' MVP yet Durant chose to play for Golden State. What does that tell you about the magnitude of the players' MVP?

 

They signed Iggy to be a glue guy and guard the opposing SG/SFs.

 

Curry is a significantly better defender than Harden, but he still gets occasionally schooled by elite ball-handlers like Irving, Lillard, and Paul. No one is going to consistently stop those guys.

Harden gets beaten by role players who take advantage of his laziness. They know that if they keep running around, Harden will eventually stop chasing them.

 

Comparing Curry's defense to Harden's... lol.

We have to hide Harden on big guys that create cross-matches up and down the line up. He can't even guard his position.

A few years ago I am convinced he personally got Alan Anderson and Chris Copeland paid with his pathetic defense.

 

Those dudes are not all-star players, who cares? Bazemore better than Gordon or Anderson? No.

Where did I say anyone thought he'd dramatically improve it? Here is what I said.

They didn't break their promise. He was featured in an offensive role and lost it do to sucking. Players understand that. Hell, Ariza was once going to be the focal point for this team, proved he wasn't, was traded, and come back playing for the same GM that traded him.

You really think players care about Dwight's post touches as much as you do? Most of the players that played with him think he's not good enough to get them.

You seriously think Paul George is sitting at home going "Man, those rockets really screwed Dwight over..."? These players are not whining about Dwight's post touches as much as you are.

It wasn't a broken promise. If I get hired to be the Manager and then fail to do that job, I get demoted. Dwight had all the chances in the world to prove he deserved the touches he so desired and we know how that went. Many here cringe when we gave him the ball down low.

Not really, we missed out on Horford, that's about it. We got fortunate that Bosh didn't sign with us, but he didn't sign with us because he didn't want to play with Harden. He signed on to a rebuilding team because the man simply was happy to stay in Miami, didn't want to uproot his family, and wanted to retire a Heat...but you act like he ran away from the Rockets because of Harden.

It says nothing about player's MVP and everything about the Warriors.

Durant could have signed for the Spurs too btw, I don't see you saying that he skipped on the Spurs and no one wants to play with Kawhi.

Fact is, EVEYR PLAYER IS DIFFERENT. You all treating them like they all think like you do, they don't.

 

We should care. They were coveted free agents who we missed out on. And although Gordon and Anderson exceeded our expectations, that doesn't change the fact that at the time of their signing, they were considered risky, injury-prone players.

Right here:

The Rockets absolutely broke their promise to Dwight. Dwight didn't regress at all offensively. The Rockets knew what they were getting when they signed him. You really should quit arguing against this. You are 100% wrong.

And sorry, but Ariza's situation was totally different than Dwight's. With Ariza's first signing, we were paying for his potential. After all, he was only 24 years old. It didn't work out, and we traded him after 1 season. There was no wrongdoing by either party. On the other hand, Dwight was an established veteran of 9 years when we signed him. In order to convince him to sign with us, we promised him a prominent offensive role, and midway through his contract, took it away in favor of Harden.

It's not about Dwight and his touches. It's about management breaking promises. And I absolutely think players notice when management breaks a major promise to an elite, established player.

Sorry, but your logic is brutally stupid. "We missed out on Horford, that's about it." Look at the talent level of our team. Does it look like a roster that has hit on the majority of its free agent targets? Because that's what you're saying. Use some common sense.

Do you realize that Durant and Leonard both play the same position? Again, use some common sense.

 

Dwight is a loser. He is already crying and pouting in Atlanta

 

How is it Kawhi's fault that the team plays well without him??? lol

 

Playoff performance is a huge part of player evaluation. It's the only reason why LeBron is still considered the best player in the world, despite winning zero MVP for the last four years; that's the reason why Hakeem is considered a top 10 player ever despite with only 1 MVP and 2 rings.

At this point, Westbrook and Kawhi are certainly ahead of Harden, and have played better in the playoffs. There's no debate.

 

It's irrelevant dude. You talking about missing out on Bazemore when we signed two players better than him.

Did he not get his chance at playing his way? Did we not give him the ball?

Oh, boo hoo, the team realized that it wasn't good for Dwight to continue to get the ball as much as he did. It was hurting the team. So what does Dwight do? He whines about it and becomes a toxic player. That ISN'T a broken promise. Do you know what was exactly said to him? Did they say "No matter what Dwight, we will ensure you get your touches."

You make it seem like Dwight got here and the moment he did, he never got the ball. Truth is, he did, he failed, the Rockets moved on. I'm 100% right on this and you are 100% wrong.

Lol, I guess man. You remind me of some dude that said Rockets Org treated Tmac wrong and because of that no one was ever going to sign for the Rockets and Morey...then Dwight did lol.

You think these players even trust any of these GMs man? They barely meet the GMs and Owners, they sign with teams for the coaches and players, that has waaaaaaaaay more impact than a GM letting Howard go. You make it seem like it's some great black stain on the Rockets organization when it's really more of a black stain on Dwight. The elite center that had how many suitors this past offseason?

What I'm saying is truth. Our roster is the result of ONE offseason and resulted in being the 3rd best team throughout the regular season. Some brutally stupid logic here, obviously we did better than most of the league.

The Spurs went after him and he scheduled a meeting with them, use some common sense.