We are spoiled with him. Remember the days when the Rockets had no superstar and we kept complaining about us not being able to win close games or not having a go-to scorer? It's truly amazing that we now have a guy who we can depend on throughout the game and especially in the 4th quarter. There is no debate at the end of the game who's hands we want the ball to be in making decisions.
Well, we no longer debate that only because Les and Morey love James so much they got rid of his decision-maker competition -- Lin and DMo. Also, does debating Rubio having the ball at the end of game count?
When i was a lurker i remember sum1 here being PISSED the day after the harden trade saying how he is the new joe johnson and would be an overpaid borderline all star player that cash straps a franchise and keeps em in purgatory. Where is that guy now? Most of us didnt think he would be this good but most of us thought it was a good trade
hmm...was he persistent? In fairness, the Joe Johnson comparison was a primary comparison in the 107-page Harden Trade Thread...and not always in a bad way. @pippendagimp called it the "Joe Johnson Effect". I read that more as just the bbs being fearful of Max contracts, not the trade itself, especially since OKC didn't want to pay him. Here's the thread: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/the-rockets-have-landed-james-harden.227853/ Search that with "Joe Johnson" in quotes and tick the checkbox for "Search this thread only". We expect your report on what poster it was by EOD.
There were a lot of people who said similar things. Not that it means much, but even a lot of people in the media were saying things like that. That James Harden hadn't proved anything yet for us to give him a max contract, that he had never been a #1 option and never had to carry a team by himself but instead could rely on Durant and Westbrook. I had those concerns, sure, but I was excited for the trade even then. It can be easy to forget our struggles from before we got him and we were trying so hard to get a star, any star. And then we ended up bouncing between the 8th seed getting eliminated in the first round or just miss the playoffs with the 14th draft pick. Harden has excelled far beyond anyone thought possible at the time and I am so glad he's on our team. I hope he retires a Rocket and is the next one to have his jersey retired in the rafters.
I'd venture to say that even Morey didn't expect Harden to be this good. He might even had serious doubt last season about Harden's ability to carry the team. Let's be honest, up until this season, Harden was unproven. Everybody could see his talent after he became a starter here in with the Rockets, but few people could be sure if he had what it took to be the alpha dog of a championship team.
Agree with everything except him being an unproven player before this year. He was runner up MVP, players choice MVP, had 2 1st team all NBA selections, and led the rockets to 2nd seed/WCF furthest thing from an unproven player
"Unproven" as an alpha dog of a contender. Everybody saw his offensive talent in 2014-15. But there was a lot of doubt whether he could carry a contending team like those other elite players. Many people argue that Howard, not Harden, was the one who took the team to the WCF through the playoffs. I don't think it was totally accurate but it was at least debatable. Harden did have several poor games during the playoffs. And don't forget, fair or not, his bad defense reputation was fully established during that year.
How is this even debatable? Harden dominated the Mavericks in the first round (28.4 PPG 7.8 APG on 47-39-96 shooting split). Howard was decent too with 16.6 PPG 13.8 RPG, but nowhere near as crucial as Harden was for our victory against them. Then there's that infamous Clippers series where Harden did struggle a bit, but still it's not Howard who carried us to the WCF; it was bunch of role players such as Josh Smith, Corey Brewer, Terrence Jones, etc. all simultaneously stepping up in game 6 to make it a seven game series, and remember Harden did show up in game 7. In the WCF against the Warriors, Harden averaged 28.4 PPG 7.8 RPG 6.4 APG on 47-43-87 shooting split, compared to Dwight's 14.4 PPG 14.4 RPG. So really there's no argument as to which player was better; I even remember Bleacher Report picking Harden as the 3rd best playoff performer that year. The reason why some people totally misremember that event is Harden had some of the most horrible 'low games' against LAC and GSW, and they think that's how Harden played in general. But Harden also scored 45 points against the Warriors and notched 31-7-8 in game 7 against the Clippers - which more than balanced things out as evidenced by Harden's 14-15 playoff averages. Also, the no D reputation really took off in 13-14 when bunch of Harden's defensive lowlight youtube clips went viral, not 14-15. James actually played much better defense that year.
