Stop being biased fellas. Hes not top 5. He is top 10 though. His defense and effort is just not up to par with the top 5 guys.
Playing with K.Irving ,Harden has a legitimate chance to win a ring.he can be a 28/6/5 &decent turnovers and solid D
Even without playing a lick of defense Harden is still a top 8 player. Just to include some homerism into the equation I would definitely say he's a top 5 player because as he's top 3 in the ability to score and he's probably one of the better scorers (outside of Curry) that can include the players around him too. Curry and Durant won't make as good of a case for MVP this year respectively because they are on the same team now. If Harden can help his team get close to a top 3-4 team record I can definitely see Harden being right up there with whoever else is an MVP candidate, but that means Harden will need to play marginal defense too..
Lebron for sure carried his team in his first stint in Cleveland but you discredit what Harden's teammates did in the semifinals against the Clippers. Harden didn't carry anything that series.
I think Harden is after Leonard for number 6th but they are easily interchangable, same with Davis, then you have Paul, George and Griffin who could easily step up. Here's my tiers. Tier 1: LBJ / Curry / Durant / Westbrook Tier 2: Leonard / Harden / Davis Tier 3: Paul / George / Griffin / Thompson / Green / Lillard / Wall / Cousins Right now Harden is top 5-7 IMO. KAT can make a big jump this year too.
2 minutes of Josh Smith hitting 3s doesnt win a 7 game series. Harden had 2 30+ pt games that were Ws, and a Triple Double separate from those two 30+ pt games that was another W.
LeBron Curry Durant Harden Kawhi WB is electrifying so he gets over hyped. He's a top top player but he doesn't help teammates play better. He's on the outside looking in. Just like Davis who is an amazing talent, and stuck on a crappy team. He just doesn't carry a team they way the alpha omega cream of the crop does. IMO there is only 4 guys LeBron/Durant/curry/harden who would make the playoffs if they had Phillies roster. And TBH I don't think Steph could do it. Fans get too caught up in media hype and fantube videos of hardens defense and forget what they actually witness while watching James play.
Agree with this. Obviously top 5 after the '15 season, but a summer of dicking around and a terrible start, wildly underachieving team where he is the best player and inconsistent defensive effort knocked him down a couple spots IMO. Nothing he can't fix with a better mindset coming into next season, I expect him to be top 5 again.
Did you even watch that series? Is this not carrying the team? 25 PPG 5.6 RPG 8.1 APG 1.4 STL 36.7 Minutes Per Game
Here's a simple process of determination. List 5 guys ELITE @ more aspects of basketball than James Harden in the entire NBA. You can't. Harden Elite Scorer Elite Ball handler Elite Playmaker Elite Driver Elite Finisher Elite Foul Drawer Elite FT shooter Casuals need to stop putting Kawhi or Russ over Harden. Defensive worth is not comparable or equal to offensive worth when it comes to perimeter players. And Russ is flat out not as good offensively and also sub-par on D.
I absolutely love how Westrbrook is selfish and doesn't help his team when he averages MORE assists ON LESS turnovers compared to Harden. How does that work out? And yes, he accomplished this feet even the season before when Durant was gone for most of the season just in case someone uses the "He has Kevin Durant as a teammate" as an excuse. Only a homer would believe that Harden is 'less seflish' than Westrbrook.
People need to stop equating offense with getting buckets. Hardens offensive game is incredibly elite and only matched by a few players in the NBA. Westbrook is not the offensive player Harden is. Nowhere close. He's incredibly explosive and quick, but his ball handling, decision making, shooting, and ability to finish through traffic aren't on Hardens level. I also anticipate an improvement off the ball this season from the Beard. Westbrook's touch around the rim is wildly inconsistent. I wonder what we would have in him if he were sadly robbed of his athleticism the way Rose has been, but I don't want to see this happen. Both have great court vision, both have wavering attention spans defensively but have tools to make up for this on occasion. Westbrook his speed and athleticism, Harden his strength allowing to mix it with up with bigger players, but ultimately Westbrook is someone you're happy to give room to to shoot. The same can't be said with Harden. As for Kawhi, his defensive ability doesn't need discussing. He's a beast. Again though, offensively can he be relied upon to consistently score and create for his teammates possession after possession after possession? At least not yet. He's a great spot up shooter and his off-arm allows him to create room and get looks. Still I feel like given a different team make-up and offense, he wouldn't be a very efficient offensive player. I could be wrong. It's easy to say Harden is an offense only player, but take a second to think about just how skilled he is offensively, and how he possesses skills matched perhaps only by Lebron, Curry and KD on that side of the ball. Factor in teammates, coaching, the 'system'. Harden up there.
Only a Russ homer would talk about selfishness and ignore Russ's 30 shots a game. He isn't called Westbrick for no reason. He didn't just accidentally run Durant off with his frustrating style of play teammate-wise. 14-15 when Russ was tasked with putting his team on his shoulders and he was beasting assists, ALL ASSISTS MUST BE ME, the Thunder were 25th in assists. Abysmal. Sometimes getting 6.5 assists and 10 hockey assists makes a better teammate, leader,playmaker and leads to more winning.
People who think Westbrook is better than Harden are IMO blinded by his flash, hyper athleticism, and (the most justifiable point) effort. The fact is, Westbrook is visually a lot more "exciting" than Harden's old man game of wiles. This is very important in the eyes of casuals, who are ignorant towards the more nuance aspects of basketball. People want to talk about about TO's all the time, not realizing Westbrook is actually more turnover prone when discussing advanced stats. You can argue he has a better turnover ratio in a vacuum, due to a higher assist count, but that's with a much better roster. eFG... not even a contest. That said, Westbrook is a superior defender due to his superior athletic abilities and motor, but guess what guys, those things diminish very quickly with age. When he loses a step to his bounce and inches off his jump, the real question becomes whether or not he has the BBIQ to compensate. We all know Harden's game will continue to be good even as he becomes slower as he gets older due to HOW he plays his game. Defense is another matter though. I personally think its all about effort for Harden since we have all seen him capable of making amazing clutch defensive plays, whether it is a steal here or block there or just pure lockdown D when the clock is winding down.
I think I would. Westbrook plays hard consistently. Harden does not. Westbrook also seems much better at getting his teammates involved.
