Max Kellerman: I would take Dwayne Wade right now in the playoffs over James Harden.

I'm well aware of How special James Harden is. He doesn't get near enough credit for what he does in the regular season by himself. MDA DEFINITELY deserves some blame for truncating the lineup and not adapting. However, Harden is THE guy. The Playoffs is a different monster. Harden can't list everything he did in the regular season then go back to the locker room like, "that should be enough, they have 3 superstars!"

It's not fair the load and expectation we put on Harden especially the teams he has to go against in the west... the playoffs isn't fair..

I just want Harden to go out there and play like I have seen him play that is always enough for me AND enough to beat the tops teams in the west.

 

Single handedly? Lol. I'm sure Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza & Patrick Beverley would disagree with that. But at this point we know Wade's going to go all out not to lose. We've seen do great things in the playoffs when healthy. On the other hand, nobody knows when Harden's going to check out in a series. We've seen Harden completely lose interest in crucial elimination games. It's not about stats either. I'd take a 11-25 game from Wade then have a 0-3 game from Harden with 13 turnovers. The uncertainty in Harden's interest level is a game changer

 

Honestly... both are... Westbrick to a greater degree... but both were aggressively working that stat line for MVP...

Let's be honest... in this day and age guys are worried about 'their brand' - and an MVP is a great feather for that cap..

 

I NEVER said I would take Wade over Harden. I simply said I have 0% confidence in Playoff James Harden. I would only trade James Harden for Lebron or KD, that's how good I think James Harden is.

 

that's the problem Harden is the ONLY star

unlike Lebron Kyrie Love
unlike KD Steph Klay Dray AI

you don't think regular season fatigue or doesn't carry over the playoffs?

you think having multiple stars around you make you better in the playoffs?

 

Woah, @vlaurelio is like one of those Justin Bieber/Taylor Swift fangirls on twitter. Their idol can do no wrong.

 

so who would have took the rockets to 55 wins last year and you won't see him as stat padder?

 

so you can refute a single post I made?

 

let's just hope that Harden will be more consistent in the playoffs now that he doesn't have the burden of being the main scorer and main facilitator on his team with no other stars around him

the end of game 5 doesn't happen if CP3 were here IMO which may have led to a different outcome in game 6

 

and having CP3 and the other offseason improvements are moot if MDA still can't figure out how to increase his rotation like Kerr and Pops

and continue playing Harden

150 minutes more than Lebron and WB
300 minutes more than Curry, PG, Davis, Lillard,
500 minutes more than Kawhi, Draymond

over the season

 

idk man... I'm not gonna play some debate on hypothetical situations...

I will say we beat out the Clippers by 4 games for the #3 seed - and that included after losing 4 of our last 7... James could have taken a breather before the playoffs if he wanted...

Dude, it was a thing when James was talking about not resting, etc... it was his decision... end of story....

 

Who's kawhis second superstar?

Anyways you do know it's possible to love harden, think he's an incredible player, and think he's been less than spectacular in the playoffs.

I don't care how you spin it. Jonathan Simmons should not outplay you in a close out game. His playoff performances have not been consistently great period

 

I still think James Harden could have (should have) willed himself to get to the basket and get fouled.. Harden could have won that game multiple times.. He was just sitting there doing nothing in winning time.

 

Gregg Popovich. Pop is so gangster, he spells his name with two trailing G's!

 

so you hate Harden for refusing to rest and single handedly taking this role player rockets team to 55 wins in the west I get it

 

Nothing can ever be refuted - to your satisfaction...

You keep insisting it was everybody else's fault that James 'ran out of gas' during the playoffs... despite dozens of articles and soundbites where James says he doesnt need to take games off and doesnt want to....

what do you want man?

 

he talked about giving Harden rest games this season so he knows that Harden's mileage needs to come down, and having CP3 will lower his workload...Harden also needs to realize that it's ok if he plays in 74-75 games due to strategic rest instead of trying to play all 82, it will only help him in the long run

Morey got vets that MDA is more likely to trust and play in the playoffs as opposed to 2nd year guys like Dekker and Harrell

 

LOL are you going to argue now that Kawhi would have single handedly carried this rockets team to 55 wins in the reg season with Pops, LMA, gasol, Parker, Ginobli but only a bunch of shooters around him

and only have 1 game of rest beat the MVP and OKC?

 

I'd have rather had a 52 win season and a rested Harden for the playoffs... but I'm crazy that way... lol