The Beard was amazing this year. His shooting was down in the postseason, but it makes sense since stars get defensive game plans made for them and MVPs get even more attention when game planning. Also, the heart, hustle and defense Harden played kept us in the games and won us 3 games against a juggernaut that’s only lost a combined 3 times to the rest of the league in the playoffs during their dominance. Throw in the bad officiating that robbed us of at least one win and it’s easy to see why PJ loves Harden! Also, the Harden haters are straight up fools for criticizing this man after he almost led us to the finals despite CP3 going down.
I feel like at times some of us (myself included) expect James to be something he's not and end up being kinda disappointed even when we shouldn't. That's also why i didn't like all the expectations and pressure that was put on him once Chris got injured, saying his season or even his legacy was going to be branded by two games against a team with 4 all stars was just dumb, look at how many games is Lebron winning against those 4 all stars...yeah, 0-3 for now.
Harden has clearly proved himself ... he was about to beat the best team of all times SINGLEHANDEDLY when the the league , then the refs stepped in and prevented him
I agree, but i'm just saying there were too many expectations from some people at some point, James is great, he's just not Lebron, which is totally fine for me, but not for everyone apparently.
Something like a MVP? I think ppl justwanted him to sustain his level of regular season play into the playoffs. Perfectly reasonable. I feel this year was one of the few playoffs where James gave maximum effort, even though we fell short. Whatever heart Harden doesn't have is balance out by CP. So it's all good
He's quietly moving up the all-time greatest SG list. I desperately want to see him win a championship for Houston because that should move him right into the Top 5 conversation for all-time greatest SGs. Hell, if/when that 'chip comes I would put him ahead of prime D-Wade.
Pretty much, but i do think James game does fit better in the regular season, the energy out there is less, he doesn't need to move a lot, the refs gives him more fts etc...in the playoffs he needs to work more overall so, i can see that being a bigger challenge for him, anyway yeah, i'm fine with how he played, he had a couple of terrible games (just like Curry and Westbrook had btw) but overall i think he was fine, his 3pt shooting made him look worse than he really was, and that might be some tired legs because i think he's not used to play on both ends like he did in these playoffs.
I think James is better than prime Wade, a lot of people would say no but i do think that, and Wade has been one of my favourite players for years, i actually liked him more than Lebron (even though he was never as good) but yeah, he won against a good (definitely not great) Dallas team with Shaq when there were no super teams, two times with Lebron and Bosh...i mean, he was great but like Kobe he always won with the best team. James never played in the best team (in terms of talent, which doesn't mean everything like we saw this season, but it still means a lot).
for me I think prime Wade was just a spectacular player, the guy that existed before James went to Miami. I think with today's game of perimeter shooting Wade's offensive game gets overlooked a lot by the media. The dude was also so good on the defensive end too. When it's all said and done, I think Harden will end up being the 3rd best SG ever behind MJ and Kobe though....at the very least
I hope so, as for Wade i'm not sure about his defense, always thought it was overrated but maybe my view is spoiled by the second part of his career.
I think LeBron going to Miami derailed/shortened Wade's peak/prime years. He became more....complacent when Bosh and James came on board.
It's funny how Russell Westbrook ended this season with another triple double averaged... yet he didn't get nearly as much pub on ESPN or the other media on the "accomplishment". Instead the rhetoric changed to Lebron being amazing, which is true... but still not enough when your team was struggling to compete for the #1 spot in the LEast. I'm sure Lil Westbrick was pissed that his record didn't get as much fanfare as last season... but I'm also glad these I.D.I.O.T.S wised up to his ploy.
