Westbrook vs Harden

LOL, this is a ridiculous post. WB has played without Durant 4 times the past 2 years. His stat???

11/19/10 - 31 points, 4 boards, 6 dimes, 2 steals - W
11/20/10 - 18 pts, 3 boards, 6 dimes - W
12/1/10 - 38 points, 15 boards, 9 dimes, 3 steals - W
12/3/10 - 20 points, 3 boards, 7 dimes, 2 steals - L

And that was WB 2 years ago, when he was nowhere the player he is today. He averages 24/5/5 WITH Durant and Harden. And you want to imagine how he would do if he went solo?? That's laughable.

Harden is potentially a budding superstar, and he will be one if he plays 75-80% of how he played last night. But WB is already a superstar. You don't become a 2nd team all-nba player for 2 straight years out of pure luck.

Being a superstar/all-star is about consistency, and putting up big numbers even when teams go at you night in and night out. It's not 1 game, or 5 games, or 1 month, or 2 months. And doing it for the entire year, which is a grind.

Skip Bayless said last year Carmelo Anthony is a top 5 player while Lebron is not. Please, stop posting his stuff in regards to basketball. The guy doesn't know what he is talking about 101% of the time.

 

This time last year, people were saying lowry is a better player than westbrook,but as the season played out,it was shown how good of a player westbrook is. You think anyone in their right mind will look at 1 game,this game and make assumptions? Isn't this the same spurs team that lost 4 games in a row to the thunder led by westbrook? Yep,I thought so. Asik getting 10 and whomever getting whatever,yet its wrong to say thabo and perkins aren't good offensive players? C'mon,gimme a break. There was a thread talking about russell westbrick,but by the 1st qt of games,it disappeared. Westbrooks responsibility is to win games,period. Who was in the title game last year? Westbrook and chalmers. Tony parker is a shoot 1st pg and he has 3 rings. You can't name the last pure pg to win a title unless u count rondo who was readily relieved of his spot by eddie house and sam cassell the year boston won it. Catch up to the times please. Its about guard play. It doesn't matter if the guy is a table setter or shooter. Depending on how your team is structured.

 

Accidentally passing to KD or Harden.

 

Understand what I'm saying,there is a different pressure night and night when you're the highest paid player on a team. You're gonna take the criticism for the failure. You will be the focus of the defense every night. I'm not saying harden can't handle it,I'm just saying itsdifferent. Unlike when tracy and yao were here,it was kinda 2 way even if most of it was seemingly on tracy, this will be on harden until another star quality player is added to the roster.

Looking at the west,its gonna be difficult for the rockets again to make the playoffs,but in a year or 2,that's when the heat is on. I used joe johnson as a template because just like harden,he wanted his own team and to be recognized for his talents. He palyed well and led atl to the playoffs,but they only advanced 1 time. He took the brunt of the blame. Not smith,horford or those other guys.Why? He was the max guy,multiple time all star and the leader of the new hawks team. The same can be said for harden. I like harden a lot and I hope he plays his way into being an all star/superstar caliber player the rox hope for him to be. I'm just saying right now, westbrook is a better player. 1 game doesn't change my opinion either. Time will tell and I hope harden can be a all pro type of player.

 

I didn't post it, but yeah he's just a troll. No matter the sport he just trolls.

Like when the Jets lose he'll be the first guy that says "Bet they would have won with Tebow..." lulz just like a forum troll would do to pounce at the most opportune time.

 

I don't think people were saying Lowry's a better player period, they were saying Lowry's a better player if you take salary into account...Lowry's making like 1/3 of WB but is clearly not 1/3 the player WB is.

Setting the table is the responsibility of the pg, esp. with the kind of teammates WB has. You talk about Sam Cassell and TP being shoot first guys, but those players aren't paid the max, and because of that they have better teammates around them. TP for example, took a massive discount (took 12M, could have made the max in another team), and because of that he had Tim Duncan in the low post and Manu Ginobili in the wing.

Compare to WB who took the mantle of being "the man"...obviously OKC will have to cut corners elsewhere, and because of that he now has offensive stiffs Ibaka and Perkins as his big men. Instead of continually shrugging his shoulders and making plays on his own, he should be involving the whole team, just like what Harden did with Lin/MM and Asik the other night.

 

How is it ridiculous? It's just my opinion of the skill-set Harden has as a #1 option. Time will tell how good he is here. I just think he can do more as a #1 option on the offensive end in regards to playmaking and scoring in a variety of different ways while also doing it efficiently.

 

Nice rant. I love how you managed to talk about Westbrook, Lowry, Asik, Perkins, Thabo, Chalmers, Parker, Eddie House, Rondo and former Rocket great Sam Cassell all in one paragraph. That's pretty impressive.

You should really get your facts straight though. I don't know what series you were watching but the Thunder never beat the Spurs 4 games in a row. The series went 6 games.

What's even funnier is you mention Westbrook and Chalmers being in the title game like they specifically led them there. It was mostly all Durant in the series against the Spurs and James carrying the Heat. If you actually watched that series which it doesn't appear as you did you would have seen Durant playing spectacular all series and Westbrook being inconsistent, trying to force things, making bad decisions and well just being Westbrook.

It's not just 1 game for Westbrook. For all the great moments he has and the good things he does they're usually offset by performances like tonight's game. This isn't the first time it's happened and it sure as hell won't be the last.

Tony Parker has 3 rings because he's a disciplined player that plays the game the right way. He's not a shoot first PG. He's a PG that would rather create for others and distribute but it just so happens he can score the ball when he needs to. The difference is Parker knows when it's his "turn" like when Duncan is declining or when Gino is injured.

Recheck your history please.

 

I just realized you meant 4 in a row to win the series. I was thinking a sweep. Anyways, if Westbrook would've deferred to KD and Harden more it probably would've been a sweep.

 

Westbrook plays like SG and Harden plays like PG

 

As with a poster said earlier, some of the fault has to be attributed to Scotty Brooks and Kevin Durant. Brooks needs to beat it into Westbrook's head that he needs to get his teammates involved at a more consistent rate and not jack up shots at random times. Kevin Durant needs to be more demanding and aggressive. I remember last year the media was criticizing Westbrook for taking too many shots, and Durant defended Westbrook saying that OKC wins more games with Westbrook taking more shots than him. How is he, being the best scorer in the NBA, going to sit there and say his Robin needs to shoot more than him? If Durant wants to take his game to the next level, like Lebron did last year, he needs to be way more aggressive in having the ball.

 

i'm not going to quote all the posts i'm replying to, but ... of course Tony Parker is a shoot first point guard...
And he was even more extreme than he is today when he won those titles.

re Thunder / Spurs. Scott Brooks rebuilt their offensive plan to change that series. This isn't on players simply changing their attitudes.

 

That's fair. I like Harden's upside more than Joe Johnson, though. We'll see what happens.

 

Sometimes it's better to back up your opinions with STATS or something concrete.

WB 2 freakin' years ago led his team to a 3-1 record without Durant and put up the stats I listed. Now forward to 2 years later, you do think he will do just as well if not better? LOL.

Harden has had 1 great game. Now we can all extrapolate that to greater things and that's fine. Some people like to do that. But at the end of the day, we go by results, not what can happen.

The most you can conclude is both guys CAN be #1 options and both guys did GREAT when they went solo, albeit for very very short stretches.

WB has been playing at an all-nba level for 2 straight years. That's a fact.

Remember Joe's first 2 years in ATL as a #1 man (24 and 25 yo). He looked awesome. 20/4/7 first yr, then 25/4/4 2nd yr. That was his peak.

It's very hard to sustain greatness. Let's see what Harden can do. He's 23 yo now. But with younger players nowadays, they start early, and thus peak early. Very few young players who reach stardom early maintain a trajectory of improvement. That's how you know they will be able to maintain their greatness.

 

Harden better then westbrook, Harden know how to control his game, he know when to shoot when to drive or when to pass,

Just today i saw westbrook push himself to lay up when KD in wide open mode and wave his hand, that's really annoying,

 

I like what the beat writer of the Thunder said. They used to give the ball to Harden when they really needed to create a good shot. Now it's Westbrook.

 

WB ego and emotion always get best of him. He pumped up when make couple of shot which drive him take more shot which result in bad shots. Doesn't help the fact he also has tunnel-vision syndrome and selfish

 

Lowry is better than Westbrook, period.

 

guess what will majority of the GM's would rather do:

A) swap their PG with WB
B) swap their SG with JH

 

for this year? (A) i'd guess. 5 years from now, who knows.