It's a lazy narrative that started this year because people were upset at Harden's start to the season. Nothing more.
Dwight signed in Houston when he was highly regard as a superstar and probably the best center in the league, 3 years later, his health actually is improved here than he was in LA, but he is regarded as a washed up, over the hill star after playing 2 and half years with Harden. Lawson? LOL, many believed that his career is done after spending the last 6 months in Houston. Those are surely 2 great examples for players to consider coming to Houston to play with Harden.
I don't agree with the narrative that people don't want to play with Harden, nor do I agree with the lazy narrative that it was just a "slow start."
He is ok as Robin Need a real batman who plays at least some D instead of the perimeter no D sieve that is Har_en
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Despite playing 210 minutes the last five games, James Harden is shooting 50 percent from the floor and... <a href="https://t.co/LTDPfIBr0K">https://t.co/LTDPfIBr0K</a></p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/705798662648008704">March 4, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Yeah. Not a slow start. Definitely a BAD start. He's substantially improved lately, though, so hopefully that continues.
I'm not sure what point you are driving at? The argument is that players don't want to play with Harden. I listed a handful of examples of how that isn't true and your response is to say basically that since they didn't work that is somehow proof that players don't want to play with Harden? Kevin Love wanted to play with Lebron James when he was one of the elite offensive players of his generation (Love.) Now he is considered an overpaid spot up shooter. Ha! Players don't want to play with Lebron!
His ts% is back to being really good. He's been over .610 in 2016. If he was shooting the 3 at his normal rate it would be ridiculous. But he seems a bit slow to me still sometimes. Like at the last game he bowled over guys back to back for charges when last year he'd euro step around them.
I disagree. He's a top 5 player in the league. Outside of Lebron, Curry, Westbrooke, Durant, Davis, and maybe Aldridge - whom would you build around? Players like Harden don't come around very often. But you have to put yourself in a position to beat the best if you are trying to beat a contender, at least taking a big step towards. I can't see that happening this summer with Howard and Conley. Dragic said he didn't want to come here and play next to a ball dominant Harden. Also why didn't aldridge take Houston seriously? How close was Bosh - there were rumors of him not wanting to play with Howard/Harden. Look, there are plenty of guys who want to play here I am sure, but Harden has a rep as being ball dominant, and when you have Dwight Howard and can't make him score 20 some a night consistently, that's going to scare a lot of big men away. harden has to mature and figure out how to make other players score. He isn't selfish, but it's clear that he hasn't been maximizing his talents in that arena especially the first half of the season. It's clear to the whole league. His reputation on defense isn't going to appeal to any blue collar star who wants to know that guys are committed. I think Harden will mature - he is maturing. It just takes time. His rep will change soon enough. But he needs some time to get it - especially on defense.
By daniels you mean troy? Because that other daniels isn't on this team anymore right? Or is he? Never know with J.B.
Maybe at times, but he did that plenty last year. It's a bad looking play that I'd like to see him try to avoid more.
You gave a bunch of examples of players like Bosh and Lowry which you ASSUME they want to come to Houston that actually never happened and you claimed that's the fact? LOL The fact is as simple as it is : After (or at the time when) Harden joined the Houston Rockets, what were the major free agent signing the Rockets had in the last years? Asik and Lin? Nah. Its Dwight and Lawson. Both signings had extremely high expectations and both signings did not meet the expectation so far and not going to meet it for sure in the future (speaking of these 2 players). Lawson is a disaster, there is no way to hide it. As for Dwight, everyone (including himself) believed his value got dropped significantly during his 3 years here, heck he even fired his agent. So how difficult for you to understand that the only 2 major free agent signings in the Harden era did not work out for the team and also significantly damaged the value and future for both players that came here?
A number of reporters suggested Bosh was interested in the Rockets, although I think we didn't put much effort into Lowry so no idea to tell if it had anything to do with Harden or just more the offer made at the time. I don't know why you're evading it, but it's clearly obvious that players are willing to play with Harden. Providing examples of players not playing well next to Harden is a really dumb way to try and prove that players don't want to play here. How does Howard firing Fegan have anything to do with Harden??
Dwight's value has been dropping since the whole SVG drama. That can't be difficult to see. Everywhere he has been, he's "secretly" wanted out. Add age and injuries to that. Lawson wasn't a signing but his value dropped so much in the summer that Denver gave him up for what was considered "trash". I'm interested to see how he does in Indy but you can't deny he did absolutely nothing on the court when Harden sat. You can argue about whether people want to play with Harden or not, but you can't blame him for Dwight and Ty's value.
Lawson came here via a trade but do not forget a very vital point : he gave up his next year guaranteed salary as a condition to come here. That means, he came here by his own decision, kind of like a free agent gave the Rockets a discount to join. No one is blaming his failure ALL on Harden, obviously he has his own issues and he also could be overrated by many fans here. But it remains a fact that so far in Harden's era here, the major key players joined this team whom expected to work well, results said otherwise. This is obviously a factor will be considered by any major free agent players in the future.
With the above statement and you are calling someone else dumb? Your car has break issue and got into accident twice with the same situation, instead of going to fix it or at least have a check, you are just going to tell everyone, NO, my car is fine, it was mentioned on the TV ad that it has the highest safety rating of all the brands, the issue is not on the car, it must be the road or something else. Seems pretty smart.
Porzingis and Towns will be doing well in the league. Remember we drafted a guy named Yao? Just do it again with a guy whose size won't affect his career so much. Hope is there. Harden is too un athletic for my taste. He is a skilled guy and drawing a lot of fouls but I am not too excited about his game.
