look at all the ball dominant guards in the nba right now doing stepback 3's, running a thousands pick and rolls every night harden is not only a clear hof, he also has his imprints all over the modern game. I mean lets just take a random team like the hawks, trae young wants to play like harden, and the hawks went out there and traded for capela and got him his backcourt mate in dejounte murray to at least try and attempt to recreate the 2018 rockets i would venture to say 70% of the nba teams right now are empolying a moreyball style of basketball as analytics has taken over the game For as great as steph curry is, it says a lot that the nba didnt ever consider moving the 3-point line further back to prevent the amount of 3's being jacked by non-shooters. James Harden had elite level coaches like mike malone, mike budenholzer, and steve kerr running to adam silver about "nerfing" james harden. Harden in essence became the first player since wilt or shaq to actually make the league have to adapt to him
If Harden signs with the Rockets for the MLE this off-season and plays close to his old form and the Rockets trade the pick and Green to move up and get Sarr I think they'd be potential contenders. If they can get to the Finals maybe then I'd be about his jersey retirement. P.G - VanVleet / Harden S.G - Harden / Whitmore S.F. - Thompson / Brooks P.F. - Smith Jr. / Eason ..C. - Sengun / Sarr / Adams
We were spoiled by what Harden did for the Rockets, people hated him his last year here, but hes been gone 4 years and best case scenario we are another 4-6 years away from what he did for us, and even then there is no guarantee we will win that consistently ever again. When it takes a decade to come back from losing one player, his jersey should be retired. Harden to date is the most important player to have ever put on a Rockets jersey, because of the variables of modern NBA and modern revenue streams and accessibility and the growth of the league domestically and internationally that had taken place by the time he was playing, I would put him up there with Yao as far as impact on franchise. Dream was the best player to put on a Rockets jersey, but the reality is that the games becoming more accessible is why people know who James Harden is. Social media and streaming services were not around in Dream's era. A decade from now if you asked someone outside of Houston who is a casual fan to name one Rockets player past or present, they will likely say James Harden, or if they are not a fan at all they will say the guy w the beard.
I think it's fine to relegate jersey retirements to Hall of Fame players who played here a large portion of their career. Most of the guys you just mentioned aren't in the Hall of Fame.
They should make statues (or figurines ) of Harden and Morey and put them side by side at Fertitta's new practice facility.
Is this a real question? Yes. Retiring jerseys are for all time greats. Statues are for title winners and all time greats.
Even as a dude who has been critical of Harden's play style being boring, it would be criminal to not retire a former MVP who's had a 8 year stretch of being a perennial MVP candidate. He'd be the all time goat by a mile for players who haven't had their jersey retired if that was the case because players with a quarter of his resume get their jerseys retired.
I still say no. While he was unquestionably an amazing player while here, I think it's more an honor to the player personally and I don't think he deserves that due to how he acted when trying to force his way out. He'll get voted into the HOF eventually to honor his performance as a player, buy I don't think any individual team should honor him.
He should be rewarded for allowing the people of Houston to see true greatness, Spoiler by bringing Stephen Curry to town four times a year Spoiler
It's actually 100% of teams. It's kind of underrated how much Morey changed the game. If you look at his philosophy of "take as many layups and 3s as possible" and turn that into a number, lets say "percentage of total shots that are 3s or layups", we can call that the MoreyRate of a team. The league average MoreyRate in the early 2010s was around 50%, and the highest in the league was in the mid to high 60s. Today the league average is almost 70%, with some of the best teams approaching 80%. Those Dantoni rockets teams were over 80%, and recently the championship Bucks were also over 80%. The lowest MoreyRate team in the league right now is at 65% which would've been #1 in the league back in 2010.
There were no shortage of posters here on clutchfans back in those days bemoaning our style of play as “not real basketball” a “bastardization of the game” “a strategy that will never result in a title”. Yet here we are 10 years later and nearly the entire league has accepted it as one of if not the most viable ways to win.
