Yeah, Harden didn't play hard enough. Clap clap clap. Whatever that means. Men lie, women lie, numbers don't.
It is about numbers. At the end of the Golden State series, the Warriors had four All-Stars and two MVP candidates compared to one in each category for Houston. That's what decided it. Thus, the Rockets are trying to bring that comparison closer to parity.
I think that's a big factor. With the 3 of them together they can all lighten the load which will help all 3 of them age better. Just adding CP3 was a big step towards that, both players enjoyed not having to be "the guy" every single night if the team wanted to win. Add Lebron to that and he can experience that for the first time in his career.
Well said. It's because those "some" are most likely the same ones that thought getting both LeBron and George was a valid possibility.
Well I'm not comparing the Lakers to that. I'm comparing other teams who would possibly trade a piece or two for Kawhi for one year of Kawhi. If he then bolts to LA anyway (because the team fails to convince him) then you look at as a one year stint similar to what may happen to OKC with Oladipo. My point just is that other teams (outside of LA) will be cautious to trade great pieces for Kawhi if Kawhi throws it out that he wants to sign with LA in 2019. Of course it won't stop teams, I mean it didn't stop OKC from trading Oladipo for George (even though Oladipo's value was nowhere near it is now).
I agree...and maybe we are seeing the end of teams shying away from making a trade without assurances (okc with pg).
Well I think plenty of people realized that the reason why Dipo looked like nothing special in OKC was that he was stuck on a team with Westbrick, he was highly touted before he was stuck on OKC and he was amazing afterwards. I think a lot of people still saw the potential. I mean, who knows what will happen, I just don't think San Antonio or Portland will be enticed to eat the pu pu platter that the Lakers are offering just to help out LA. I just can't help but think some team would offer something better.
Maybe, but I think there will always be GM's that are just awful when it comes to trades like Presti has proven to be and all it takes is one.
I'm not saying that LeBron wouldn't join the Rockets because of Playoffs Harden, but he clearly hasn't performed to his MVP regular season self over the past few years in the postseason. Call it fatigue, disinterest or whatever, but it's pretty obvious, even to the causual fan. What the OP is talking about in a microcosm to me is... I'll never forget CP3 during game 5 of the Utah series absolutely taking over that game, having to actually hype up Harden by dancing on the court by him during a time out, then proceeded to wave him off during the last minute of the game. That should not be happening to an alpha dog, MVP caliber player. Just be fair in your assessment, we all understand that we wouldn't have made it to the WCF without Harden.
Yeah, it's about #'s alright..One Corrupt League office and three minions on the court. We had them. Add in one CP3....and one Luc too for good measure. But the real problem lies within the powers that be. Blatantly obvious/outrageous manipulation. It's a disgrace.
Man, CF is depressing me this week haha. Somebody give us some positive vibes. We were two quarters from the Finals!
lol thats how i am feeling...well we have the draft next week (Maybe we hear that Ryno was traded for a bag of chips or something
Couldn’t agree more. The Rockets without CP3 had double-digit halftime leads in both game 6 and 7 and the referees helped keep both those deficits manageable for Golden State. If they call the two obvious fouls on Harden threes right in game 7, the Rockets are up 18-20 points at halftime instead of 11, because one of those “missed” calls turned into a Klay Thompson three. In game 6, the refs were the reason the Warriors cut a 39-22 first quarter deficit to 61-51 at halftime.
People read into things wayyyy too much. Cp3 waving off harden has nothing’s to do with harden but rather cp3 was “feeling” it that game. And he was great that game. He had the kryptonite to the Utah defense, which was the elbow pull up. Just because cp3 was dancing doesn’t mean he was “hyping” harden up or that harden “needed” to be hyped. People look at anything and try to effectively negate harden because he isn’t demonstrative enough on the court for their liking.
the silver lining is that the Rockets showed they were ready to compete and beat GSW with just two stars. Granted one of those stars got hurt at the worst time possible but if they can add role players that can either alleviate Harden's or Paul's usage or another strong 3&D player I don't see why this team can't be in the thick of things next year, even with a LeBron/PG Laker team.
"Even to the casual fan?" I'd argue that perception is largely because of the casual fan. We had multiple games in this most recent playoff run in which Harden was dominant and CP played relatively poorly. Yet you're taking one game, and a select few moments within that one game, out of context and attempting to make it representative. Steph Curry went 3-of-16 in a Finals game, against an awful defense! And we're mostly discussing Harden against GSW and Utah, who are two of the league's best. Other than LeBron and Durant, who are in a different universe, everyone has random outlier bad games and moments. That's why it's best to focus on the numbers, which give you broader context.
