This team will never go all the way with Harden as it's key player! He has way to much quit in him, this guy does not posses what all elite players have . That extra gear, that killer drive to go beyond when you body says, hey I'm done. James does not have it, he is a great regular season player, that's it.
Voting him for MVP is the very definition of lip service. Actions speak louder than words. Players MVP is the words.....where's the action? Durant is just a single example. We've gone after plenty of stars in the past. We actually acquired one, and after a few years, he was exiled b/c we broke our promises to him in favor of Harden. Again, why would any all-star want to play with Harden?
It's not really an outlier. Other than Tim Duncan and Curry, many champions take their lumps before they ever win a title.
You claimed I was bullying people and then you started to bully me. I wanted to make sure you were aware of it so that you don't do it more and make me report you.
Nah man, we broke our promises to Dwight because he couldn't fulfil his end of the deal, that was be a good low post player. It wasn't in favor of harden, it was so that Dwight could stop ruining our offense. They could barely play the guy in the playoffs this year because of how much he ruins the offensive flow and he's the only guy whining about PT as his team loses. They tried to make Dwight into an offensive beast, he failed at it, you don't get to fail at your job and continue getting the same workload. You get demoted. As for guys we've missed out on? Who? Horford? That's about it.
Ok, if we're assuming those guys get to choose where they go why would they choose to go to a team whose #1 has a history of folding when it matters? Why not San Antonio, Memphis, Boston? Harden has proven over and over he's a great regular season player but he's not a leader, and I don't think true competitors will want to hitch their wagons to him.
You have to get in the mind of these players. These players think "I AM the man to put this team over the top." even Dwight thought that. Paul George is sitting there thinking "That obviously doesn't happen if I'm there." Only Durant runs to a team he choked against. Most of these guys think they are the difference. These are complicated decisions as well, they sometimes only factor in money, family, locations. There is no reason to be completely down about this. We are in much better shape than Memphis too...or really...like 90% of the league...and that 10% of the league are teams already loaded.
You'd be surprised to learn that, yes, actually, for many people tonight, 48 hours undid 91 games. Hell...it undid Harden's whole career!
Wrong. Dwight's end of the deal was signing the contract. He fulfilled his end of the deal on day 1. His first year with us was his 10th year in the league. Player's don't dramatically improve after 9 years in the league. We knew exactly what we were getting, and we knew he wasn't going to develop into a good low post player. Remember, it was going to be his 10th year in the league, and it's not like he was some sort of raw recruit. He'd been playing basketball his entire life. And yes, we broke our promises to him in favor of Harden. Taking away Dwight's post-ups and relying on Harden's pick and roll is favoring Harden. Obviously, it made basketball sense, but it was still a broken promise. Which do you think free agents place a greater value on? Good basketball or broken promises? We've missed out on a lot more than Horford. I'm not going to bother with the research, but use some common sense. Look at our roster. Morey has openly said that stars win games. Do you think that the roster we have, with only a single star, is the one he envisioned all those years ago?
Man, I hate to see him bring the ball up. It's so lackadaisical and plays right into the narrative of him being lazy and not giving a damn whether true or not.
did you not learn that their team defense is elite and that dejounte murray and simmons are good players? even kyle anderson isn't total trash a la abrines
I really want to believe in James but this really stung. The only way I think it works is if the Rockets swing a deal for another playmaker who is the opposite of James (tough, high effort) and who will call him out on his crap. As we saw with Dwight, you can't have to betas trying to run the show. To me James is talented enough, but not mentally tough enough to carry a team.
they will come back. you and me and @Lawlruschang and some other posters that I've seen. 99ers like tinman and rocket river are all being reasonable. we all agree that harden blew it and deserves every critical remark that he gets. We just know that he's our guy and he will be here for the next 3-4 years at least. We all want him to succeed. It's fair for people to call us homers or delusional but I think we just know that he is this organizations only hope for the next 5 years
You give Dwight more of a pass than Harden...all he had to do was sign the contract and that's it? Dwight thought he could be a low post player, the Rockets thought so too or else they wouldn't have dragged Hakeem to Houston to try to teach him a thing or two about it. Lakers thought the same thing. I don't know what the F the Hawks were thinking. I think most teams acquiring Howard thinks the guy would actually be a team player and accept the role given to him, he doesn't do that. I don't know, I can bring up a bunch of quotes from players though that are not favorable at all towards Howard. Even Steve Nash of all people. I'm not sure players see how we treated Dwight and think "They did big fella wrong there." they probably think the same thing Artest did. "We're giving him the ball but he's not scoring..." paraphrasing there... No, Horford is the only guy we missed out on. Name at least another all-star caliber player we missed out on then? Remember, Dwight was the first big star we went after during this Harden era. We also went after Chris Bosh, but the man wanted to stay in Miami, but that was while we had Dwight. Dwight left, this past offseason we went after Durant (which wasn't realistic and a pipedream) and Horford. There isn't this long list of all-stars that skipped out on playing here.
oh goodie, more excuses. did you learn that harden is supposed to be a superstar who is still supposed to excel when he plays against good defensive players? that doesn't have anything to do with harden having a limited offensive game, passing up open layups, making dumb lazy passes, and calling off plays to iso and chuck contested 3's.
Could you imagine if Morey decided not to re-sign him? What a disaster that could've been. This would've been an understandable time for him to consider his options and say, jump to LA with some other free agents. While tonight sucked major ass, it's not going to erase the pure joy I experienced rooting for a team so heavily influenced by math and statistics and far overachieved what everyone else thought they'd accomplish. I'm glad we'll get to continue this ride for 3-4 more years, hopefully with a better roster each year moving forward.
