When it comes to elite point guard skills at the highest level in the NBA, Jeremy Lin was poor. But he never quit or stop trying.
Hey Ricky, next year when Harden doesn't show up for training camp, you still going to be riding his nutz?
This must be the official knocked out of the playoffs thread. It'll pop up every year. No but honestly, I can live with getting bounced when a team leaves it out on the floor. Then it's like you have to give the other team props and say they were better, and yes the spurs were better. I don't know why, but they were. Harden is just mentally weak, imo. But, to go out the way Harden has in his playoff history is just embarrassing. Makes it hard to say your a Harden fan.
The older I get... the more I see what a sham sports are... it's jjust a way for the rich to fleece the ignorant masses by selling false hope... You get your 'star/face of the franchise'... have a little success everybody gets happy and spends money on the hopes of success... You watch your flawed star and his lack of drive/health/talent or whatever for a few years... grow increasingly disgruntled until you realize he's fool's gold... then they ship him off somewhere else... and a new batch of fans get all excited... and the cycle continues... Same thing with coaches... just keep retreading the same guys over and over again... no matter how many times they've failed and been fired....
You haven't been watching basketball for very long. Many people here in the city of Houston were ready to trade Hakeem for Rony Seikaly back in the early 90's before we won our championships. They felt the same way about Hakeem as many here feel about Harden right now. Most people felt Hakeem was a great player but he lacked that "winning" gene to get us over the top. Could you imagine if we had traded Hakeem for Ronny ****ing Seikaly????? Where would this franchise be today if that trade had gone down????? We would have zero championships right now, I can promise you that. Even the best and greatest of players have struggled to win championships in the NBA. Dirk only won a single championship, but you wouldn't think Mavs fans would have him on the trade block despite having a reputation for choking in his playoff career. Kobe never made it out the first round after Shaq left, then he got Gasol and Bynum to clean up his bricks and make the Lakers elite again. Did Lakers fans say, hey "we can never win anything with Kobe so let's trade him???" , no they ****ing A did not say that. These things take time to develop, man. James Harden isn't a perfect player but he's the best player we've had since Hakeem. We need to give this team more time to marinate and add some ingredients to the mixture and we will win a championship. It may not be next year, but we will win sooner or later. It certainly doesn't help much that Golden State has basically ruined the NBA, and perhaps are the greatest and most dominant team we've seen since the Auerbach Celtics. You either come to terms with it or you don't. How great would it be if the Rockets do eventually knock this team off though? It took Jordon 4 tries to get through the Pistons, maybe it takes Harden the same to get through Golden State. Now is not the time to give up, though.
stop right there. hakeem's playoff numbers were insane from the start. harden's are worse than his regular season numbers. its been 8 years for him now. thats too long. he's not gonna turn that corner and be a great playoff player, not by himself. he needs a jordan to piggy back on.
Actually Dude, I've been a fan since Moses was a Rocket - Malone that is... lol... I remember when people were ragging on Olajuwon... he said he was hurt... mgmt said he was fine... I always sided with Olajuwon - I trust a player to know his physical state better than guys trying to make money off of him... and based on his play - I never doubted his heart. As far as Harden... tremendous talent... but amid many great performances, there are many 'Wtf, man' moments... I hate to say it... but I'm seeing greater parallels in attitude between Harden and Stevie Franchise than Harden and Olajuwon... jus sayin...
actually comparing Stevies 5 playoff games with Hardens 88 playoff games... fg% - Stevie .429 to .423 3pt % - Stevie .412 to .335 trb - Stevie 5.8 to 4.7 - per 36 mins... assists Stevie 6.2 to 5.5 per 36 mins... TOV - both at 3.4 per 36 mins granted small playoff sample size for Stevie... career (per 36 mins) fg% Harden .442 to .429 3pt fg % Harden .364 to .341 trb - tie at 5.4 assists - Harden 6.1 to 5.8 TOV - Stevie 3.4 to Harden 3.6 numbers aint that far off... .
I think the reason harden's numbers fall off in the playoffs is because he is so dependent on the whistle. He is still a good to great player without the foul calls but with them his efficiency and production is mvp level.
