Agree Totally disagree, and this "calling off other players" is ridiculous, as if he does that all game long or something, or has a special treaty with his bigs. Getting 10 boards, on average, for ANY player, even one the height of DMo or Capella (ahem!) would be impressive. For a point guard, it is incredibly impressive. You're just hating there and not being rational at all.
I am impressed but I'm worried. I'm worried for Harden. It seems like people will favor Westbrook over him for MVP because of his triple doubles. Remember the first time Harden lost the MVP award? Because his team wasn't good enough. Now the argument I'm hearing is Westbrook is doing more with less...
The fact that he's doing this AND winning is extremely impressive. Kobe made a career out of stat padding that never translated to Ws. I wish Westbrook played every night and got more media coverage. More deserving than Steph.
I'm not surprised at all, I just feel bad for Harden. I think the Rockets could finish 3rd or 4th and if they do Harden should be a lock for MVP. This triple double thing is going to blind a lot of voters though and the very same reason Harden lost in 2015 will be the reason Westbrook wins in 2017. Already heard Billups (whose opinion I respect) say "Westbrook is doing more with less." really? Let's look back at what people thought of the Rockets entering the season shall we...
It's a shame. I'm not sure why the narrative is always shifted like that, but who knows. It's a long season. We'll see what happens. But it's very clear that if there is even a mild case for Westbrook, it will be heavily pushed.
This is on Harden too, he has shat the bed in every statement game there is in this season. If you only play well against the likes of Sixers or Mavericks (who cares really?) and play poorly in front of the national audience against elite/semi-elite teams, that's gonna influence people's perception of you. Last night was the perfect example of this - our team won despite Harden not showing up. If he keeps doing this, he will lose the narrative battle to Westbrook.
Nah, because the narrative for Curry and his lack of stats against Harden in '15 was that Curry's team was better and he made them that way. Now though we can't say that Harden is making his team better, for some reason the guy leading the NBA in assists can't have that argument for him like Curry did in '15. I think Harden shows up in plenty of big games though and players like Capela and Anderson completely benefit when he's out on the floor.
To be fair, Curry showed up big in statement games during his MVP season (like destroying CP3) and was clutch as hell, which Harden is not doing yet
What is this metric of showing up? Harden was a rebound away from a triple double. Did he not show up against the Spurs this season? He had two triple doubles against them. Did he not show up in Cleveland? 41 points on 65% shooting? So, Harden is doing it.
Well, go to any basketball related website or forum and ask people's general opinion about Harden's last night performance. No, he did not show up with his 6/23 shooting and 8 turnovers. I agree that Harden is doing it to certain extent, but I'm saying he needs to be better in order to win this narrative battle against Westbrook. Specifically, he needs to be more clutch and outplay his rivals in statement games.
Eh if harden did not show up last night neither did westbrook. On top of that westbrook is not clutch at all.
that's true, but unfortunately the media narrative is already on Westbrook's side, so in order to take the momentum away from him Harden needs to be better than Westbrook, not similar
Very impressed with Westbrooke. Plays a style that I honestly would love to play myself as a G or F, with more of a jumpshot. 14-9 without KD and Ibaka is impressive.
Unfortunately, neither is Harden. I really don't understand how, except the Celtics game, he can just get shut down in the 4th quarter with all the shooters around and the moves in his arousal.
There is nothing impressive about what WB is doing..... When he gets one of these then maybe we should continue making threads about him..... Bev>WB
