Is Harden clearly THE man of this team?

His on-ball defense down the stretch was great. Good closeouts on Monta and Dirk.

But, during the course of the game, he was beat many times by the pick and roll that led to easy alley-oops for Chandler/Wright. I hope to see Harden shuffle his feet and fight through picks better.

 

Show it in the playoffs

 

Can't tell yet. It's easy to be a regular season hero.

It's hard to be a champion.

I believe in Dwight and James together. Champions.

 

yes

but howard is the best player on this team tho

 

Harden>>>Yao+TMac together

 

Harden is the man. but he is no more valuable then Dwight. Dwight maybe more so. Dwight has a large effect on our offense and is the heart of our defense. James is the heart of the offense , but his defense is replaceable.

 

not sure if trolling. having yao, you automatically had a top 5 defense with his grace alone, not having him you were left at bottom 5.

and to answer the question, last time i check they were all men in our team.

 

We just beat the Mavs

 

Most definitely YES. Harden would be near the top at his position in any era. Howard is only at the top of his position because the league is truly center starved right now. That is not a knock on Howard, I really like him, but it is what it is.

 

You see where Harden got mad and spanked Papanikolaou at 4:55 in the first? :grin:

 

I think it's still case-by-case. There are matchups that favor Howard. So Howard/Harden are still pretty close in ability in my mind. And we saw what Howard did in the playoffs, he lead by example. He was calm. He was fiery. He was determined. Harden needs to level off some turnovers. Bring it in the playoffs.

Right now it's still 1A and 1B in my mind.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

 

Yes. At least he doesn't beat kids.

 

Howard offensive skills are limited, and also the today NBA rules favor the guards. Harden is the man as right now.

 

Howard being out has been disruptive to his contribution. I don't think the poll would be so lopsided if he was fully healthy. I don't see either of them really having primacy over the other -- except that Howard will probably continue to have more health issues than Harden, making Harden more important by dint of attendance.

 

It's definitely not Howard. Lefty hook for the lose.

 

Harden definitely the leader. He runs the floor. Howard is also a leader (and rightfully) but just behind Harden.
They're both the faces of the franchise.