Not even a prime Michael Jordan would carry this roster to a championship. Harden can improve his leadership, and lesser leaders have won titles, and he screwed up, and that doesn't mean he is eternally what happened in game 6. Try to have some nuanced analysis. 20+ teams woould trade their best player for James Harden right now, and the remaining teams would either consider it or trade us their 2nd best player. Those players are rare - and to be clear, when we say these players don't grow on trees, that means on average a franchise will have a chance to get one of these players once every 5-10 years. No one has won a title in the last 20+ years with less talent than we had. There are less than 3 players out of 450 NBA players who can carry this roster to a 3rd seed in the Western conference. How rare is that? That's not even in the 5-10 year range. That kind of player comes along for a franchise every 10 years, and some haven't gotten theirs in 10+ years. We lost to 1 of 2 teams who finished ahead of us in the standings. We demolished the team with apparently the MVP of the NBA in the first round. How can a player in the running for MVP have a question mark about being traded? Even if he is the 10th best player in the NBA, that's an indispensable asset. It's not a respectable position that you are unsure about giving Harden the max. If you worked in an OPPONENTS' front office and raised that question about Harden, you would be fired for your incompetence very shortly after.
Unless Lebron James comes knocking on the door, We have no choice but to pay the beard whatever he wants.
Unfortunately this sums it up. I have serious doubts that Harden can ever be the #1 option on a title contender, but the Rockets don't exactly have any alternatives. Unless they plan to tank a season and get a high draft pick(like the Spurs did in 1996-97 to get Duncan) to put alongside James, you're stuck extending him and then hoping you can surround him with enough talent that you're not relying solely on him to lead you to the promised land. If you wanna look at the bright side, they're not that far away right now. They did win 55 games, finish with the 3rd best record in the league, and get to Game 6 of the 2nd round. Improving on that will be tough given their cap situation, but it's not impossible. We keep thinking of superstars to put alongside Harden, but maybe Morey just needs to find a couple more complimentary pieces and hope for continued improvement from Capela and Dekker(and maybe Harrell).
Serious question: if he continues the trend of playoff disappointments for three years, is it still a no brainier to resign him? if so, how many years does a guy get to improve in the necessary ways?
How so? He doesn't have exceptional speed, athleticism, height, length, or explosiveness. Keep in mind that this is in relation to other players, not to the average joe.
Part of the reason for that is because his targets (Anderson/Gordon) position themselves well behind the 3pt line. Harden generally throws accurate passes, but it's the spacing they provide that makes the difference.
I'd like to see him in a few years. If he is still the same, well then he is at least very durable and worth his money. He seems heavier than he was when he first arrived in Houston.
There's nothing wrong with that as long as its logical. For instance, it's fair to say that McGrady didn't train properly after the 2008 season because he was fat when the 2009 season began. Also, look at the quote. Do you think Harden "leads by example"? B/c I sure don't. And who cares what goes on in the locker room when players are judged by what happens on the court?
THANK YOU!!! It's like people forgot how lucky we had to be just to get 1 player on Harden's level. It required OKC being incredibly cheap and not wanting to give him 4 million more dollars in order to keep a young title contender together. Not 4 more mil/yr, but just 4 more mil over the life of the contract. We were able to land him because GS refused to give up Klay and Washington refused to give up Beal. When Morey traded for him, many of the people on here didn't think he would become some special player. NOBODY thought he could become some top 5 player and MVP candidate. So for us to get a player on Harden's level, it took some very fortunate events just for us to get him to Houston, and it also took Harden making 1 of the greatest leaps I have seen by going from a great 6th man to top 5 status. We could go 10+ years before we ever get a player on his level.
Depends on how bad the disappointments are. Let's look at Harden's postseason record since joining the Rockets: 2013 - 8th seed vs 1st seed Thunder. First round loss in 6 games. 2014 - 4th seed vs 5th seed Blazers. First round loss in 6 games. 2015 - 2nd seed vs 1st seed Warriors. Western Conference Finals loss in 5 games(Golden State went on to win the title). 2016 - 8th seed vs 1st seed Warriors. First round loss in 5 games(Golden State went on to lose in the Finals in 7 games). 2017 - 3rd seed vs 2nd seed Spurs. Second round loss in 6 games. Aside from 2014, you could argue at least on paper that Harden's teams(note, I'm talking the TEAM not him individually) have performed basically as expected thus far. And even in that Blazers series, the two teams had identical records(54-28) and the outcome was decided by a buzzer beater. Now that being said, should the Rockets have beaten the Blazers? Yes. Should they have challenged the Warriors more in 2016 given Curry's injury? Yes. Should they have finished higher than 8th in 2013 and avoided the Thunder? Yes. Should they have beaten a Parker and then Kawhi-less Spurs this year? Probably. And there's no doubt Harden has had major issues in every postseason since he got here. But simultaneously we need to remember that deep postseason runs are not a given. The Rockets between 1997 and 2009 won zero playoff series. Between 2009 and 2015, they won zero playoff series(and were in the lottery 3 times). In the last 3 years, they've won 3 of them. For all of the criticism we heap on Harden(and he deserves plenty after Games 5 and 6), let's also not overlook the fact that he's led this franchise to the most success it's had since the Dream era.
IMO, the player he is right now isn't one we should build around. We custom built a team for him, and we were laughed out of the playoffs. How can we reasonably improve from that?
I have pleaded for years now that the Management should draft another Allstar caliber player. As it stands now we need a talented, defensive Enforcer or two on the team. We should draft one or two. Does not need to be on an Allstar level although I would prefer a talented one. We have rarely drafted by need. We need them to realize it. Morey said we took guys due to their talent but in the end they are just mediocre, mostly 1 way players. Or inconsistent. Gnarly Mauri!
I would extend him. If I was Morey I would have his agent on one line talking an extension and an eager to prove himself GM on the other line talking trade. We'll take an up an coming star in the making and 3 first rd. picks. Nice doing business with you!
We can improve from this season. Get another big man. When Nene went down, our lack of depth at the 5 and 4 was exposed. Get another wing player(or replace Ariza). When the shotclock is running down and either Harden or Gordon don't have it going(or are out of the game), we need someone who can create their own shot. And I don't mean stars. Just adding a couple of quality rotation guys can improve this team immensely. We've already got the scoring. Now what we need is the defense and rebounding to compliment that as well as maybe one more player who can handle the ball in a halfcourt set.
I think that he has had plenty of poor performances. It's a big sample size. in fact, instead of me typing I'm going to embed what I think to be the most fair discussion about harden. (I started it at the most relevant point concerning my opinion, but I highly recommend watching the full segment.) So, what is your answer assuming these types of things continue? He has definitely boosted the franchise, i agree with that. .
And how do we fix our offensive deficiencies? The Spurs provided a blueprint on how to neuter Harden in the playoffs. Unless he dramatically improves his game, how do we move past that?
Like I said, it depends on the level of disappointment. Right now, he has had individually disappointing performances(and in fairness, some pretty solid games mixed in as well), but the team is pretty much doing what's expected in every postseason with the exception of 2014. You don't trade away a star under those circumstances. If however next season the Rockets win around the same number of games, get home court in Round 1, and then flame out in their first series largely due to Harden playing like crap, then we would have to reevaluate. But right now as much as Games 5 and 6 disturb me, you don't blow this thing up. You try to improve on the team's deficiencies.
In ball games transition is highly important. If you can get consistent stops that fuels guys on Offense. We had 2 games where we blew them out. We need one of our big guys or SF to consistently step up. We need enforcers to get stops and good bench players to make big plays in crunch time. Of course Harden has to play a lot more consistent basketball. If he has the energy and motivation. I do not think we can blow the Spurs out every game, heck, the Dubs play them close. All we need is to win those close games. If everything fails, you can always trade him as a last resort.
We were within 3 points at the end of the 3rd quarter of Game 2 in San Antonio. We were a shot away from beating them in Game 5 in San Antonio. Let's not act like this series was a one-sided ass-whooping. There are plenty of free agents and undrafted guys out there. The Spurs found Jonathan Simmons for chrissakes. Don't tell me Morey can't get an 8th or 9th man for the rotation with around 11-12 mil in capspace at his disposal.
