What Would You Grade James Harden's 2018 Postseason?

best post season he's had IMO with the Rockets, I don't remember him sulking or putting his head down in the face of adversity, if anything he embraced it and kept hustling. I can respect that, especially on the defensive end.

I will say his decision making at time is still questionable, he's also going to have to figure out how to expand his arsenal of offensive moves. Now we know that he can play defense, and he will not let the team down when his shots aren't falling

I also think his 3 point shot needs work, not in a sense that he needs to practice more 3 pointers but more he needs to find open shots to get himself in rhythm instead of taking the most difficult shot as possible. He should have certain tricks like Klay and Curry does where they will either run to spots on transition, or around screens to get open. I'm not saying he should play like that Klay because he never will, but 2-3 plays a game is plenty enough to try to get a open shot.

 

not saying i disagree but damn if he got a B- and you thought he outplayed the Snake and Stephanie, what do you give them, a C?

 

A-. Really the only thing he could have done better is outside shooting. He was spectacular in every other area the vast majority of playoff games. Once CP3 went down, we were doomed. Don't think anyone else in the league could have done better except LeBron.

 

A+ regular season
C- post season

His shooting fell off the map. Less than 30% from three point range? He turned into a volume chucker basically.

 

I gave him a B

what I liked
-he started every series out strong going for 40+
-he averaged less than 4 turnovers a game despite having an insane usage rate
-he competed defensively and made some great defensive plays
-he went down swinging

what I didn’t like
-he’d be great in game 1, but then he’d never approach that level of play for the rest of the series
-his percentages were way too low
-he settled for threes way too much and missed 22 straight at 1 point

I will say this tho, nobody other than Lebron could’ve done better than Harden did in games 6 and 7

KD, the consensus 2nd best player in the NBA, had 3 chances to put away a worse GS squad with only 3 all stars back in 2016 and went 12-31, 10-31, and 10-19 in those 3 games while also having another star in Russ to provide help...Harden did all he could going up against 4 all stars and 3 crooked refs

 

this playoffs:
1)lebron


2)harden

3)others

 

I would give him A, but Harden didn't want to rest during the regular season like the Warriors did with injury excuses. If he was fresh like the rest of the team we would not break 3 pt record of misses. No legs and fatigue is at least 1 reason we can't hit shots.

Grade B

 

bron is an a+++++++

i personally gave harden an a-. grading is subjective, i'm not disagreeing with anyone who gave him a b+ or b. his shooting was bad especially as the series progressed with less rest. he had lazy ass turnovers stemming from bad habits and probably fatigue. but this was his best postseason with us and he's shown clear growth. he stepped up plenty of times when we needed him (all the game 1's, all the 1st half explosions to give us a chance from the start without cp3). he played superb on-ball defense. he has matured as a leader and if he wasn't robbed of at least 10 points in game 7, there'd be a different tune of him as he would've led us to a victory (without his running mate and basically 50m sitting on the bench in cp3/ryno/luc) over one of the greatest teams of all time.

he will still likely be in his prime next year and has gotten better every year, which always surprises me for some reason cause he's so good already. i look forward to his revenge tour.

 

Dude gave it all, he did everything he could and we came up short, gave him B+ easily could be A-

 

B+

Every postseason he plays better. This was the first time I've seen James play defense so consistently well.

Next year is going to be an A, and hopefully a championship as well

 

i didn't even see the last option on the poll. i would like a revote

 

B. Because he played defense better this time. His offense efficiency is still sub par.

 

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they rob Harden from winning MVP too.

 

hows that possible, voting was over like a month ago

 

Idk bro, i thought the Rockets were gonna beat GSW last night and look what happened lol

 

We had a chance with him as a sole “great” player against 2 or arguably 3 “great” players in a game 7 of the WCF who had help from the refs. Cannot do much better than that considering the circumstances.

Part of why didn’t perform as well was on the coach, but I want him to work even more on his conditioning, his midrange, handles and attitude. He gets an B- because as an MVP I expected more. In some ways he was better as the sole leader in 2015 against the Warriors.

His effort on defense was there, but his attitude and approach is a problem. Looking for fouls, baiting, dribbling out the shot clock waiting for the opponent to make a mistake to get a call and then when you don’t stay behind, walk back and get rattled is a serious problem.

It took Hakeem a few years as well, and Harden is still young so he could change. That’s where Klay and Curry can be role models for him, they just play through it and don’t let it get them rattled as much.

Harden is still too easily off his game when certain things don’t go his way. Once he gets that and the midrange step back and more post ups return then we can see an A version.

 

LOL Curry, Klay, KD, Green don't get rattled??

 

As much. If you think they do then watch the games again. Harden clearly let’s not getting calls get to him or missing shots affect his defense, effort as well. Who said Green?

 

my point is the reason gsw players don't get rattled is because they're a superteam..

if harden replaced kd or steph on the warriors who do you think will be in the finals now? gsw or rockets (no cp3 in game 6 & 7)

 

Possibly, but their shooting skills less predicated on getting foul calls helps too. That's irrelevant. Refs had more to do with the Warriors win than anything. Logically Rockets shouldn't even have been in this position, it was all effort and sum greater than their parts since Warriors are clearly on another level. Rockets showed you can beat talent so that's a win in my book and I'll take that with me as I forego following the NBA. I am addicted, so will probably check the forum and some scores every now and then, but I see no serious fault with anyone of the Rockets this year. There was no choking, guys not showing up or anything like that. Harden did well, but as an MVP he could be even better. That gives hope right.