Not that it matters too much, and although you are cluttering the thread, but here goes another schooling of True Beaner - since you are desperately asking for it. TheFreak responded to aelliott by saying that aelliott conveniently ignored his defensive effort. TheFreak then went on to separately address the OP by making a comment about Dirk. True Beaner/LosPollosHermanos then said: "Exactly. It seems the idiot forgot why people are so against Harden...his ****ty EFFORT." Clearly, TheFreak's comment about Harden and his effort was directed at aelliott. Any reasonable observer would have assumed that you were referring to that when you spoke about Harden and his effort. If you meant to call someone other than aelliott an idiot, then you certainly did not make that clear. True Beaner, I see that you tried to cheat by leaving out the first part of TheFreak's quote (bolded above). Nice try. May I now post your PM, please? Since you self-described it as "trying to be courteous", can we let others be the judge of whether that PM was "courteous"?
Wrong, you were actually doing better when posting youtube videos. When I talk about effort, I transition to how Dirk (unlike Harden) has been one of the hardest working players in the league. I am referencing the OP. Also, I didn't cheat I left it out because I was talking about the part I was referencing---umm who started a thread comparing Dirk to Harden....OP??? You're grasping straws. Whatever you meant to say, was an incorrect spelling of "hey I apparently don't read very well or made a mistake." Try again. Also, I love the fake "I'm trying not to clutter the thread" response---its gold. You started off by bringing my PM to you (which I actually sent to avoid it from turning into a back and forth in here) and posting it into the thread despite its lack of relevance to it. It was to get attention, just like you're trying to do now about not wanting to derail anything.
Everyone who reads the thread can form their own opinion. I'm done with you here. Kid, you have already gotten more attention than you deserve.
You don't become one of the best players in the league without a work ethic. I don't understand people who think otherwise.
especially someone who plays in the deliberate, skill-based style that Harden plays. He's not 2004 Dwight or 90's Shaq just relying on his size and athleticism.
I think I predicted every one of your responses so far didn't I? If calling someone a "kid" (being a middle aged loser and all) helps ...sure why not. Thanks for the apology ATW, I'm glad you have such a high moral compass after being proven blatantly wrong. Also, I don't buy that one bit, if you really didn't want to derail this you wouldn't have posted that message. Lets see, I'll refrain from posting about the topic and you'll bring it up once again---Mr "For the thread!"
I agree, and I think the misconception here is that Harden never had a work ethic---anybody saying that is completely wrong. He came into last season a much better offensive and defensive player, a top 2 MVP candidate in fact---after the embarrassing play vs the blazers the year before. You don't get better like that w/o effort. The thing about effort is, is that it has to be consistent. You can't be all about I'll try this year and take next off. He clearly didn't come into camp in shape and has been taking it easy on defense as he even admitted in his own words about "playing too many minutes." That character flaw is something you don't find in winners, players like Dirk especially, who weren't gifted athleticism and still worked their asses off on the defensive end even if they got burned.
That's because when Dirk gives up on a play it's called "not taking a foul", there might not be anyone in nba history who has "not taken the foul" more than Dirk.
keep this in mind...slava medvadanko. MY NAME IS STUPID ASS SMITH AND EVERYTHING I SAY IS IMPO-TENT! SLAVE MEDVADANKO!
You are entitled to your opinion and that's fine. You make a lot of good points. Until I have 100% proof that Harden took the offseason easy and was lazy, I'm not going to speculate. He needs to take more responsibility when addressing the media, I want him to say "we only go as far as I take us" or "I was bad tonight, this loss is on me". When he starts doing that, he is going to have the team playing harder than ever. That is what the true greats do. It's a very long season, and we started awfully. But we are 12-12 and have a pretty soft schedule coming up, if we take care of business (and I think we will) we are looking good. The Warriors started like a house on fire and that's great for them, but the season is 82 games. And I would rather start the season off slowly if it means roaring into peak form at the right time. We aren't that far off.
No...but our own, Hakeem Olajuwon, was criticized for things like that. Most of this city was ready to see him gone by the end of the 1992 season. I agree with the OP. You don't often have guys on your roster as talented as James Harden is. He definitely needs to mature and improve...and I think it's far wiser to gamble on that happening than sending him elsewhere and hoping you can find a player that good again.
This team gets much better if Harden would just go see a physiatrist. When he's playing off the ball defense he sees the ball(a distraction) and forgets that his man is about to back cut him to the rim. He's obviously got A.D.D. Its the same way when hes on offense he gets distracted and forgets he missed his last 7 pull up jumpers and the opponent is in the penalty before he pulls up for that 8th straight jumper. An adderall pill a day and James is buying Ty Lawson and all the folks at the Mens Club Championship celebration shots and strippers!
All what you say is correct, but his overall defense, and his attitude towards it have taken a big fall unfortunately.
I agree with your post and comments, but to fairly provide the alternative viewpoint... We were probably at the same point with TMac well before the ultimate demise, and we stuck with him, and that didn't turn into 2 championships. And lots of teams have been at the same point with lots of players, and haven't had great results, either. For every Dirk or Hakeem example there's examples on the other side, too. Again, for devil's advocate sake, let's say DM just said f'it, let's blow it up, and did so by trading (1) Harden/Jones/KJ for Mike Conley/Courtney Lee/Zach Randolph (2) Ty Lawson/draft pick/filler for Eric Gordon Both of these trades work financial and are at least semi-realistic. Is Conley/Bev Gordon/Lee Ariza/Brewer Randolph/DMo Dwight/Capela a worse team now or in the future than where we currently are? I'm a huge Harden fan - when he's engaged - and even I would say the above looks pretty attractive - offense, ball movement, defense, balanced. It's fun an all to relive last year's playoffs... but then you realize the media and analysts and prognosticators and your OWN EYES aren't crazy - the Rockets took advantage of a team that just isn't great at closing and blew a game of historic magnitude. You don't see games blown like that but once every 20 years or so. It's clear the flaws that could have easily had them losing 4-2 in the 2nd round last year are still SERIOUS flaws. And those were flaws that included (1) Harden being incapable of guarding anyone. Remember, Austin Rivers looked like a really really good NBA player for most of that series, and (2) our PF play being atrocious. Again, I'm not proposing the above happen, but I'm also being mindful of the fact that there's LOTS of things about Harden that are becoming increasingly difficult to overlook, AND, if there is a scenario where one might be able to get get back "EQUAL" talent, its not crazy to consider a move that is extreme.
There are no stats that count missed rotations, ball watching, back door cuts, and become a traffic cone in transition defence.
