if by "stepped up" you mean "performed worse than he did with Curry" you're right, T_Man! It's basically what you'd expect, his percentages go down, his usage goes up. NOthing amazingly ground breaking there. I'd love to do a similar comparison on how Harden does when he loses his Curry from the Rockets, who is Jason Terry...but then I started laughing too hard.
http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/117252/how-good-are-the-warriors-without-stephen-curry Harden has all the skill set.. But he lacks the leadership and mentality at this point in his career... T_Man
Oh my... T_Man is salty as hell lol. Dude for real hates Harden that much that he is being illogical as hell. He says he doesn't hate Harden, but wow man. After reading his posts explaining his stance on why he'd choose Klay over Harden. It's ridiculous. Sure, man. Let me take 2013 Joakim Noah over 2009 Dwight Howard. Yeah, Dwight might be more talented, but Jo has leadership skills! Are you serious dude? Stepping up? Harden doesn't step up? Did you not watch last season's WCF? But then you're going to to say something stupid like game 6 against the Clippers when he was on the bench. What's your opinion on Curry then in the finals? Last NBA finals he was pretty solid, but he definitely didn't "step up" last season in the finals. Klay last year in the finals didn't step up either. Wasn't he on the bench fouled out with like 9 points smiling like a doofus in game 5 or something? Didn't dude score only 9 and 10 points in this year's NBA finals? Yeah, man. Dude is definitely stepping up! Josh Smith and Corey Brewer are definitely better than James Harden. Yeah, Harden may be more skilled, but Smith and Brew were the ones who stepped up in the 4th quarter of game 6! You do know that role players are allowed to break out for big games when the star players need them to, right? Remember when Reggie Jackson saved Durant and Westbrook's butts in a playoff game a few seasons ago? Basically took the Grizzlies to over time and was the man during over time? Klay Thompson is so much better than Reggie Jackson and one of the best shooters in the league right now. Him hitting 6 threes is something he'll likely be able to do especially when his team mate is crapping himself and his other team mate is too stupid to not get suspended. By the way, I hate to admit it but Green is more valuable than Thompson. So much more valuable that I hate myself for admitting it. Isn't Green leading the playoffs in plus-minus? I think he is, but I'm not sure. Not important. The Warriors have 3 players better than James Harden, and you're salty we can't make the games more competitive? Don't say I'm putting words in your mouth because I know I am. I'm just letting you know how ridiculous you sound. Oh, man. T_Man. I know it's your opinion, but I don't respect it at all and it's blasphemous honestly. You should be ashamed of yourself for defending your self worse than Harden defends back cuts. Sorry, T_Man. Your gripes with Harden are childish and dumb. I don't understand how you think Harden doesn't have the mentality to correctly use his talent. Yeah, man. Going for 45 in an elimination game is severely mishandling his talents. If only Harden was more of a man instead of a diva! Harden only cares about himself! That's why he purposely makes himself look foolish for people like T_Man to over react and have the most asinine opinions! Little do you morons know... Harden has secretly been having one of the best offensive runs season through season going back to the past 30 years... but let's ignore that. Let's talk about him riding his own bus so he can get to the area sooner so he can warm up earlier.. wait no. That's not why he wants to get to the arena quicker. It's because he's a diva that hates team mates and only wants to win games by himself. Diva! If only we had Klay Thompson! He'd never date a super famous person and cheat on her. (what does a person's personal life even matter tho...?) I have no idea what leadership has to do with Harden either. Did you see Curry rallying his team mates after being down 1-3? Nope, wasn't him. Or did you see Curry's body language after the game 5 lost at home? Stephen Curry has one of the worse body languages in the league for a super star, but he is usually exempt from ridicule because he and his team are so damn good that they are rarely in those type of situations. Please don't tell me that you think Curry is a great leader. Green is obviously the leader of that team, but they all rely on Curry. The same thing applies to Harden. Another person put on ignore for pure ridiculousness. Harden isn't perfect and he is a flawed player, but the way some people undervalue him is infuriating. You guys won't know what you have until it's gone. It's gonna be Shaq and Orlando all over again. /rant
Meh, I think a lot of people made that argument legitimately, including zach Lowe when he put klay in for the all NBA team instead of harden. The argument isn't that klay is more talented or has more skills or has a higher ceiling. The argument is that klays overall impact was more positive this year because of harden not playing any defense, not hustling, and having a lot of live turnover problems. But harden of 14-15 was better than klay of 15-16. So I think people are just arguing past each other.
Where are you getting that his impact is more positive? Neither play any defense and ya harden turns it over more b/c he has the ball more (though harden wasn't near the top in turnover rate or anything). Klay: 1.8 VORP, 8.0 WS, 0.7 BPM Harden: 6.9 VORP, 13.3 WS, 6.7 BPM I get that the Rockets sucked and it's hardens fault nobody could make a shot and that ariza and Dwight stopped playing defense, but how can you look at those numbers and say Klay had a bigger impact? 25.3 to 18.6 PER. Hell, harden even had a higher true shooting %. How can ALL OF THAT be wrong?
Klay looked better than Harden this year not just because he went off from the 3 pt line routinely or played good man defense. He had something Harden didn't have... Spoiler "Strength in numbers"
Seriously. Klay has an elite defense quick foot and harden will never have that quick foot in his professional life time. Same offensively harden is way better than Klay in numbers, but when u talk about efficiency that's another story.
Klay can do what harden can except carry an offense thru passing. Klay cant play point guard and run an offense. That is what makes harden so much better than him. Klay is a very good shooter and defender it stops there.
Harden is clearly the more versatile player and even in his down year, he managed 29/7/7 and carried us on nights that Klay clearly cannot. However, with Klay's elite shooting in a D'Antoni type offense, I would be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued by the idea. Klay's defense is much better and his shooting is elite and he has the mentality. Still, like others have pointed out, put Klay on this 15-16 team and watch us barely win 30. Sure he would have his 10 threes, 30-40 points nights, but that's it. The Warriors have several weapons and a great offense which puts him in a position to get off those shots too.
Klay does not play lackluster defense like Harden. Statements like yours makes me wonder do you even watch the freaking games. Even commentators like JVG be raving about Klays defense. So where in the world does you get this notion that Klay doesn't play any defense?
Not true at all. We don't know what this team would look like if Klay was on it. Dude has the potential to be a number one guy.
I totally agree with this statement... At this point and time Klay is the best shooting guard in the game... But a lot of people don't want to hear this... Harden has not been the same player since he was not chosen as the MVP in 14-15 year. Yes he has all the potential to be the best player, but right now he's not. T_Man
Wait for it...you're going to get...T_Man type responses. Mr. Clutch was all about cherry picking advanced stats like BPM or whatever earlier in the season when Harden was lagging - when Harden improved them in the second half he went a couple of rounds with aelliot and some others and then this behavior just kind of....stopped.
