Harden scored 29 points per game on .598 TS% all year long..... Also, the amazing defender Klay allowed Kyrie Irving to play his best basketball of his entire career thanks to being guarded by him.
Ok. Fair enough. We also don't know how good Harden would be if his team featured a bunch of other elite players and coaching minds. We only know what they do currently, and based on current production within the context of their supporting cast and coaching, Harden is just the better player. Doesn't mean he isn't flawed. Doesn't mean Klay doesn't best him in select areas. Just overall...Harden has the greater impact, which a very large amount of numbers indicate. Why does supporting cast not factor into the discussion? Are we to assume that Harden would not benefit from adding great players and coaches? Are we to assume that Klay Thompson would benefit from a worse supporting cast and coaching? That seems unwise, no? Sure, it's a hypothetical, but the conclusion seems fairly obvious, right? And that doesn't mean Klay isn't a great player or anything like some try to insinuate, because he definitely is, and I disagree with those who say things like "it's not even close", because Klay is at worst a Top 3 SG, but he's just not as good as the best shooting guard, which is Harden. And I know...everybody will probably say "but but but defense!", but what about everything else?
Not every opinion is created equal. You are free to have your opinion that the 3rd best player on the Warriors was better than a clearly superior player, but people will judge you for that ridiculous opinion. I mean, feel free to have any opinion you like, just know that if your opinion is laughable, people will laugh at you for it. I'm sure there's someone that thought Anderson Varejão deserved to be the finals MVP, and they are free to have that opinion just as you are free to have your opinion about Klay being the best SG this season.
He averaged 24.3 ppg to be exact, so you should round down to 24, not 25. Also, what is his PER? what is his defensive stats? There are a lot more elements to basketball than just scoring. If you look at the metrics which aims to measure actual contribution on the court, Draymond was clearly the best player for the Warriors in this year's playoffs. 19.3 PER suggests Klay's offensive production was actually pretty modest, while 109 Drtg and -1.3 DBPM is just downright bad. If you do some research, every player that Klay was assigned to defend (Lillard, Westbrook and Kyrie) all performed better against him than they did in the previous series. Against Klay's defense, Lillard's PER increased from 16.8 to 24.3 Westbrook's PER increased from 24.8 to 27.4 Irving's PER increased from 24.9 to 25.6 Unless you think this is some wild coincidence, Klay did exactly the opposite of what is expected of him as a defensive stopper, by letting the star guards go off at will. Add to that the fact that Klay was absolutely no show in the NBA finals, his playoff run this year is not as successful as some people make it out to be.
Current data not way back win. Exposed bwhahaha dude already has a championship to prove your nonsense wrong. Come on dude keep it 100. Blind haters bwhahaha wow joker my kids and I all have Harden's jerseys and T shirts that we wear when we go to the games.
T_Man exactly. We have all been on here for a hot minute now so there's no need for Bobby to be disrespectful like that.
Now to be fair, how about putting up those same players including Klay numbers going against Harden's defense.
No need to be so insecure. You don't even get my point. Thompson had a bad game and you Harden boys came out to crucify him and call everybody stupid. Irving just had a great series, why shouldn't someone come out and glorify him.
If you really want to keep it 100 you'd acknowledge that it's obvious now that there's a giant asterisk next to that fluke championship the Warriors won. If not for literally every team they faced during that playoff run was suffering from crippling injuries, they wouldn't have had a chance......or you could just ignore that and bring up their fluke championship as evidence as to how awesome their 3rd best player is.
Klay wasn't even better than Harden this season. Harden is the better and more reliable scorer. More reliable to handle the ball. More reliable to get his team mates involved. More reliable to get you a bucket when you need it. More reliable to not disappear or not have multiple stinkers. Just more reliable. The only thing Klay does better is defend.. and that is greatly exaggerated much like how exaggerated Harden is as a bad defender. Yes, there is a gap between defense between the two players, but Klay is no better than someone like Ariza. I know it's messed up to make fun of people with idiot opinions, but I honestly can't stand the fact that there are people who legit think Klay is a better player because his team was much better than Harden's. By that logic Kyle Lowry is just as good as Chris Paul if not better this season. By that logic Whiteside is better than Anthony Davis. It's just stupid logic. Idiot logic. Mouth breather logic. I'm not taking anything away from Klay. I'd love to have him on the Rockets and be our starting small forward. The other 28 teams would also love to have Klay Thompson on their team too. Everyone would love to have him. Klay is a good defender, one of the best shooters in the game, and can play and guard multiple positions. These are all great things to get from a player, and he deserving of the contract and position he is in. But it bothers me that there are die hard Rockets fans who don't see what they have in James Harden. They let the salt in their blood stream cloud their judgement. You guys think Lakers fans hated Kobe after losing a 1-3 lead or missing the playoffs? Or are we going to be Orlando Magic fans? Are we going to under appreciate Shaq? We're gonna tell him he's not worth it? Is James Harden going to be our Shaq? James Harden is having one of the best stretches as an offensive player since the past 20 or 30 so seasons. Since he's been here he has been incredible. He does things that most other players aren't capable of doing. Being a very efficient scorer that can get you 25+ a night, and handles the ball greatly. His defense is exaggerated because we all know that when he is engaged he does his part when doing man defense. Team defense isn't where we'd like it to be, but it's not that huge of a problem. It honestly isn't and it's over blown. Just like his "lack of leadership." His leadership qualities shouldn't even be mentioned when comparing him to the likes of Klay Thompson. Klay isn't the leader of the Warriors. Not even close. You guys don't appreciate we have, and it's sad because what he does is incredible for the Rockets. Yes, this season isn't what we wanted it to be.. and the 2014 playoffs hurt a lot, but these are growing pains. We may never win a championship with James Harden, but we shouldn't give up on dude and pretend like Klay Thompson had a better season this year. It's back tracking. First, a person says Klay is better, then that he's better because he fits better.. then he's not better but would rather have Klay.. and then he's better just this season. People need to make up their minds. I've seen a lot of back tracking and jumping around in this thread. I try to be civilized in these type of discussions, but I truly do get upset by the opinions of these people because I know they're not alone in these foolish opinions. And those foolish opinions can be pivotal in if James Harden feels if he's unwanted or wanted by the fan base. If James starts feeling under appreciated and unwanted then I can guarantee you he will leave us, and we will be stuck with nothing. It's my greatest fear as a Rockets fan because that means we need to start over again. You can tell me Steph, Lebron, Kawhi, KD, and Westbrook are all better than James and I'll be like alright. It's hard to argue because they all do great things and can all be said to be the best player on their their highly successful teams. But when you say Klay, a guy who isn't even the 2nd best player on his team, is better than Harden? It's not only foolish because it isn't true, but it's just... I can't even describe it. Harden was better than Klay, is better than Klay, and will remain better than Klay. I will not agree to disagree.
BWHAHAHA now why are you putting an asterisk next to their championship. Wow dude you're off the chains.
I'm not trying to, it's just an obvious one that history will put there. The ONLY reason they won is that literally every team they faced that post-season was crippled by major injuries. They didn't face a starting PG the whole playoffs. The Cavs just proved that the Dubs would have had no chance if the Cavs were at full strength by beating a better Dubs team this year than made it to the finals last year. At this point it's a confirmed fluke.
All because some are saying Klay had the better season than Harden, doesn't mean they don't appreciate what we have. We all have different opinions, some will agree while others disagree. In all actuality, that's what makes the heart of any sports forum beat.
klay is a glorified 3 point specialist who tries on the defensive side of the ball. nothing more, nothing less.. he was never as good as harden He was the guy to root for if you hated the way Harden played basketball, it also hasnt helped that espn in recent years has been hiring guys like amin elhassin, ros onwude, marc j spears, max kellerman and freddie coleman. Basically guys who are affilated with the warriors and have influence when it comes to voting and casual basketball fans media perception. I contend if Stephen Curry was on any other team in 2015, lets say a team like milwaukee and the bucks had won 67 games, and harden had the amazing 2015 he had. Harden would have been mvp. What happened was harden had a lot of 1st place votes, but a huge chunk of nba voters in california and on the west coast like kevin ding for example left james harden completely off their ballots. If Harden would have lost a fair mvp race, i wouldnt have so much hate for the warriors. But i relish in seeing them lose because these guys are frauds who think their **** dont stink. Harden this upcoming season can play elite level defense and average 37 ppg 7 and 6, but with warrior nuthuggers who are in the media, they are just gonna use vines to pick apart his game. They dont do that to klay or curry.
