He's arguably having the best season in Rockets history,but do you now trust Harden in the playoffs?

okc and spurs focused their defense on lone superstar harden and sent double/triple teams..

 

You're just a troll.

 

OKC was the 10th best defense in the NBA last year and had Roberson who is 1 of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA and who’s length and athleticism can give Harden problems at times...SA was the best defensive team in the NBA last year and had defenders like Green and Kawhi

Did u expect Harden to play like prime Lebron against them?

 

you're still a L(amb)OF mavsprick

after last year's POs should Morey have traded Harden back for your superstar Jeremy Lamb then?

 

The NBA initiated the Harden rule officially this year, however it historically has come into effect in the playoffs. Harden has adjusted his game for the new rules this year, and this is going to help in the playoffs. The calls in the regular season should be more consistent with the playoffs this year. Historically Harden comes into the playoffs having to try to adjust mid-game depending on the refs. We're shooting 30 foot 3s this year, so the way the game is officiated in playoffs matters less.

 

why are you so misinformed and mistaken? what makes you think i'm a lin fan? you're pretty new to clutchfans so i'll forgive you and give you a pass.

 

he is good people. I drank a bit with @Snow Villiers and @swyyyguy a couple of times. Fun guys. You just need to let loose and meet these guys at the game sometime.

 

I simply presented facts, you presented two facts followed by wild conjectures... which would be a lot more convincing IF Harden's other postseason numbers with the Rockets didn't also decline similarly AND IF I ever stated or equate Harden to prime Lebron. For the record, no I don't Harden = prime Lebron or Jordan or Hakeem (not even close), though apparently a sizeable portion on clutchfans do.

 

We have people on Clutchfans thinking Ryan Anderson is Detlef Schremph!!

The winning has caused people to lose their minds if they had minds to begin with

 

u presented facts and no context...I provided context

Harden’s off/def ratings and PER dropped while facing the 10th and best defense in the NBA as the lone superstar on his team as should be expected

 

Like I said, your context/reasons would be a lot more meaningful if Harden's previous postseason performances didn't suffer similar reduction.

Maybe the results last year was an anomaly due to OKC's/Spurs defenses or maybe its due simply to the nature of the postseason or it was simply due to Harden not performing up to his standards, it's impossible to really know... what i do know is, going into the two series, i expected/thought Harden to play better, perhaps not quite as outstanding as his play in the regular season, but surely better than that. If you didn't expect Harden to play better, I guess we just had different expectations.

Harden is currently having a great regular season, currently over a 30 PER, which has only happened 20 times in NBA history. (over 31 PER only 11 times, Jordan 4x, Wilt 3x, Lebron 3x & Curry 1x). The Rockets will likely face at least 1 or maybe even 3 top 10 nba defenses this postseason, do you expect Harden to play this postseason like he did last year?

 

Hope for the best.

 

Harden’s game 6 reduced his off/def rating and PER by a significant amount, that was 1 of the worst games of his career. I’m interested in seeing what those numbers were before game 6. He played well for the most part last year aside from low shooting percentages until the very end of game 5 and all of game 6 against SA.

No, I don’t expect him to play like he did last year because he’s no longer the only superstar and only non-mediocre creator on his team. Most superstars are going to see a drop in production if they have no other star to rely on and have to face top 10 defenses and/or 50-60 win teams in the WC Playoffs. Harden not only had to be the #1 scoring option, but he had to set everyone else up on the team as well with defenses focused solely on slowing him down. Not many superstars are burdened with a 35% usage rate like Harden was during last year’s playoffs while being surrounded by nothing but role players.

 

I trust Chris Paul to give the team some leadership and direction if Harden is flaking out for some reason. Doesn't mean I don't trust Harden - I think he played well in the playoffs outside the end of the Spurs series - but it's always good to have another guy there to pick up the slack.

 

I fear (and think) Harden is who he was last playoffs. I’ve seen what I think are glimpses of the same Harden shrinking when defenses toughen up in big games — e.g. against Boston late in the game, it looked like he didn’t want the moment, passed rather than attack. There have been other times against good defenses that it looks like he is shrinking.

Yes I know good defenses can make great players look less great or even bad. I accept that. But I would like my star player to go balls out, be aggressive, go down firing .. ala Kobe (as much as I literally cannot stand him, I respect his killer instinct and will).

All this said, I would be thrilled if I were dead ass wrong. If I’m not, then I hope Harden is willing to cede those big moments against tough defenses early in the shot clock to others.

 

cp3 tucker lmm jj >>>>> pbev lou harrell dekker

harden didn't hold back the rockets from a chip last year. its the opposite

 

I hope you are right.

 

I've said it once and I'll say it again... The difference between this season and last season is that if Harden goes full Game 6 at the end of a game, D'Antoni has somebody that he can give the ball to that Harden won't look at him crazy for.

That's why of all the stars Morey could have gotten to come here, CP3 is the best one (minus LeBron).

 

LOL rockets roster & coaching around harden held us back from a chip all these years.. not harden

 

I’d say it was both. The role players weren’t as good and Harden self-destructed when the series was on the line.

From what I’ve seen, the biggest decline in Harden’s play in the playoffs is his ball-handling and court awareness. When the pressure rises, he starts turning the ball over, misses the easy pass (or makes it a couple moments too late) and seems unable to do much beyond his pull-up shots. Add in the fewer foul calls, and he can very suddenly become a very ineffective player on the court.

We have CP3 who can take over the ball handling now as well as some wings whose defense can lower the need to score on every possession in crunch time in a close game. But if Harden cant pull it together and do his thing, I don’t know if these improvements will matter. Given his lack of off-the-ball movement and tendency to lurk way outside the 3 pt line at the top of the key, he’ll basically be relegated to a catch and shoot player. And using him like that won’t get us a championship.