It's the bad major highlight games and moments that seem to pop up every year. For example, I'm sure Isiah Thomas had great numbers but he still threw the ball to Bird.
thats the thing though, he should be judged by his career & seasons all these seasons with the rockets, they over achieved.. harden never held back the rockets from getting farther.. it's the other way around
and right on time the harden police makes his rounds. whining? no, its called holding players accountable, something you know nothing about because harden's nuts are always in your mouth. if you want post on a mature level then we can do that but don't try to act like youre going to check me bc that isn't happening
so who should be first credited for the rockets success this playoffs? and who should be first accountable for each of the rockets losses this playoffs?
He should absolutely also be judged by his success and failures as well. The fact that Harden has had some truly terrible playoffs games is indisputable. We can argue reasons all day, but not factual results. Is the criticism always fair? No, but that comes with the territory for any superstar. I am personally a huge fan of Harden, so I would appear biased to a neutral fan or hater.
Imo, every playoff game is equally important so you not agree? Having a great game 1 is no different than having great elimination game. If you have a great game 1 or great game 2 you put yourself in a better position to not be in an elimination game. None the less, people confuse elimination games with “eliminated” games. Harden has had some amazing elimination games to ward off defeat, but hey get over looked because he played badly in an eliminated game. If you look at the rockets history in the playoffs with harden, if he didn’t dominate we lost. Unless your lebron, the 2nd best player all time, it’s extremely difficult to be amazing every single game. That’s why we have averages. It’s your average performance. The most likely. Harden has his average game, and all the haters say he underperformed by his standards. What? I understand he’s had amazing games and had bad games. But why dismiss his average games as a fault. That’s what you should theoretically expect from him. But the narrative and the media has convinced everyone and the haters, that if he doesn’t have an amazing game then he choked. That just isn’t realistic. He is the sole focus of defenses and until this year he hasn’t had help. But yet, he’s still managed amazing games, a bunch of average games and a few bad ones. Haters latch on to the bad ones, and then spread his non sense that his average production is a negative also. Our best player is Harden, not Superman. He’s human for Christ sakes.
he gets plenty of credit but again he's not immune to any criticism. that makes no sense if anyone actually thinks he does btw don't put me in the category of all these other kneejerk reactions from posters who just tune in to watch harden play some bad games.
cosidering houston was pegged as a .500 team in the beginning of the season, was houston's 55 wins with harden playing true mvp calibre ball, beating okc with the mvp, 2nd round exit to a team with 61 wins coached by pops with a front court of aldridge and gasol 3-1 in the reg season vs our front court of capela, harrell, considered a success?
so for this playoffs are you criticizing him for actually being sick? or only coming up with 18 & 4 and the win because he was sick?
i think objectively this post season has been by far the best one Harden has had. Harden has more than just "a couple of" subpar games in the playoffs. I think he actually has more subpar games than he has great games in the playoffs with the Rockets. He had like 3-4 really really bad games, but he also has more than a handful of below average performances that people don't seem to remember anymore. People always bring up game 6 with the Clippers as a glaringly bad game, but I would argue he shat the bed the 3 games before that when we lost 2 games with Chris Paul injured and Austin Rivers beasting on him. Harden was also pretty pedestrian against OKC last year and against Dallas in 2015 those series wins were entire team efforts with Harden shooting horribly in multiple games. Ironically the best series he's had with us has been losses, 2015 against GS he was god like, last year against the Spurs, he was great until second half of game 5 where everything went to crap. I personally think Harden pouts a lot when things don't go his way, he just mentally gives up sometimes and stops playing smart or hard, Having CP3 this year really helped him. I don't think he has had any low effort games this post season.
This isn't a topic that's up for debate. He's frequently had bad games in key moments even dating back to his days in OKC. He needs to work to change that.
him being sick or not doesn't really concern me. i believe i told you that the other night. The team success is my first priority whether they win or not. from there you give credit where credit is due. if harden has plays poorly, im going to say he did. if CC plays poorly, im going to say he did. same goes for cp3, tuck, or anyone else. you post whatever numbers you want but anyone who watched the game in its entirety knows he played poorly.
so considering he was sick.. or any superstar who's sick should contribute more than 18 & 4 to a win to be considered to not have a bad game right? what should a sick superstars contribution to a win be at the very least for a fan like you to consider that he did not have a bad game..
what is it with you and this 18 and 4. i couldn't careless about that. that in no way tells the story of how he played. it's like you have a goal for people to hate james harden because you try to hold him in this bubble
