It's not like we're demanding that Harden be UltraHarden every game. Even MJ wasn't UltraMJ all the time. But we do need him to be UltraHarden when it matters. Or at least 80-90% of those games. There's a time to assert your dominance on the other team and bend them to your will. Harden has shown this season especially that he's capable of doing that. Now he needs to learn to do it when in the very biggest moments.
the simple answer we've grown accustomed to is simply blaming everything else around him. Sure this team doesn't have as many "stars". that still didn't stop the rockets from having a chance to win the last 2 games. Or win 2 games back to back with KD playing. And they absolutely did have the chance from the 4th quarter on in BOTH games. In no way is it too much to ask your "mvp" to just do what he is capable of doing and just will the rockets to a W in the closing moments. How many examples of that just happened over the weekend. Are others to share the blame for the rockets not being in the wcf? Absolutely, but when games are 50/50 and still within the grasp of a W and he's not even attempting to have that "mvp" mentality. that's not excusable. I'm done giving him excuses as far as that part of the game goes. Those are so often the difference between staying alive or not.
The regular season is almost like a long preseason. Players half-ass it the first three quarters of games. Players take games off. Defense is almost never played with any intensity. Don't get excited about the regular season.
This is it right here! Rockets are good enough to get Harden close. Harden should be great enough to get the Rockets over the hump. It's that simple. All these "Harden needs MORE help" guys need to come to terms with their thinking that they don't think Harden is the guy while they shift blame to everyone else. When you go in on rants about Tilman and Morey and House, make sure you sneak in you don't think Harden is good enough. It doesn't matter who the Rockets get, the team will still be on Harden's shoulders.
But I don't think it's all one or the other. There's a spectrum between "Harden needs more help" and "Harden needs to be Super Saiyan Harden." Maybe bringing in someone like Butler would ease things on Harden just enough to get him there. Harden already knows HOW to do it, he just needs to summit it at will now.
The average rockets bench player is so poorly paid that even the slightest injury would leave a player like danuel house homeless after the medical bills would have piled up. The capaela block on iguodola in game 4 actually stirred up the warriors. Problem is players like Gerald green became to predictable. Eric Gordon technical seemed to back fire and the bench crumbled under the physical play. Rockets bench and rotation was not physical anyway and they feared the whistle. Then looney and Livingston knew their inside shots was there without pressure especially when capaela went to bench.
It's always going to be the same with a Harden run Rockets team even with Butler. It will ALWAYS come down to Harden lifting the Rockets. We have seen, even with the rosiest of situations, Harden trips all over himself. Game 6: Curry in foul trouble no points at half, Draymond in Foul trouble, CP3 having his best game in the series, No KD, Beyonce sitting courtside lending her energy.
alright Shook, y’all can keep on believing that Harden plus role players can deliver a title...I know better now...it ain’t happening, not in today’s NBA not fair to Harden at all that he’s expected to do something that the likes of Bron, KD, Steph, etc couldn’t do...then next season CP0 will be even worse if I see nothing but role player additions this summer, then I already know what it is...no title, just the usual 50+ wins and a 2nd round or possible WCF exit
Hopefully that will put an end to your prognostications too. It just confirms you were jinxing the Rockets the whole post season; you never believed they had a chance.. smh.. I'm disappointed.
I wasn’t jinxing anything, miss me with that BS. They were what I thought that they were which is the 2nd best team in the West, and the biggest challenger to GS. I hoped they could beat them and prayed I would be proven wrong, but it didn’t happen. It’s not like I thought they had a 0% chance of beating GS, it was just very low. I’m done believing in Harden plus role players. All these stars are teaming up for a reason. We need another star to help us better combat ref fckery and the fact that Harden won’t be great at all times.
Relying on the three point line is cool for the regular season but might not be scalable for seven game series after series.
I agree. Harden has all the tools. He needs to use all of them to win. The step back turnaround in the lane in winning time would have defeated the Warriors. Instead step-back contested brick. Harden let these guys off the hook with his all or nothing plays.
As Draymond said, "There are 82-game players, then there are 16-game players.". Warriors are in cruise control till they get to playoffs. Regular season isn't a good gauge against 3-time champion Warriors. Against pre-champion or 1-time champion Warrior, the regular season is a decent gauge. At this point, warriors have run the gauntlet, are super confident they can cruise through the regular season and turn it on for playoffs.
Im looking to see how the chips fall come team usa-fiba in August. Harden might be the only rocket to survive the cut for the team only because of his Adidas endorsement IMO. If cp3 and Gordon get cut from FIBA will that divide the trio even more when training camp start later? You know Gordon gonna be probably one of first guards to get cut from FIBA! Come on now!
