I'm not concerned about any of the Western teams in this year's playoffs because I think we have a solid chance at beating any of them. The only team I'm concerned about are the Bucks who will have an easy road to the finals and be fresh to face whoever comes out the West.
The rockets just choke under pressure. Harden will take a three and miss. Then Harden will try again and a few more times with the same results. Then Harden panics forcing bad passes and predictable moves. Again, Harden initially is a bench player and Harden panics into unforced errors kinda like Brad Lidge from back in the day with the Astros!.
This is an ignorant take. The Rockets are 6 - 5 in playoff series since 2015. Four of those losses are to the Warriors, one of the greatest teams of all time. Harden didn't choke against Clippers, Thunder, Jazz (x2), T-Wolves or Mavericks when the Rockets beat all those teams. He was the main guy against all those teams and the Rockets beat them. And if you want to criticize the errors he does make, at least accept that until Chris Paul showed up, Harden was effectively being asked to win every series by himself. When Harden got real help in 2018, he was absolutely fantastic the entire season and through the playoffs until the 4th quarter of game 6 of the WC Finals when Paul went down with an injury.
Beware if Harden misses three shots in a row in a series. The coach of the team will not take him out of the game. All of a sudden the other team has taken higher percentage shots, yet the process continues until the rockets are down double digits! That's golden state versus Houston past five years!
Beware of analyzing Harden as if this team has the same depth as it did back when he was carrying Lin, Parsons, and Francisco Garcia.
I think when it comes down to it both russ and james will just take it 2 the basket, and tucker + covington will make those 3's...
Ya it really never slowed down cause the warriors play small ball , and it was warriors putting them out all the time lol. Yea they stupid.
If the Rockets win the championship this year while playing the Clippers with PG injured, Lakers with LeBron injured, and finals with Giannis injured, and then the Rockets proceed to suck for the next 5 years, Harden will be recognized among the media and casual fans more highly than if the Rockets beat the Lakers and the Clippers at full strength, then lose in 7 in the finals against the Bucks, and then proceed to make the conference championship or finals but lose for the next 5 years. It is absolutely ridiculous the way people judge championships. If you have one regardless of circumstance you are on the pedestal for the rest of your career. Otherwise you are a loser. There's no nuance at all with how people think of stars and that's why LeBron went to Miami and why KD went to the Warriors.
Not necessarily disagreeing but KD chose warriors due to beefs with okc and westbrook, and the opportunity to play under kerr. I would bet on House or even Jeff Green making some three's here or there. Question is timing? Have they been prepared to get looks by scary Mike Dantoni?! Capeala was an integral part of the offense since October training camp. Is the team prepared and players rehearsed for a run versus the other elite teams including the bucks who have only been beaten 7 times throughout the whole season?
He left OKC because he didn't like it but he didn't choose the Warriors because he liked the way they play. When he actually played there he didn't buy into the system and didn't want to play the way Kerr likes to play basketball. There was nothing in KD's time in SF that suggest he loved their style. He's an ISO guy not a ball movement guy. It was clear as day that in an offseason where every team had capspace to sign him, he just chose the best team. He didn't come to Houston. He didn't go to the Spurs. He didn't go back home to the Wizards. He chose the Warriors because he wanted a free ride to a championship and he got it.
The team went 73 and 9 bruh! He chose the Warriors and Kerr made sure Durant got to mix things up running point forward which was brillant since Curry got great off the ball looks. Their team broke the 72-10 mark of Jordan and Chicago for a reason. There's nothing free about going 73 and 9 in the nba mang!
KD said he chose GS bc he did like the way they played with their system specifically passing That and living in the Bay. okc was playing with more athletes rather than actual skills. he discussed this in depth on matt barnes/sjax podcast
KD has said a lot of things. But actions speak louder than words and his actions said he wanted the Warriors to play him the way he should be played instead of the other way around. I mean yeah no kidding he preferred to go to a team with more skills. I was just responding to someone who says he wanted to go play in Kerr's system. No he didn't. He wanted to play in OKC's system but with better shooting.
considering he was intrigued by the way they played and it being kerr's "system" that kind of means he wanted to play in it but people will believe what KD has said. others wont. either way that podcast talks about it in pretty good detail with him