Harden: To win a Championship - He Must Do EVERYTHING!!!

So what was his excuse the last 4 years.......I'll wait. The fact is, his numbers have been trash in the playoffs the past 4 years. And why was the team better with him off the floor even during his hot stretch?

 

I mean he was far worse this postseason. This was by far his worst postseason.

Never said Westbrook performs well in the playoffs. But he definitely doesn't play THIS bad.

 

If said superstar player wasn’t year after year top 3 in EVERY SINGLE wins added metric and said superstar at the time he was knocked out of the playoffs wasn’t rated by EVERY SINGLE metric as a top 3 overall player in the playoffs....

If he was out there pulling a Westbrook whose playoff performance was rated the worst playoff run by any max level player EVER in a recent Open Floor podcast...” No max level player has hurt his team more in a single playoff run than what we witnessed from Westbrook this postseason...”

IF that were the case THEN it would be totally realistic to focus almost all of our energy worrying about what said superstar could do better.

 

So this year he had a . 46.4 TS% last year he had a 46.6 TS% , the year before that he had a 49 TS% , and then his MVP year he had 51 TS%. I would take his MVP year but Im sorry right now he simply isnt good enough. His BPM(and other metrics) have gotten VASTLY worse every year in the playoffs since his MVP season. Its better for the ball to be in Harden's hands, not Westbrook's. The only hope you can have for him is if he improves himself to a 35% shooter on 4-5 attempts per game.

 

51% TS percentages by our 2 best players got us 7 games out of the fully healthy KD Warriors in 2018.

 

I don’t believe it is even possible for Westbrook to duplicate this level of awfulness again. He will be better.

But there is next to nothing that should have anyone feeling like he’s going to all of a sudden just be great or even really good.

 

Chris Paul and James Harden had a 56 and 55 TS% for those ENTIRE playoffs though. Also one guard Chris Paul is one of the best defensive point guards of all time. The other(Westbrook) is a guy who consistently was not a good defender his whole career, nothing even close to Chris Paul You can't use the argument about defensive efficiency when one dude is way better than the other. He will play better next year, but the point is, it simply will not be good enough because he isnt capable of being that level of a player for multiple playoff series.

 

I mean I think we agree here that Westbrook isn't anywhere near an ideal running mate for Harden.

I really want Dragic. I think he's the perfect fit for a running mate to Harden. But it seems like Dragic really loves the Heat orginization and he's most likely going to resign.

 

James Harden Weaknesses
As a child he always has been overweight
He has Asthma since childhood, literally loses Stamina late in the 4th, Asthma seems to affect
him during heavy pollen season. He always gets sick during that time.
Has had several Concussions, Ron Artest Elbow
Right Wrist Injury he fell on it at Denver
Shoulder Injury
Slight Torn Hamstring
Swollen Foot
Turned Ankles
Knee Injury always icing

Bad Habits
Smoking Hooka
Bad Women
Smoking Drugs, Drinking

As a 31 year old player The end is near.

These things will age him faster, destroy his body.

 

Curry also plays with one of the best sharpshooters in the history of the NBA and one of the most versatile defensive big in the NBA in a system that uses motion offense. Harden doesn't move most of the time, because his job is to pin his defender and create a 4v4 matchup for WB which was working quite well before COVID suspended the season.

 

I want to say first, I am not arguing he’s not fantastic/elite/ (insert any superlative). He is.

But, of course he is going to be at the top of wins added metrics. He has an offense specifically designed for him to dominate the ball. When you play with James Harden in the Morey/Di’antoni system, your only job on the offensive end is to stand and wait for the ball. Of course his win shares are going to be high, without him there is no offense.

With that established, it is only logical to ask him to do things to make the offense better. What he does dictates the success of the team’s offense more than anyone in the league. It shouldn’t be a surprise then, that he is a constant obsession around here, because changes to his game reflect changes to the offense on such an exaggerated level.

Rational Harden detractors aren’t saying it’s his fault we didn’t win a championship because he didn’t do (x). We know, as constructed, this team couldn’t even sniff a championship (looking at you: Morey, Tilman and Westbrook).

We are saying that there are things he could change about his game, which would inherently change the offense, and make him and the team better than they are.

The frustrating part is, these things we want him to change aren’t based on a lack of talent or ability, but more about some lack of willingness. Also, a chunk of that responsibility falls on the front office and coaching for implementing a system that is so limiting to its own players.

 

That’s most of our offense four wide and Harden does the rest.

 

Be a good teammate and dont run off CP3 the only partner he could have won with.

 

I don't think the media like Kawhi.

 

It blows my mind that anyone could watch James Harden in these latest playoffs and think he was anything less than sublime on both ends.

 

I understand. I am equally surprised when people refuse to acknowledge Harden's part in any of the team's issues.

 

I've come to the sad conclusion that Harden will never win a championship, at least not as the main man, because his game and his mindset don't facilitate 5-on-5 dominance in the playoffs. He's a fantastic individual player, but that's not how you win. You win by fitting into a larger system of guys who work well together. The Heat are a good example.

Harden needs teammates who can play a fast and decisive 4-on-3 when he's doubled. That means more than one teammate who can make a play, not just stand and be ready to shoot when Harden stops dribbling and gives up the ball. But we don't get those guys, because they don't want to stand around and wait. And they're more expensive, and less likely to be available in the undrafted/waived/underperforming free-agent market Morey keeps going to. Morey has surrounded Harden with guys who fit well in 5-on-5 with a ball hog (an efficient ball hog) but who wilt, when deprived of him, in the 4-on-3.

We're just way too dependent on this guy. He's great in ways that don't make his teammates better.

Chris Paul was actually a pretty good fit, in terms of making the team better. He was getting old and lazy, and increasingly dumping too much work on his teammates, but he could kill opposing teams in the 4-on-3, when he was on the court alongside Harden. But Harden needed to change his game more to work with CP. And evidently he decided he'd had enough.

You can fault D'Antoni for some of this. He got the max out of Harden by making the whole offense revolve around him. But maxing out a single player, even a great one, isn't maxing out a team.

If Harden wants a championship, as opposed to perennial MVP contention, he'll have to focus on changing his game to make it more compatible with the kind of player or players who could plausibly, in combination with him, form a championship team. I doubt we have the assets to get those players at this point, in any event. But even if we did, I don't see much evidence that Harden would adjust sufficiently to work with them. I can see him winning a championship at the end of his career, when he's a lesser player and has been forced by Father Time to give up the leading role.

 

Why are you guys even trying to argue with Fchow0311?

he will say something incomprehensibly stupid, and then just post more than you until your posts are buried under a huge amount of useless crap.

 

It’s a shame, it’s been this way for the past 3 years. Cp’s hamstring, cp3 and capela MIA last playoffs, and now russ being a shadow of himself this playoffs. Of course he can always be better, especially in that l second round series against Golden State (altho he played very well tbh). You can’t win without your second star showing out as well.