niang is good. he knows his role is 3&D. milsap can't continue to be the backup 5 though. most good teams will easily take advantage of that. they need to give reed and joe a look with harden, and maybe WCS will be ok once he is in better shape. tobias is the key though. he can take from great to unstoppable if he finds his game. its clear teams are going to have to focus more on maxey as well because of his speed and aggressiveness. they will probably start daring tobias to beat them. he has to shoot more threes and cut down on pump faking and driving into traffic.
Where was this narrative and appreciation for Harden when he was in Houston?!? In Houston he was “the dribbler”…the selfish ball hog who’s scoring was overrated because “a lot of guys could do it if they had his green light”…dumbasses like Scottie Pippen and T-Mac talking about how they’d be averaging 40 in today’s NBA… Gilbert Arenas talking about how he’d average 35 easy when he’s not even better than Dame, and Dame has never been close to dropping those averages in today’s “soft” NBA Harden leaves and now he’s basketball Picasso…a savant…a legend with 1 of the greatest BBIQ’s ever who makes everyone better
He has never disappeared in the playoffs, maybe particular games and he has had great numbers the last couple of playoff runs, it seems you just have an issue giving Harden any credit. Harden has never played under 75% of his regular season self, which shows you are not speaking credibly.
I think Harris just being his normal self will make them the favorite. Rumor is that they will pick up Deandre Jordan as a big body to rest Embid. He can catch a lob.
Disappearing for a few particular games is still disappearing ESPECIALLY when it's the big games (elimination). I also said each year he's getting better so that coincides with your viewpoint that his last few playoff runs were good but it's still not enough to get over the hump. It's the same argument regarding lebron vs MJ. MJ shows up when the lights are the brightest. Harden needs to show up when it's the biggest moment. As I said he's trending upwards so I'm not sure where you're saying I don't give him credit but I think his window has closed as him being the number 1 guy. He can be 1B or number 2, but that's my opinion.
Jordan is completely done. He was done in Brooklyn and LA and those teams were desperate for bodies at the 5.
Probably. But if he can still jump and catch a lob with Harden being as good at that as he is he should be able to get him a couple cheap points. We are talking about him needing to play 8 or 10 minutes a game, tops. Use fouls and grab an occasional rebound. This might not be something he can do, but the ask is very very very small.
Paraphrasing everything here but about a month ago Tim Bontemps was on the Lowe Post Podcast and the usual haters gleefully posted his take that day that “Harden is now just Westbrook with a jumpshot”. By the way Lowe thought he was insane for the take, disagreeing pretty strongly. Which I don’t believe was relayed in the posts the haters had made, but I could be misremembering. Today on the Lowe Post, Tim was back and he had some different things to say. “I was wrong on that one, you(Lowe) were right….Westbrook is now a very bad basketball player, James Harden is a very, very good basketball player….” He tried to backtrack and say he more meant that they both need the ball to be useful but he owned up to the stupid take and they both went on and on about how unbelievably dominant Philly looks so far and discussed pretty thoroughly strengths and possible weaknesses going forward. http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/10528553
None of that refutes what I said, and you have no numbers to back up anything you have said here. It's a tired argument that has been refuted several times with actual stats. Who the **** really cares if is 1b or number 2?
there was also Bobby Marks who said that in 2 years, Harden’s contract would be looked at like how we currently look at Westbrook’s except he forgot to mention that Harden will always be a positive for his team with his BBIQ I think he will age gracefully he can easily settle into being an 15 point, 10 assists a game guy as he ages into his later thirties while Maxey takes on more of the scoring burden…Harden’s skill and passing ability isn’t going anywhere Russ meanwhile has very little skill and is dumb out there on the basketball court
Harden has never been selfish on the court. In fact I would say he plays probably the least selfish basketball if he has team mates who can take the load off of him. Do people not remember Harden essentially let Chris Paul take over against the Jazz for like 10 possessions in a row. Harden only stops deferring when his team mates start sucking. Even then he finds open team mates whenever he sees the opportunity. His Slumps in the playoffs really have nothing to do with him being selfish, his playoff blunders generally come from really terrible 3 point shooting, careless with the basketball, or indifference/sulking on defense
It has been a really good first two games for James Harden in Philly. Let's face it though, it's all about the playoffs. I personally think it's Philly's year baring injury. A different sport but this kind of reminds me of John Elway. Couldn't get it done till he could. Totally changed how he was percieved
who's got time to look up numbers when it doesn't take a genius to see he's not that great in elimination games in the playoffs. He ain't no honor roll student. Meaning he's got some A's but boy does he have some F's. Man i hope he balls out in the playoffs so that the 76ers can win the chip. It still won't make me a James Harden fan.
him abandoning midrange is also one of the causes of the blunders.... A BIG ONE...its a glaring hole in his game and a big mistake to surrender a big part of the court to the defenders
