I guess it could be, but I lean towards Harden has never needed athleticism and it's always been ultra high bball iq. He's averaging 10 assists and 10 FTA when he's overweight. I remember how much people here used to say he'd age well. I think he won't and his decline will come quick but this is not it imo. I think it will be after his next season.
Kind of random, but I was looking at Harden's career stats and I saw that he had 6 seasons in a row where he had at least one 50 point game. I've never seen that particular streak mentioned before, and it's impressive. I couldn't find another player with as long a streak of seasons with at least one 50 point game, other than Wilt Chamberlain. Others I looked at were Elgin Baylor, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant.
Jimbo not gonna like this https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...sse-thybulle-ineligible-play-thursday-toronto
Harden should have more MVPs ?? He was the scoring leader just two seasons ago and finished top 3 in voting Young 30 ??
Westbrick for sure. You could make arguments about a couple other years but nothing egregious in my opinion. But the Westbrick one was a crime against humanity.
I’m okay with Westbrook having won it as much as I was rooting for and wanted Harden to win it that year. There was an MVP race thread that year in the GARM and I think majority of Clutchfans agreed Westbrook secured the win with his strong closing of the regular season while Harden kind of faded towards the end. Russ led the league in scoring that year and averaged a 32 point Triple double for the entire season. Nobody since the Big O some 50 + years ago had done that. As terrible as I think Westbrick is… That’s impressive AF. He would’ve been robbed Harder had Harden won. https://syndication.bleacherreport....-wins-by-135-votes-over-james-harden.amp.html https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/99993678
Because as much as Harden has been maligned over coming up short in the playoffs or otherwise not performing up to his standards, he's never missed a playoffs in his career. Whether it was coming off the bench, being the guy or now being a solid #2 next to Embiid, Harden has always been in the postseason. Curry missed the playoffs his first three years in the league (glass ankles and all), missed the past two years, and his status heading into this year's playoffs is a question mark. For LeBron, he will have missed the playoffs twice now, both with LA (total of 4 times, if you want to count his rookie and sophomore years in CLE). The twitter user didn't really need to bring Curry or LeBron into this, but it does highlight Harden's ironman status over his career. (Also, no one would pay attention to the tweet if it just randomly highlighted Harden only).
This is a terrible option and you should feel awful for having it. hardens numbers were just as good as Westbricks minus two rebounds a game, and his usage was lower. He didn’t have a significantly better team but ended up the 3 seed while Westbrick ended up the 6 and then we had the gentleman’s sweep. Oh, and the only reason Russ had the extra two rebounds is bc OKC turned itself into a clown show to stay pad for that ego maniac. It was one of the worst MVP decisions ever in real time and it looks even more incredibly moronic as time passes. seriously, in a thread full of terrible posts this is by far the worst.
The biggest problem I had with the Westbrook MVP was that Curry won over Harden for no other reason than his team had a better record "Best player on the Better team" If they had not established that as rule of thumb I would have been more at ease with it. Agreed Rocket River
You guys can add an MVP and a couple more all NBA teams to Harden’s resume. It doesn’t change his legacy. Also, you guys are some die hard Harden fans so I’m not going to try to convince you. Call me a Harden hater all you want but like I said I wanted him to win it that year and felt he had a case. Just not strong enough IMO.
The MVP comment was more tougue-in-cheek, but it's wild how the outcomes played out in totality --- hence the "??". Curry should thank his luck stars Dwight was hobbled in '15. Westbrook should beware of lightning-strike that record didn't matter much in '17. Giannis outta thank heavens he played in the East and Kawhi was minutes-managed in '19. Harden didn't have any such luck in any season, he had the opposite every year. Just crazy how everything played out in totality My main thesis in the post you quoted was Harden wasn't "young" two seasons ago when he was an old 30 y/o unmotivated player who finished top 3 MVP voting and leading the league in scoring
He’s had many chances. To say he didn’t have some golden opportunities is blindly playing the victim card. He got outplayed by Dame in his series vs the Blazers. We can sit here and talk about what LMA did etc. but we were the favorites and Harden was supposed to be the clear best player on the court in that series. He wasn’t. He couldn’t take advantage of a Kawhi and Parker less Spurs. Sure CP3 went down in 2018 but we had a 3-2 lead in that series before CP3 went down. Over the next 2 games he finished with 30 points in both those games but is that really winning basketball when in Game 6 he had 9 assists and 9 turnovers. Game 7 he was 2-13 from three and had 6 assists to 5 turnovers. You can say he did all he could do but I disagree. The next year series tied 2-2 and KD goes down in game 5 with a half left and control of the series in balance. Win that game 5 go home up 3-2 and take care of business and put them away right? Nah. Lose game 5 and 6 at home. Many blame CP3 for the loss. Well CP3 outplayed Harden in their final game together. Game 6 Harden only had 5 assists to 6 turnovers and missed 5 FT’s. Once again he finished with 35 points so his fans think he did his part but it goes beyond scoring points. He’s blown more opportunities such as last years playoffs. Blame the hammy all you want but he was the same terrible Harden injury or not in pressure moments. Leaving Kyrie and KD this year? Dumb dumb dumbbbb!!! I’ve said this many times. He is terrible when it comes to being a Pro. His lifestyle doesn’t translate into Championship winning basketball. Staying up all night and morning partying, losing sleep, terrible diet, not rehabbing properly, playing iron man chasing regular seasons stats when it doesn’t matter instead of load managing etc. It all sounds hateful but tell me where I’m wrong? The proof is in his declining game and physique. Spare me the well “MJ partied and won Championships” argument.
Curry missed the playoffs last year after winning multiple chips, LeBron missed the play in this year after winning multiple chips... Harden can make the playoffs til he is 90 and still won't get one...
As I mentioned you can add an additional MVP and a couple more all NBA teams to his resume. It doesn’t change his legacy and how he’s viewed outside of his fan club. It would actually only highlight his playoff failures.
