I feel like you're confusing "prime" with "peak". Dwight Howard was 28 years old in his first year with us, and he was named an all-star and selected to an all-nba team. I blame his subsequent dropoff on his disgruntlement. Look at the number of games CP3 missed before the 2018 all-star game. Even though he had all-star impact that season, he most definitely wasn't going to be an all-star. Westbrook was an all-star with us.
Not really denying Dwight was great the first season here. But 1 out of 3 seasons is not exactly good enough for a max player. Disgruntlement or not, Dwight was never an All Star again or even close to it even when he did leave Houston. In reality Harden played 2 seasons in Houston with all star level players, (I am including the playoffs). 2014 with Dwight, and 2018 with CP3. I will add that Dwight stepped up in 2015 in the playoffs as a super role player. Sorry I cannot really consider WB to be a legitimate co-"star", especially given his performance in the playoffs which was basically a liability.
Yep, it's a shame that Harden couldn't co-exist with his co-stars. In my opinion, that led to other stars being disinterested in joining us. And that led to us overpaying an older CP3. And Harden's inability to co-exist with CP3 led to us trading him for Westbrook. Harden deserves no sympathy whatsoever for any perceived "weaker" supporting cast.
Do we need to list the names of GREATS who don't have a ring? No matter what differentiation you do between them and Harden at the end of the day.. . .. THEY DIDN'T GET IT DONE EITHER Rocket River
The Warriors were more talented and better. Dominated the West For 5 years in a row. They beat everyone including Harden.
Harden's major Flaw as a person is probably impatience Had Harden played nice and did things the "Right Way" . . . how does that change his "legacy" Those who think he is a choker will still think he was a choker after losing in the playoffs with Wood/Wall/etc Those who think he never gets a ring . .. would probably be right Had Harden stayed that year. . .. HONESTLY . . . Who thinks we were contenders? What did the Front office do that said . . WE GOING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP??? Replace GM with a 1st time GM? Replace Coach with a 1st time Coach? Replaced an MVP player with an oft injured less version of the same player? Took a flyer on an underperforming big man that was a risk reward situation? Another Oft Injured Big man? Cutting payroll? IMO we start falling into either the: TMAC zone - Never getting out of the 1st round or The Francis Zone - #14 pick in the draft as a feisty team just missing the playoffs Who wanted that ?? These last two years have been HARD! but I see progress. We are Sissyphus. The Rock was at the top of the hill .. . . it fell and rolled back we pushing it up again . Players would rather be the heel with a ring than the beloved loser on all time list Rocket River
We only loss to a lesser seed twice Lillard's shot (which I cannot blame on Harden . .. I think someone else had a costly turnover) 65 win team - We lost because of injury and refs . . but mainly injury Rocket River
This is bad logic since it ignores injuries in the playoffs. We absolutely should've beaten the Spurs without Kawhi and Parker. We arguably should've beaten the Warriors when Curry missed most of the series.
Maybe they wouldn't have been talented and better if stars wanted to play with Harden. For instance, weren't Durant and Harden good friends? Yet Durant chose to play with Curry instead of Harden. Also, we would've had a great shot in the bubble had we had CP3/Capela instead of Westbrook/Covington.
Hang them up James. I don't want to see you tarnish your legacy anymore and give more fuel to the butt hurt babies.
The Rockets also only ever beat a top-3 seed once, and that was the series when they benched Harden and had the huge comeback to save their season.
As far as I can recall, Harden wanted Westbrook in addition to Paul, not as a replacement. Still really dumb tho.
The ultimate **** slap will be if morey doesn’t offer him the full 4 year max he wants Fatso morey doesn’t have any better options… but I’ll bet he’s uncomfortable with paying this dude a long term max
