The “give me Harden over FVV” takes are embarrassing

In Fred's dreams lmaoo



That would be a career playoff game for him.

 

I should’ve been more specific…a typical Fred playoff game is a James Harden game 6 Spurs or game 7 Celtics

 

Lol that's fair.

 

Its not the fact that fvv sucks bother me too much. Its the fact we have fvv bootlickers praising his defensive prowess and fit to our team while shtting on harden. fvv time and time again puts up sht performances like today while being paid 40 mil is wild.

We are gonna get boned in playoffs bc this man cant carry and extend this fool bc ime is infatuated with him.

It doesn't even have to be harden just get a better pg cause fvv aint it.

 

It's just the sunk cost fallacy. Stone and Ime f**ked up. Harden was clearly the better choice but our FO chickened out because of history. Think of it this way. When Ime took over we sucked, we sucked until after the all-star break last season. They didn't want the shade of a struggling team with Harden as the leader and the heat that would have come with that attention. If Ime and Stone would've known what we have now they never would have gone with FVV. We have lost a lot of close games. I believe Harden would have been worth 10 games this season and our young players would be a lot farther along.

 

This thread is a joke

 

This thread is so tiring. It's 37 pages of Harden stans acting like defense and culture doesn't matter even though our coach is Ime Udoka.

Who cares if you think culture and defense don't matter that much?

 

At the time, there were very valid reasons to question whether we should bring Harden back.

At this point, this thread is tiresome. Hindsight is 20/20. Fred's big decline this season is unfortunate for sure.

 

40mil-40min-2-for-12

 

The Next Question - Is Fred in decline or just having a moment?
Do we expect worse next year and every year after?

Rocket River

 

The problem is we need to stop living or dying based on how 1 particular guy is playing on any given night...

ie Milkhair knew when Harden didnt have it - and he pulled him... and lo and behold a couple guys go off and we win...

Prob was, u couldnt bench Harden - as Milkhair found out...

Now, if Ime would realize on whatever night Freddy (or whoever) is sucking and pull him - he'd prob be ok with that... i mean prob wouldnt like it - but wouldnt b a lil btch.

We gotta be focused on playing to the hot hand - not basing stuff on cornerstones vs roleplayers bs again - lol!

We just got torched by a buncha bench players on the Lakers...

I mean hopefully our starting unit is firing on all cylinders - a few games back Fred was lighting it up from 3... obviously ride that until the end.

Against the Fakers he was dead in the water for most of 39 minutes....

We got a nice deep roster - utilize it!

I'd love for us to get a bonafide closer... but until that day comes - play to the hot hand(s).

Ime has to utilize the flexibility he has with Fred and this roster - we dont have to live game to game with our eggs in one dudes basket - lol

...jus sayin.

 

Clippers locker room is in shambles and their defense is the worst.

Typical Harden amirite.

 

I’m guessing Clippers have the worst defense and culture?

 

How many of these has Harden held?

 

How many of THESE has Fred held?

 

Hindsight 20/20. Harden was not "clearly the better choice" in 2023. He had just been an integral part of the implosion of 3 consecutive teams, was having injury problems, was getting older, and was demanding a 4 year max contract. Rewind to 2023, how is that a "clear" choice?

Ya'll need to chill with the Harden bromance. The team is currently sitting pretty right now and have a team option on FVV's contract this summer. What is the problem?

The BIGGEST problem with the Rockets right now is they don't have an alpha dog. When the game is on the line, as Reggie Miller said last night, who do you go to to get a bucket? It isn't and never was and never will be FVV. He's just a cog in the system.

 

I look forward to the day when clutchfans debate whether Robert Horry was a better player than Hakeem.

 

Harden was the better choice end of discussion.

Our problem now is how are we supposed to improved at pg position. Harden aint coming and starting fvv as our pg next season is just gonna dash any hopes of a ring.

Paying him a sht load of money and he puts up stinkers like the LA games consistently. His greatest strength is ball security, and "culture". That's not worth 40 mil or extending him.

Folks acting like any role player who got a ring is magically got net us a ring due to "championship experience". Not all championship players are the same pedigree.

Just saying set your expectations low bc if u were triggered with harden choking in playoffs wait until u see fvv in action.

 

Your can have a good defense with a bad defender who is not setting a good leadership example. Defensive rating was not the only goal for us. Our goal during the FVV/Brooks signings was to get people with excellent work ethic on and off the court. It was not going to be acceptable for someone to only lead by production on the court, we were not interested in that. It was not that "wins are the most important teacher" philosophy. That was a bigger goal than wins or being able to hide someone and still achieving a good defense. This is what I mean when I say: there's no logic in sitting here and talking about Harden's production because we didn't care about that as much as on AND off court work ethic. That means not partying hard, that means showing up to the season in elite conditioning, that means staying extra for practice, that means mentoring guards and forwards and C's not just the guy who's going to be his PnR partner, etc.

I get it that people may disagree with that, but those people have to understand that we knew Harden's production would be better than FVV's AND we said no thanks to that. Can we now just be honest and say that achieving our 41 and now probably 50+ win seasons with the young guys having a massive % of the usage (highest usage by young players in the NBA, more than even tanking teams) is a success for OUR particular goal? Can we admit the head of development Ime Udoka chose FVV and Brooks to set culture and now we have two guys who's defense is way ahead of what we expected (Green and Sengun) and a young team universally known to play the right way? Can we admit that the team's perspective probably included that it's hard for the leader (Udoka) to have credibility and trust when he hides the superstar's defense and they work hard?

It's just stylistic. It's subjective. But to keep on harping on Harden's productivity as though the organization or the players cared about that is just denial. It's not reality. Reality is we looked at FVV's lesser expected production and Harden's higher expected production, and we chose the guy who's better off the court? That's all that happened, it's not personal, no one has to hate Harden or FVV. We made a choice and that choice has gone great. If we had put on court offense first, then the defensive culture would be lagging. However, we put the defense first and the offense is slightly lagging. We chose this situation and honestly sometimes you have to be able to pat someone on the back and say "even though I wish we had done it my way.... you killed it doing it your way and I respect that."

If you're thinking I'm a Harden hater, you are soooo wrong. Search my history. There is no player in Rockets history I have been a fan of more than Harden. Harden is one of my favorite players in NBA history, I have every single jersey of his hanging in my closet. I honestly wish he fit with what our strategy was, but I'm content rooting for us with our guys and him on the Clippers. It's ok, we're ok. I miss Harden's offensive genius too, but we'll be fine man. We're in an amazing position and he's going to be available dirt cheap this summer if we want him, exactly as I predicted at the time of the FVV signing.

 

Haha yes and Horry was really a good player himself as well. Better than Fred Van Vleet.