This team already has the potential to bring every game down to the wire. The problem we're going to have is finishing. Harden has made a career out of disappearing when it matters most. What makes you think he'll suddenly change? No thanks.
Harden can opt out after the season. I doubt the price for him would be anywhere close to that high if they look dead by the trade deadline and he signals he plans to explore free agency and possibly opt out. That's true they have no incentive to tank but they should also be open to trying to improve their longer term situation if Harden will be gone anyways rather than going all in to make the play-in. I think any trade involving FVV is kind of a fantasy though unless/until he signals he's open to it since he could block any trade. Also, of course if we traded for Harden (which I think is fantasy because I doubt FVV would agree to it) it could be a pyrrhic victory if it ends up getting OKC a top 3 pick. For that reason alone I almost wouldn't go after Harden unless he's on the market and getting traded somewhere one way or another.
So has Alperen Sengun Honestly the Harden playoffs talk from the NBA commentariat is so overblown - having *only* 2-3 elite games in a given playoff series is hard. It sucks he only has 3-4 drag his team past the other moments, instead of 5 or 6, and that they were a hamstring and a Scott foster away, but I put a lot of that up to just randomness & chance rather than personal defects - unlike the serious basketball take havers, who seem to have Harden Derangement Syndrome.
I don't hate him, I just don't care about him anymore, like a normal fan of the Houston Rockets. You nut-hugging someone not on my team is what is weird and annoying AF.
It dosent make sense though. Sounds personal to be honest. we need a point guard. James Harden is a point guard who is playing exceptionally well. If FVV were healthy, I doubt we’d even be talking about harden
Hakeem didnt dress himself in a fat suit, talk smack about his teammates (not good enough), and make a general ass of himself...
You should go back and look at the history. Everything gets forgotten decades later. He faked an injury and demanded a trade…..etc.
i'm aware... sometimes there are strained relations until stuff gets resolved... Maxwell would be a better parallel to Hard-on.... I've almost forgiven Max... almost.
The idea that we would survive defensively with Harden, Sengun and Durant on the floor is hilarious. Ime would lose his ****. That's 3 of 5 starters. We were 6th defensively iirc when Okogie went down and Ime decided it's not good enough and we should start Adams instead of holiday or Sheppard. That's how crazy he is about defense. And he declined Harden in order to pay FVV $40m per season. Be realistic for a second. "He's better than you think" wouldn't cut it defensively for Udoka.
I think you're conflating two issues here. Harden's general playoff stats are not bad, and the "he is bad in the playoffs" narrative by the NBA commentariat is overblown when looking at averages. But if you look at clutch performances, close games, and big moments, he is absolutely a negative outlier among his peers. His late fourth quarter stats in close games are ugly, and significantly worse than other players of his caliber. And I think that's what he's talking about when he says "disappearing when it matters most" and "finishing." I think it's fair to say Harden isn't a closer.
I don't think this peer group is very big, it's like, what, 3-5 of the greatest players of all time over a tiny sample size? I also think that people tend to build up artificial differences between game 7 and game 1. They both count the same!
I was leaning towards no, then we lost are 4th winnable game for the same reason, TOs and FTs. This is the season to push all our chips.
Exactly. Harden has just been a part of some unlucky post season situations. So was Karl Malone, so was Charles Barkley. Maybe he had a suspect G7, but he also had a great G3 and G4 and the team was even lucky to make it 7 games in the first place. Fans are prisoners of the moment, and just look at the final game of the season to make their evaluation, and conveniently forget the previous 15 games that got them there in the first place. Overall Harden has done fine in the playoffs, and he would be a perfect fit with this roster.
