This series, I'm not convinced that James was the right pickup for the Rockets. He hasn't stepped up his game and played both sides of the court, unlike others...
I give him a "C+". It was not the version of Harden we needed to be successful. Hopefully, he gained some valuable experience going forward and will be better in the future playoffs series.
D+ 1 good game in 6 tries. 2 in 12 if you include last year. Rockets won't come close to a title with that.
Harden had a bad series. But truth be told, the rockets lost a lot of momentum heading into the playoffs. We lost to the pelicans in an attempt to secure home court. Injuries and the late use of the twin tower line up also played a role. Also, give the flopping Wes Matthews some credit here too. Is harden the wrong pick up? Hell no. Did he do well? Hell no.
D he's was efficient on offense and flat out terrible on defense. didn't make much of a positive impact you would expect from a "superstar" or a top 5 player for the entire series. he has A LOT of things he needs to work on. i just hope he has that in him instead of just being competent being an all-star player making 80 million
C-. Showed up for one ass game. Season three coming up beard. Better not continue the choking in the first round.
It was a bad series. He was terrific in Game 6 and decent in Games 3 and 4, but that's not good enough when he was horrendous in Games 1, 2, and 5(aside from the final 4 minutes).
A deserving F. Right when the series tipped off, you see Matthews backing down Harden play after play. They exposed they already exposed Harden on defense, and he showed up for 1 game(even though he made giant mistakes down the stretch) An astoundingly lazy player on defense, who relies on poking basketballs when he's being scored upon.
