I've grown tired of all the garbage posts about James Harden. Time to start a thread not dedicated to ****ing on our young All-Star players. Here's a start. James visiting a local child in a hospital this week(aka not a Strip Club) credit to /r/rockets Here's one of Harden and his teammates after a work out a few days ago (aka not at a strip club) instagram.com/p/n7G1vGwbTQ/
Here's James Harden supporting a local institution, "Rodeo"....(aka not at a strip club).. ....... ....... .......
i was actually thinking about this today..the guy is 24 and can only GROW as a player we are lucky to have him
A lot of folks here tend to forget where we were as a franchise 2-3 years ago. Some even go as far as to say we should trade him for ________ (insert insult). He's a 24 year old stud who can only get better. People be dumb.
How has he grown as a player between 2012-13 and 2013-14? Which aspect of his game grew significantly? A player at his age should be able to grow and we'd hope he would grow but what evidence of growth have we seen? Between 2011-12 and 2012-13 he went from a sixth man to a star player carrying a bigger offensive load at bigger minutes. Arguably that's growth, but one may also see it as just Harden getting an opportunity to show the abilities that he already had. Since then, in what ways has Harden grown? Has he become less turnover prone? Has be become a better defender? Does he have new post-moves? Is he better at working screens off the ball? And are we gonna celebrate every minute that Harden spends outside of a strip club?
Yes because that is clearly what has been happening around here. The over celebrating of Harden is way out of control.
Gonna have to agree with CH on this one. I wanna be positive. Don't we all? We've seen how talented Harden is. But.... You could see it all season. Harden would be half-asleep on the court. It's like he'd have to play until he shook off the malaise. It's not just his "way-chill" demeanor. The team's after a championship. Harden needs to grow up, fast. And he needs someone on the coaching staff who'll put a boot in his a$$. (It would also help if McHale played the guy about 35 mpg as opposed to 40 mpg.)
Love Harden. He definitely has room to grow (and he lead my fantasy team to the championship ) People forget he's one of the craftiest scorers in the league and has a pretty reliable jump shot. He's going to get better people! That said, his playoff struggles 3 years in a row are concerning.
He became a better facilitator and was reading defenses better. He stopped really having any issues with any individual defender and it became more about how he was shooting on the day. He also went from a poor 4th quarter scorer to mr clutch
I honestly can't ever tell when you're being sarcastic, but I thought Harden's offensive game was much better this season than last season. His step back jumper became lethal -- he didn't have it like that in '12-'13. He became more comfortable in the post albeit almost exclusively in PnR situations. He seemed to be better at pulling up off the dribble for three (high PnR early shot clock type shot). After rocky early season transition he ended up being extremely accurate with the lob pass. The defense is inexcusable, but my view of Harden's postseason series offensively was that he got in a standard slump, then felt the pressure and the mental aspect took over. He started pressing (35 FGA), started getting frustrated, etc. Not that it makes it ok, but it's just bad timing for a typical shooting slump. Regressed after his otherworldly Feb/March.
Yep, exactly what I was thinking. He has learned how to get the rest of the team involved when his shot wasn't falling or calls weren't going his way. How many times did we see Harden with an atrocious FG%, but leading the team in assists? Similarly, when he actually finds his opportunity to strike, he doesn't hesitate and heats up rather quickly. This is reflected in his ability to routinely generate 12+ pt quarters. I'd also like to add that we saw evidence of him maturing as a leader as well. Most recently by giving Lin some encouragement when he was down on himself after a botched play. We've got a bright young star with room to grow. Be optimistic, folks
Not saying that he is not a great player, I want to trade him, but his defensive effort is very bad, he need improve his game lots, if not, then he is just another TMac in this team.
Nice idea... But won't work. Apparently around here there is nothing good about Harden. Even the things he does well gets excused away.