The Harden hate has to stop

It's a sad day as a die hard Houston Rockets fan to read this forum right now.
During these 8 years Rockets never missed the playoffs, the guy has been carrying mediocre players for so many years and not even once did he complain, act out in the media, asked for a trade or anything controversial.

He has been top 2 in the MVP voting 4 years out of the 8 years he has been in Houston. He has been top 9 or higher in the MVP ranking every single year as a player for Houston Rockets.

Never did Harden play on the most talented team and under his leadership Houston was one game away and mainly one hamstring away from beating the greatest team ever put together in GSW led by Durant, Curry, Klay and Green. In fact, all the times you bash Harden for so called shortcomings he has been leading teams that would be lottery teams without him.

And then you look at all the other superstars in the league, LeBron, Durant, Klay, PG, AD, Irving changing teams due to them requesting trades to join superteams. And then you have Harden who busted his ass for Rockets and made mediocre Rocket teams relevant due to his own excellence. Put Harden on the Clippers instead of Kawhi and he would be killing it, put Harden next to AD for the Lakers and he'd be killing it. Now the guy is getting constant double teams while having mediocre teammates to pass. No one else is getting doubled like Harden, imagine how LeBron would look if he'd play in a team that would be so bad that the opposite team would be doubling him constantly.

But still so many of you guys just hate on him and take the guy for granted. And I feel quiet silly to defend a filthy rich athlete but if so called fans act like this, then I am not surprised by all Harden's lame haters.

While other stars are teaming up on superteams Harden is stuck with G-league players and released cheap ass players like Rivers, House, Clemons, Green, Mclemore, Sefolosha, Bruno and Chandler or streaky guys like EG and Russ.

This Rocket squad has no where close to have the talent needed to be able to fight for the title.

 

Spot on.
The "move off ball" crap is beyond stupid due to the fact that no one but him can really create on this squad. Russ and Gordon are way too turn over prone to carry the ball for long stretches and a big part of Harden's greatness is his passing. People seem to completely miss the fact that he is setting up the likes of PJ and Covington for wide open shots.

If Harden would play for a team with a true second star and skilled offensive players who can actually shoot and some what create for themselves he would be a nightmare on offense. Instead he is seeing constant double teams and teams clogging the paint so he can't drive because they don't really respect the poor shooting of Harden's teammates.

 

For sure, and just look at LeBron last year when he did not have the "right" teammates, the dude wasn't even playing and his team missed the playoffs. And that Lakers team had more talent then what Houston got now.

Cheap ass Tillman ruining the team and only signing released players or G-leagues like McLemore, Chandler, House, Clemons, Rivers, Carroll, Bruno abd Sefolosha and people don't see why Houston can't beat a team with 2 superstars and great role players while Harden himself is getting constant double teams because the Lakers don't respect the rest of the Rockets squad.

 

I don't really buy the "aggression" thing no more.
He is not LeBron or Giannis, he can't just put his head down and run through people while getting awarded with FT's.

If one would see what the Lakers are doing this series is that they doubling Harden constantly because they don't respect Westbrook's shooting at all, and as soon as he drives you'll see that one Laker player will stand just outside the paint waiting for Harden to come so they can get awarded with cheap charge calls. So what people are talking about is them wanting him to put his head down and bull rush in to the paint when Lakers are standing there and waiting for a charge call.

 

I am the biggest Hakeem fan but Hakeem was in the same spot as Harden after the '86 finals. He was putting up great stats in the playoffs, heck, Olajuwon has the highest playoff scoring average among centers in NBA history but due to having mediocre teammates he could mainly put up great stats without winning. The same thing they are saying about Harden now, that was what they were saying about Hakeem before he won in '94 and '95.