Harden is not on an ALL NBA team for 2015/16

I'm all for holding players accountable. Contrary to popular belief, it's okay to think Harden's leadership & defense could've been way better this season & to also believe that minutes played & horrible supporting cast factored into those sub par categories.

Should he be All NBA first team? No. Should he be snubbed from all 3 All-NBA teams? No.

It's as simple as that.

 

Straw man argument? You're arguing that being snubbed off the All-NBA team will motivate him. You believe that because he got 2nd place in MVP last year, beat by Portland and by Golden State.

That makes no sense. Here's why: he had a worse year after being 2nd in MVP and being embarrassed by Golden State. Harden has had many disappointments that fans believe would motivate him to work harder, but he didn't.

Nobody argued he wasn't a talented basketball player. I even said he deserved to be on a selection. Unless he says this will motivate him and he proves it, fans shouldn't expect this to light a fire under him.

 

definitely. everyone has their own criteria. nothing wrong with that

 

Outrageous. Harden was a top 4 guard in almost every conceivable metric. Even going away from metrics, he was 4th among guards in MVP voting. How can he possibly not be on an All-NBA team? Aren't the same people voting for MVP also voting for All-NBA?

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nope! Harden is the first player w/a 29/7/6 not to make 1st team, let alone any All-NBA <a href="https://t.co/tRktYTMqYd">https://t.co/tRktYTMqYd</a> <a href="https://t.co/KUHxFFR4LU">https://t.co/KUHxFFR4LU</a></p>&mdash; Basketball Reference (@bball_ref) <a href="https://twitter.com/bball_ref/status/735915907608903681">May 26, 2016</a></blockquote>
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At least our resident Harden haters are enjoying this. YOLO, DD, Cheke they're of course in here celebrating the failure of a Rockets player.

While vehemently defending the free agent who slanders the franchise throughout his 2016 media tour.

 

See I really hate the bullsh-t twitter narrative that tries to throw shade on getting to the line. You never see the national broadcast personalities throw shade at getting to the line.

Getting to the line means you are now shooting 88-90% FG%.

It also means you are getting the opposing team in foul trouble. That's huge and criminally overlooked. Now not just you, but your entire team can get buckets even easier. Forcing rim defenders to back off on drives...forcing perimeter guys to back up a step. Rebounders flying for rebounds not as aggressive.

And Harden is one of the leaders in completing after the contact. Look at historically great players and how often they shot at the line. Harden is the only one that gets this bogus shade for being aggressive and attacking the paint.

EDIT: and less than a third of his points came from the FT line, not half.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When you avg 29-8-6, but don't make 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-NBA <a href="https://t.co/6lE5DHhZ4J">pic.twitter.com/6lE5DHhZ4J</a></p>&mdash; SportsNation (@SportsNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsNation/status/735926659342290944">May 26, 2016</a></blockquote>
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There can be only limited amount of praise and blame to around.

If Draymond and Klay are second and third team worthy players, then Curry shouldn't have won unanimous MVP, because that means he got tons of help from playing with two of the best players in the league.

If Curry is to win MVP unanimously, then his teammates shouldn't get as much credit, as it is an acknowledgement of Curry's unique, singularly great performance.

You can't have it both ways.

The same goes for Harden in the blame sense. If we agree that there were other factors pulling this team down, and for sure there was (JBB, Dwight, Brewer, T-Jones, etc.), you can't put this year's record all on Harden, which the media kinda did with their voting.

And if you think it's all on Harden, then maybe we should keep JBB as our coach and play Dwight, Brewer, T-Jones, etc. heavy minutes next year as they had nothing to do with our downfall this season.

Ascribing near 100% praise and blame to everyone doesn't make sense.

 

Look at where Kyle Lowry is

 

Not so simple

The other 5 guards played way above Harden on other end of the floor, their team did better than Rockets, and all of them except Klay has advantage over Harden in terms of leadership as well.

However, Thompson is on 73 win team and he played excellent on both ends of the floor.

So there is definitely a reason Harden being left off, his only advantage is individual offensive stats over some of those guards.

Basketball is played on both ends, and leadership is key for the best player on a team. Harden succeeded on one, but failed on two this season.

 

Harden only 3rd player in history to put up these numbers.

Obviously, first one to be left off NBA team.

 

I think some of the BS from Clutchfans has leaked on the Social Media scene and spilled out into the real Media, lol. I think the majority of fans on this site support Harden but the ones who don't can really elevate a bad stat and totally ignore all the good. They also have no regard for how that bad stat compares to Harden's peers and how other factors like coaching and teammates relate to his performance.

 

They both have far better teams. Where did they make it a rule that you have to be on a great team with really good teammates and coaches in order to be on all NBA team. It's not because it's largely an individual accomplishment.

 

Raptors wouldn't have made it out of the first round in the West. The Pacers took them to 7.

The NBA needs to eliminate conferences (as is NOP has to fly to Portland, so who cares about travel) and eliminate positions on all nba ballots.

 

That's not what I said.

All I said was the notion that he doesn't care at all is silly, because he has quite obviously has shown he cares a lot in many different circumstances. People laugh at Harden for getting mad he didn't win MVP or allegedly crying when they were eliminated in the playoffs. Hell...I don't even know why we're discussing this, as you don't become one of the best players in the league if you don't care. He's not Russell Westbrook oozing with fire or anything like that, but I just don't give much credence to the notion that he doesn't care. He does. He obviously does. The team just had a bad year.

He took a step back this season, sure. He's been thoroughly humbled by the media backlash, and he has some serious growing up to do this offseason. He he needs to handle this offseason better than the last. Let's hope he bounces back. Personally, I am not going to write off that possibility like many on here happily will. Maybe I'll be wrong. We'll see.

 

When stats don't matter.........

DD

 

Straw man...

No where did I say or imply that PPG was all that matters. 50% of his points scored from the FT line? Not even close. Where are you getting these from man.

 

Stats matters. But other 5 guys all have great stats plus defense and more. Harden only has stats.

 

Klay is a better shooter and defender than harden and he is an important piece to a history making team He is ranked correctly