How good would would Harden and Rockets be if he had the mentality and leadership of MJ?

He would have been getting paid after having retired for 20 years.

 

Not only legend. Lin is @fchowd0311 's savior

 

Alot of people here complain that harden demands too much from clint and house.

Who has the potential to be a top 50 player anyway?

And harden is hoding back MDA? Lol

 

Tim Duncan has an opposite personality from guys like Jordan and Kobe. He won multiple championships with good talents around him.

I think people mistaken hard working and competitiveness with stinking personality. You can be competitive, hard working AND respectful at the same time.

 

How much did Jordan's "demanding nature" do for anyone on the Wizards? Talk to Kwame Brown about his "demanding nature". Not to mention several of Jordan's incredible (and underrated) teammates were proven before they ever played with him: Grant, Rodman, Kukoc... You can't give Jordan all of the credit for his successes, but none of the blame for his failures.

Giving Jordan all the credit for his teammates successes is not only disingenuous and inaccurate, but it's straight disrespectful to their individual capabilities. I could totally see someone like Pippen, for example, being better without Jordan. Remember how good the Bulls remained in 94 and 95?

 

Yes I agree you don’t need that but if he had a bigger drive or he would have made up fake stories to up his level. He would have won 1 or 2 here in Houston, already.
I’m just saying if he would have been more competitive when he seemed to have given up in the playoffs. I don’t mean every playoffs or saying he isn’t great. But he does need that edge and wouldn’t be bad if he had it.
Plus let’s not forget from what we heard, sound like Harden can be an assho** too. He had frictions with Dwight, Lin and Cp3 and complained every time about others when it was his fault. If you want to talk crap you should show on both ends that’s what leadership is too. If not it will fall on deaf ears.

 

Yes but Tim Duncan didn’t have to bark or get into his teams because he had Pop. Pop would get on you just like MJ did. Someone has to get on you especially on sports. I don’t mean to insult you but to keep you reliable. Not always but you can sometimes find someone that help their team by getting on them. For lakers it was Kobe, Spurs Pop, Celtics this area was Rondo and KG, for GSW was Green.

 

His demanding nature is better suited for veterans ready to win a ring rather than rookies developing. Jordan is horrible at that. He assumes they can do what he could do.

 

Hear it from the GOAT himself about James Harden.

 

It be great if Harden had a Pippen instead of scrubs who are afraid of shooting threes and can't guard their switch.

Our teams outside that 2nd WCF year have been dogshit for whatever reason.

Tilfert's LTS ****ery are unforced errors and should've never happened.

 

People really forgetting this lol.

People knocking Harden for not beating a team with 4 all-stars, two of them being MVPs in their prime.

 

Also, one thing The Last Dance made clear to ME was how much it takes to win a championship.

It takes more than just one all-time great player, that's a must, most of the time. The Billups/Sheed/Wallace Pistons one of the exceptions to that rule but they were a collection of players who had all-time talent that just underachieved in their careers until they got on that team. I mean seriously, Rasheed Wallace has to be in the discussion for wasted talent, that dude could do everything for a big man and should have done a lot more with his talent...but I digress.

But it takes so many things to break right for a team to win ONE championship, to start a dynasty? It takes extremely good luck.

The Last Dance did make me respect the Reggie Millers and Payton's a lot more. Because they weren't just up against the Bulls but seemingly fate itself with how lucky that team was.

It takes luck too. Warriors got lucky with a limpy CP3 while they were down like the Cavs got lucky that Green tossed himself out of a game...just like the Warriors got lucky that an MVP caliber generational talent would run away from a challenge and into their arms.

It takes luck and so far, Rockets haven't had it. I still think Harden is an all-time great player. If instead he got traded to the Warriors for Klay (which was on the table IIRC) the Warriors probably win more than they have even now and no one would be questioning Harden's leadership or this or that.

Unfortunately for Harden, he didn't come to a team with a drafted top 5 pick to grow with or rather just a drafted player to grow with like a lot of these championship teams. The Rockets have had to find another superstar to fit with him and while they do so, time runs out, his body ages, and it is what it is.

 

Agreed, and they play excellent defense when it counts, not just in the post. They don't hunt and depend on calls the way JH does either

 

pau gasol was at least as good as cp3. if you took the names off the stats, pau's numbers would look better than kobe's in the playoffs.

and whichever was ranked higher in the league, all i know is cp3's game 6 and 7 stats were terrible because he was sitting on the bench. you're basically asking kobe to win without pau gasol and with a couple extra all-stars thrown on the other team.

 

how good would michael jordan be if he had james harden's speed and athleticism? borderline all-star? one or two-time all star maybe?

 

God speed for nba, rockets fans, and world.

Thank God for Harden just like you thank him for Dan Marino or Boomer esiason. Sometimes nothing wrong with Monday morning quarterbacking.

 

it's amazing how little is made of the bulls play in '94. 55 wins and the 2nd round would have tied the best win total and been the 2nd furthest advance of the hakeem era before that season. and that's with hakeem freakin' olajuwon on the damn team for 9 years! not the best year hakeem's supporting cast had in 9 years. say what you want about lebron's ring chasing. when he left cleveland both times, he left a smoldering crater. and both team's had largely intact rosters from the previous year. cleveland went from 61 wins to 26 game losing streak. they went from finals to whatever horrible record they had last year. miami wasn't quite as bad, but even with bosh healthy that first season the heat were below the 8th seed.

 

You have to ask if mentality would determine your defensive intensity and ability ....

If yes and he is voted regularly into All Defensive teams, I think he has at least 2-3 ships by now.

But if he was elite defensively, the Thunder would have let Russell Westbrook go instead of Harden, so no young Houston Harden.

 

No OKC to Houston trade happens, if it were true.

 

and MJ is the GOAT and Bron is up there as well...Harden isn’t...Harden shouldn’t even be on the level that he’s at right now...NOBODY here thought he would ever be this good or even all that close to his current level when he was traded here

knocking Harden because MJ or Bron could’ve won game 7 against stacked GS without CP3 is hilarious...yeah, no sh*t

Hakeem might’ve done it too. Guess what? Harden ain’t Hakeem.

I know some players who damn sure wouldn’t have won, and that’s KD or Steph, but these guys are being talked about as top 15 players all-time...