It takes an incredibly simple mind to come up with that article. These guys are lazy as **** and take the easy approach of “Harden sucks in the playoffs” and just pound on that for the morons like myself who click on it. When Harden scores 16 points in a playoff game and the Rockets win it’s because of everyone else and we’re just squeaking by because he didn’t show up yet again. When Lebron James scores 16 points and wins it’s because he’s a just a winner. That sums up the double standard. Either stats count or they don’t. When Harden does 38,7,8 in game 3 against OKC for an overtime loss he doesn’t play in, he sucks. Never mind we can’t score more than 2 points when he isn’t in the game. When we win a close game 7 and he only scores 17 points but scores or assists on every scoring possession in the last 8 minutes plus the game winning block, the same CBS sports calls him a loser who can barely get by OKC. What the **** kind of journalism is this? Harden isn’t a champion yet but he isn’t a playoff failure. He’s been to 2 conference championships as a Rocket and if you don’t think that 17-18 team was a championship level team you’re a ****ing moron. Harden isn’t the perfect star but he’s a hundred times better than Anthony Davis and gets a thousand times the ****. You can win a championship with Harden as your best player. Same applied to Malone/Barkley.
Let me sum it up: Harden plays well and the Rockets win: “No big deal, they are supposed to win, isn’t he an MVP?“ Harden plays well but scores less than 30 points and the Rockets win: “Harden is getting stifled yet again by playoff defenses but Rockets survive” Harden plays well but the Rockets lose. “Harden is a fraud superstar.” Harden plays poorly and the Rockets lose. “Harden is the worst playoff performer in the history of basketball”
Said this last night. The narrative might not be fair, especially considering he had to go up against Durant, Curry, Klay, Iggy, Green...an insane team. And he got paired with a bad coach in McHale and Dwight who we all thought still was in his prime and turned out he wasn't. But the narrative of Harden will be exactly what it is now. A great all-time talent that just didn't have what it takes to be a champion. Same as Karl Malone and Wilt or Steve Nash and a long list of guys. He's not winning here. EVEN if Westbrook returns to all-NBA form, the league is getting harder next year, not easier. Clippers/Lakers will have filled out any holes they have on their team. The Warriors will be back at full strength...and oh yeah, they have the #2 pick that they are likely going to trade for an immediate impact player. Klay, Curry, Green, Wiggins, plus who knows who. Good luck. Surging Mavs squad who has an owner 100% dedicated to winning and so will make moves to improve. Surging Grizzlies... Oh yeah, then on the other side you have Miami, who is a well run team. Toronto, another well run franchise. Celtics, a young team with better days ahead of them and oh yeah...the Nets...a Nets team that is already a playoff team without having played Durant or Irving for most of the year. EVEN if we somehow make it out of the west, that is what would await us next year. This was it, we go down this year that window is shut and locked. It would make Morey actual Jesus to save this squad and get Harden a ring here. So harden's narrative is that he isn't a winner. Maybe he'll demand a trade to a winning situation, a place where he can be a complementary star. I bet Toronto would take him in a heartbeat. Then he could win a ring and save his legacy but I don't know. I don't see him lifting the trophy in this jersey. Too many FO mistakes made, coaching mistakes made, and his prime years have been wasted by the franchise. It's not all their fault to be sure, Harden could have been more demanding like Lebron. Demand the right coaches. Demand the right players, etc etc...
if you asked most people how kawhi was doing on offense in these playoffs, they would say he has been unstoppable. well harden is averaging the same number of points, more assists, and doing it on higher efficiency in less minutes per game against much, much better defensive opponents (#7/#3 vs dallas and denver's joke defenses at #18/#16). that's not to say harden is better than kawhi or that i wouldn't take kawhi over harden, but it's a pretty hard bar to clear when "better numbers than unstoppable kawhi" is looked at as a failure because he had his first bad shooting game out of 4 against one of the best defenses in the league, while being constantly trapped because the other team doesn't even consider guarding westbrook (if you want to blame harden for westbrook being here, that's fine). it feels like people are always comparing harden to some mythical great player that barely exists. lebron and kawhi, those are basically the only people with impeccable playoff resumes from this generation. durant, nope. steph, nope. dame, really nope. giannis, i think we all saw the heat series. cp3, nope. AD, nope. barkley, malone, dirk, drexler, robinson, erving, garnett, west, kobe, baylor, nope. you almost have to get to the top 10 all time before you start getting to "can't be taken out of a game, always big in the 4th, always efficient, always puts up productive non-4th quarter stats in the playoffs." it's very likely that will never be harden. it's also very unlikely we will find one of those guys if we move on from harden which... is the best way to look at it. it took the mavs like 11 or 12 years to catch lightning in a bottle around dirk. and it took dirk most of that time to reach the level he reached in 2011. think how crazy it would have been to break it up in 2007 because they lost to golden state. when you get someone like harden, you stay on that ride until the axles break, the wheels come off and it explodes. because the grass isn't always greener. whether harden wants to stick around for a retooling, i don't know. but it would be insane for us to make the decision for him.
But this is what KD knew right? He knew that all that matters is winning a ring. That's it. No one will ever call him choker, a loser, or anything of the sort because he leached off of the Warriors. Now he's free to play around in New York, no one is going to attack his legacy like they will Harden. At the end of the day, 20 years from now, no one is going to sit there and look at HOW the Rockets lost or WHY they did, just that they lost, and that Harden didn't win. The context starts to disappear as years go on.
Should Portland be broken up too? Should their coach be fired? Should Dame or McCollum be traded? Nurkic? Melo? Gary Trent Jr? Zach Collins???? I heard on CF that Dame was better player than Harden, certainly better than Russ. And Dame had better system and better role players. Dame only won ONE game vs. Lakers and rest of series was certainly not even close. CF needs to get a grip. We are all devastated by the 3 straight losses but some of these comments are inane.
It's Harden's style of playing basketball they don't like. Harden is more methodical and not physical like LeBron or Giannis. Harden's style is more efficiency with less showboating. Actually, LeBron's stats were less efficient in the fourth quarter than Harden's. H
Need to step up in the 4th qtr He is the teams best player cant go. Missing in the clutch. Let it fly
Harden gets lazy and almost , the optics are it looks like he is giving up. I don’t know if the fatigue is real... or if he truly gets down and gives up. I appreciate Westbrook’s “aggro bro lets go” attitude but if he isn’t yelling or ... motivating Harden, what value does he bring. Houston needs a legit 2nd star. Westbrooks is on his downside. Houston needs a legit 2nd star who can take attention and focus away from Harden or at least help alleviate it.
