Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman discuss which players are better than Harden

If you disregard the injury, Harden is putting together the best offensive season of all time - right up there with 2016 Curry. This version of Harden is better than any season of Durant. The fact that he's doing this on a career-low free three rate besides his rookie year is absolutely insane.

We're watching history.

 

Assuming full health, this is my top 20 as of today:

1. LeBron James
2. James Harden
3. Kevin Durant
4. Steph Curry
5. Russell Westbrook
6. Kahwi Leonard
7. Anthony Davis
8. Chris Paul
9. Giannis Antetokounmpo
10. DeMarcus Cousins
11. Kyrie Irving
12. Paul George
13. Jimmy Butler
14. Klay Thompson
15. Draymond Green
16. Damian Lillard
17. Karl-Anthony Towns
18. John Wall
19. DeMar DeRozan
20. Joel Embiid

 

JH13 needs to run a buzz saw through the post season and get the bling that counts. These haters continue to hang around like a bad smell, finding excuses, alternative narratives, fake news to undermine, discredit and disrespect Houston's finest.

James, championships are the best response. Go get those and shut them up.

 

he's super spineless but he's still a top 2 offensive player in the league (maybe even top 1 offensive player), top 5 overall player in the league (maybe even top 2 overall player), and he can definitely "do anything by himself."

 

Both are dumbasses and don't know **** about basketball...so why do we care...!!!

 

Up 3 to 1 with wb ibaka adams cant even win 1 more game
Lol he cant win those cats
Bandwagonned with a 4 star 73 win team

Trade him with harden this year no more doubt gsw are champs

Kd wanted a lighter burden

Harden with the heaviest burden since he got here

Hes not even gsws best player

 

All of the guys they mentioned before Harden want to be liked and are clean image oriented. Harden doesn’t really care, he’s open about his party and strip club excapades. He dates stripers, he’s even dated a Kardashian; bad luck and all. Be honest who’d want him hanging out with your sister(s) or daughter(s).

Harden isn’t making the league rich with the good boy image. LeBron, Steph, Durant, Westbrook all bend over backwards to be likable and appear squeaky clean.

The NBA has been an image conscious league since the 90’s. If this were the 1970’s or 80’s, Harden would be getting major respect.

Shoot even Dwight Howard and his womanizing ways always pandered to the media.

MVP = what’s good for the league and it’s image. The NBA should emphasize $$valueable$$.

Curry the squeaky clean family guy. Last year Westbrook had his campaign “don’t do them do you” which was massively successful and made money for the league.

If you look at it from their perspective, Harden is bad for business. He’s the Lex Luger to Superman, the Joker to Batman...

 

Despite the fact that these guys are completely for show ... I dunno if anything they said was really unfair .

The only thing that is absolutely wrong is to have Davis in the conversation .

Harden may be the best player in the NBA , he may be the 4th .

It's too hard to compare across different teams, different situations,different everything

The guys ahead of him have more historical results... Obviously there are a lot of factors that played into them getting those results.

If we win the chip this year ( I believe we can and want nothing more ) and harden plays well ... THEN you can chastise fools who underrate him . Until then , it is what it is.

I think James could easily be widely viewed as the best player in the NBA for the next 3-4 years

 

Thank you OP for the synopsis cause now I don’t have to watch that bulllllllllllllshhhhhhhhhhhhht

 

Harden been a top 3 player since the end of Dwight’s first season here.

Look at the last 30 games of that season, he took his game to another level. That’s when I knew we had something truely special with him.

Like harden is only 28 he’s younger than Lebron KD and curry. He’s been a leading contender for mvp since he was 25.

We take for granted how great he is and how he elevated this franchise from the moment he got her.

Nobody thought he would lead the rockets to the playoffs his first year here at age 23 never been a starter. Playing with a 2 yr Parsons guys in Asik and Lin who had never played real nba min. Carlos Delfino Francisco Garcia. That team had no business winning 25 games let alone 45 and making the playoffs.

Look at Davis and Giannis two guys they think are better or about to better soon. AD is what 25-26? Harden was smoking him at 23 and vying for mvps at 25.

Giannis is in his 4th 5th season? He’s 23? Harden was cooking in his 4th season at 23 getting his team in the west and not nearly as talented as the bucks to 45 Wins and the playoffs.

Bucks prob gonna finish 41-41 and get hyped again next year.

Players like harden are rare he’s great none of those guys are even close. Sure the stats are similar but harden has routinely shown he can lead you to 50+ wins and HC advantage every year with any cast and no other allstar on the roster.

On Lebron and KD I can forsure say can do this maybe curry and that’s it.

Harden hasn’t had the benefit of another star next to him till this year. And the rockets are the best team in the nba by every metric and have damn near the same record as a team with 2 mvps and 4 allstars.

If that doesn’t make u the best than nothing will. Harden could win the next 3 chips and mvps and that’s idiots would still say Lebron KD and curry are better.

 

Exactly, no one is even close to him and you know what..... He keeps getting better... Every time we think we know Harden he elevates his game, people like Smith and Kellerman don’t want to accept what they are witnessing.

 

They got nothing to do on their hands......smh

 

AD is 24-25 and will be in his prime in 5, 6 years. He has enough time to do so when Harden is 33.

Harden is better now but that does not say anything for the whole career.

 

Kawhi Leonard is so overrated it's beginning to look silly.
The Spurs have the leagues 5th best record with Kawhi only playing around 15% of those games. FIFTH best!

ITs clear the so called experts are just like casual fans. They pick and choose their favorites and work their agenda.

 

Lebron and maybe KD are the only players you could make a strong case for as being "better" than harden. The notion of putting players like AD, Khawi or Westbrook ahead of him is laughable... 2 of those 3 can't translate their talents into wins and the other can't stay healthy. On top of that his team continues to win at a solid pace without him. If harden can get knocked for being in a stat friendly system why does khawi get a free pass???

I'm not a huge media bias guy but it really does seem like harden gets graded on a much tougher curve than the rest. It's odd.

 

Anthony Davis...SMH...

Seriously, what has Anthony Davis done that one would take him over Harden? Harden's got a Player's MVP, has been the runner up to the MVP in highly contested and controversial MVP races, and has made it to the WCF and to the Finals with OKC.

I don't have any problem with LeBron, Durant, and Curry over Harden - those guys are MVP's and champions. Fine. I can understand it. AD though...

I also am very intrigued by Kellerman's argument that dominance through skill does not translate as well as physical domination does in the playoffs. It's weird that he doesn't consider shooting a skill, since Curry continues to dominate in the playoffs. I think Harden's spectacular playoff exits give rise to this perception that he doesn't deliver in the playoffs, which appears statistically untrue - since he's been in Houston he's averaged around 27 / 5/ 6 in the playoffs, not far off from the 27 / 5 / 7 he delivers in the regular season as a Houston Rocket. His eFG is lower in the playoffs by around 3%, but I wouldn't call that choking. I guess all I'm trying to say is that his Game 6 performance is really killing him in terms of public perception

 

As much as I hate it Kellerman may have some point in it. Once intensity goes up you can have all the skill in the world but you won't get past certain level. Anybody who played bball(especialy smaller guys) should know that.

With that being said - Harden is a physical beast so i don't know what the * is he talkin about ? lol he would out-muscle Brodie in his sleep

 

Ever? That s highly misguided. He was the better player, get over it.

 

Was. Until he failed to at least get 1 more win after being up 3 to 1 playing with wb, ibaka, adams

Yeah he couldnt win with those cats

Thats why he cupcake ass to the bay area to band wagon with a 4 star 73 win team and ended up winning less

Hardens the true mvp for 2 years in a row now

While kd isnt even the best player on gsw this year

 

There's a very interesting psychological phenomenon going on when it comes to the general public's perception of Harden, that one could even write a legitimate academic paper on this subject.

When the casual NBA fans hear the name of Harden, it doesn't seem to engender the same kind of emotional response that is grounded on respect as when they hear the name of other great basketball players. Why is that? I think the big reason is at first glance, Harden doesn't look like he should be this dominant. Not the best shooter (although pretty good), not the most freakish athlete (although strong and durable as an ox), not the best defender, etc.

Now what word or image comes to your mind when you hear the name of LeBron, Giannis, or Westbrook? Physical specimen; monster athletes. How about Curry? Obviously best shooter in the league. How about Durant or AD? 7-footers that can shoot and move around like guards? Sheesh. Kawhi? Best defender in the league.

For every one of these players, there's always a very succinct way to capture and describe their greatness. For Harden, it's not that easy. Harden's greatness is rooted in his well-rounded offensive game that is probably unmatched in the league right now. But there isn't that one factor that you can conveniently point to which makes Harden arguably the best player. Well yeah, there's that 'Harden is best at getting to the free throw line' reputation, but we all know how it's received by the casual fans. They just think Harden flops a lot. So that doesn't seem to trigger the same level of respectful attitude as being super athletic or being the best shooter/defender does.

What this tells me is that, from a marketing standpoint, you are at a severe disadvantage if you can't describe what is good about your product in simplistic terms. The moment you have to 'elaborate' and present complicated data to make your case, you've already lost your audience. It's all about the initial impression; that vague, positive feeling evoked when hearing the name of certain brands, such as Apple or Starbucks.

Unfortunately for Harden, the first thing that people mention upon hearing his name is that he doesn't play defense and shoots a lot of free throws. Those HAVE to be replaced with 'He's got a deadly step-back jumper, euro step, and ability to change speed/direction on a dime, and is a great passer'.

Until that transition takes place, people are always going to systematically underestimate Harden because of mental limitations of human beings.