Jesus! We’re not even in February yet! By then Morey will pull this off. We don’t ever tank. Tillman didn’t buy a new team to tank! Morey ain’t a tanker.
I think he will be the first player ever to take 15 3's a game, his free throw rate will drop dramatically and his offensive efficiency will become above average. On the plus side he will turn it over slightly less. On the downside, he will not be more willing to share the ball. His ability to lead will vanish as his non existent defense won't have a historic offensive component to make up for it. His defense will be worse then it's ever been. All in all at $40m, that's a bad situation. I think it would be prudent to plan for this. He has given so much in terms of points, minutes and physicality that something has to give. IMO even right now he is at risk.
No, defensive decline will be minor. But Harden has had to be historically good on offense for that to be ignorable. That honeymoon will end once he has to go to the line less (I.e. the most potent part of his entire game).
There are some astonishingly dumb takes in this thread...we're not about to tank. The season isn't even half over. The west is a **** show and the trade deadline hasn't passed. More crying going on in this thread than in the maternity ward ffs
WAHHHHHH TANKING IS BAD WAHHHHHHHHH now that cp3 is out 2 months and might have season ending surgery, we should go all out for that 9th seed!
Play along? Bro you made a claim with zero evidence. No..that's ridiculous. Wade had multiple injuries and put ALOOOOT more pressure on his knees than Harden ever did. Sure they can, but it's highly unlikely given that they are different physically and play the game differently. Harden is in the 99th percentile of deceleration lol, he will be fine well into his 30s. Again if you wanna make a better comparison use Ginobli.
Again how do you know this, it wont dramatically(at least not quickly) cause he is the GOAT foul drawer, his game doesnt rely THAT much on athleticism (he already has an old man game)and not to mention he has high bball IQ. Those are recipes for players to play well into their thirties. Yea he probably wont be able to lead at 34, but he will still be very effective as a player, again think Ginobli.
Serious question: How do you shut down a player that’s healthy? So Silver would be okay with the rockets saying “we are just gonna shut harden down” and Harden would be okay with that? I just don’t get some of these posts ! Lol
they are saying 2 months thats basically the rest of the season. but it does depend on how we play without him.
There's no need to shut him down eventually, you can play Harden and still lose games if that's what you want, Memphis did the same with Gasol last season, they rested him here and there but he still played 73 games.
Morey’s reputation wouldn’t be close to what it currently is if weren’t for Harden...Morey needs Harden far more than Harden needs him...Morey will hold on to him for dear life
The current team will be a struggle to make the playoffs every year with Tilman, Morey, MDA and Paul contract. Owner is not willing to pay big repeater tax, GM is unable to select the "right dog", Coach is not willing to use Morey's summer dogs .... tank this season tank next season going forward
Just save yourself time and energy and stop now, he clearly has some wildly unbased opinion that won’t change no matter what logic you bring. I mean it’s basically the same thing as me saying I think he will age gracely like Tim Duncan...
Definitely dont see it happening knowing this front office and owner but its as good a year as any to tank. Weve already lost a terrible amount of games(will probably double in a month looking at the schedule) so its not like we would be tanking from a top 2 seed. Daryl gets another chance this offseason to sign players that fix the rosters issues instead of giving contracts to literally unplayable players. Wishful thinking but this would alllow harden to rest up for another mvp level season next year, chris to have surgery and come back fully healthy, give knight a year to get into shape so we maybe have a decent 6th man again and let house and clark develop into serviceable nba players. Not to mention we would get a lottery pick to work with for once.