Seen tons of posts comparing Harden negatively to Jordan. First off, Harden will never have the killer instinct that MJ had. Guess what, minus Kobe, nobody in the game’s history ever has....so that’s not on James. MJ had to play on a similar team to the Rockets with Doug Collins as his coach the first few years and never went to the Finals. He is the GOAT, but I guarantee he wouldn’t be holding any trophies with House, Mac, Rivers,Tucker, etc. as other main contributors on his team. He would continually try to get them involved like Harden does and be disappointed after one Rivers three pointer after another fall aimlessly away from the rim. Harden has done what he can with the scrubs that Morey has placed with him year after year. Playing smallball every other day against taller more talented teams who actually play more than 7 man rotations has sadly caught up to him and it painfully shows to us fans. No player, not even MJ, would win with Morey as his GM and MDA as his coach. Harden has given us everything he has and it’s time for us to understand that he isn’t the real issue with the Rockets.
No he probably could, and wouldn’t have been dumb enough to force a stupid trade like this. MJ was a sociopath that would do literally anything to win, he didn’t care about playing with his “buddy” etc. He had no problem playing with Rodman despite all the crap the pistons pulled. I feelnlike most of the fans posting these things started watching the NBA 4-5 yrs ago
Daryl is that you? Just kidding, you are just yet another aimless Morey kool aid drinker. Keep drinking the kool aid and someday you’ll realize that Mac, Tucker, Rivers, House, etc. aren’t championship level players. Talking about Level.....Allen Leavell and Lewis Lloyd are two of my favorite Rockets players of all time. Who are yours? My guess is Tucker & Westbrook....rookie!!!
Great answer and you win the award for being correct and wrong at the same time. Hakeem would NEVER be on a team run by Morey and MDA because #1: he is tall/center #2: he doesn’t shoot 3’s. Having no center is my point of the post....you ain’t winning a Finals with the scrubs Morey puts out there...period!!!
MJ would win in any teams because he is coach, player and public relations. You can get talk to Hakeem if you see him, but if you saw MJ nowadays, he will only talk to you if you have money spend on him, or you working for him. I rather win with someone who is a little normal than some that is out in space who hung with Looney Tunes. When I see other teams operate and see ours
I think we all knew heading into the playoffs that for the Rockets to advance far they would need to defend and shoot threes at a really high level. That hasn't changed. We can't depend on Harden scoring with the same ease that he does in the regular season against inferior, less prepared teams, and just expect that to carry the team. If there is a flaw in "small ball", I think it's the tremendous amount of energy it requires players to expend. Couple that with D'antoni's penchant for short rotations, and it seems inevitable that the team will run out of gas.
Good post....true that if he were here he’d have Morey fired and bring in a GM with a different style than smallball. Harden’s problem is that he’s more in love with how the Rockets have kissed his butt than having the drive to be a champion and demand the changes that need to be done (or else threaten to leave). Just not his style and in a way that’s nice to see in today’s sports.
Did you forget about Morey's first superstar acquisition? It was Dwight Howard. Morey also gave that big extension to Capela. Small-ball isn't necessarily Morey's style. He's simply trying to construct a roster that can maximize its potential talent.
Pretty much my thoughts to a T. And there have been other assassins in NBA history outside of MJ and Kobe (who's main motivation of winning is suspect).
so revisionist to think Jordan did all the winning by himself. SMH. Jordan couldnt win back then by himself and he certainly couldnt win with THIS team now. cmon man this is reaching preposterous levels.
Jordan didn’t win until he got Phil Jackson and bought in on the Triangle offense. When Phil joined the bulls, he installed the triangle offense which got Jordan supporting cast involved in the offense. Jordan wasn’t beating the pistons with his iso play in the late 80s. What Harden needs is a offense structure to play and a offense that gets other players involved in the offense instead of chucking 3s and layups. An offense that has the ability to get buckets from different spots on the floor when the 3 ball isn’t falling.
Several years back, I agree that small ball wasn’t his style. He changed along the way where ge was having the nbdl players all load up on threes and now has this crazy smallball system that he and MDA created. Is there a small (no pun intended) bit of hope that if MDA moves on that Morey will relinquish some authority to a new coach like JVG or someone else......let’s hope so. Just hard to imagine at this point a Morey team having a coach who plays centers and doesn’t only have his team hoist up three pointers....or not trading away our last few first round picks. If Morey could make these changes, I would gladly rejoin the kool-aid drinkers. He is a fun GM to have, but ultimately not a good GM.
Morey hasn't changed. He's always adjusted to the hand that he was dealt. And you're forgetting that he extended Capela prior to the start of last season. Why do you insist on believing that Westbrook was a Morey move instead of a Harden/Tillman move?
At least he would get more points, fight through double teams, come off the ball if needed and take advantage of the midrange. Also he would not quit and try and force his will upon the game. I think he definitely could win it.
That's BS. It's impossible to know the outcome of a series with this team but Jordan would have challenged every one of these players in the preseason, not wait until an elimination game in the second round of the playoffs. MJ wouldn't passively stand around on the perimeter the way Harden does. MJ put up 63 against one of the greatest teams in history in the playoffs. Harden was the fourth leading scorer in a game 7 against OKC. No comparison. Put that into your computer Morey.
