Because people are presented with the reality that the excuses they present harden with are really stretching it. Giving Butler his due sets the stage for who is on what level playing field. This stark comparison is hard for some people to digest. Just look at the poll with harden and Lebron ...over a third of the people here are stupid enough to think james is better than Lebrun
Rockets could of had both Harden and Jimmy Butler. The trio of CP3-Beard-Buckets was not to be. I remember when CF was actually balking at trading BOTH Capela and EGo for Jimmy.
What I referred to were MDA's words. We don't know what's going on behind the scene in strategy setting. In a way, all tactical issues are coaching issues. That's on MDA. But don't be naive that the star players don't have a strong say. There are different ways of beating the trap. ISO is only one way. And by now it's obvious that teams don't need us to run the screen to trap Harden. And when all his teammates are practicing social distancing with Harden on the floor, it's difficult to pass off from the double team.
Yea and I'm referring to Morey's. MDA's off hand comment about player's preferring space isnt some indictment that we scrapped the pick and roll because Harden doesnt like it. They do have say definitely, but Harden saying nah screw the pick and roll so I can iso more is crazy. If Harden stopped doing mid rangers than I would easily believe he would stop doing pick and rolls if Dantoni/Morey told him it was no longer efficient. The last part....I def agree with. But again, I really would like to see how things would have gone down with a better fit as a second option next to James.
Uhh Yeah... you shoot a midrange jumper when you can’t buy a bucket from three or when the team packs the paint - it’s common sense - you don’t need analytics to tell you that. That’s why I respected CP3 when he basically said screw the system, I’m shooting the midrange because we need a Damn bucket. Not shoot 29 consecutive missed threes. MDA and his system is a joke.
Butler would make Tucker an d Covington so much better on AD and hitting their threes He d*mn sure would have had Westbrook on lock Rocket River
This is a fallacy. The Rockets barely beat the Thunder and in game seven Harden was the 4th leading scorer in a league he led in scoring. He's just not a leader, let's just address it for what it is. He's like an elite level version of Adrian Dantley. He's going to fill up the sheets, win a lot of games, and then he's going to be exposed against elite teams.
No offense, but the reason I didn't respond to your: "Smaller font you mean?" was because it was such a cringe-worthy jab that I assumed you would edit and delete it. Quoting it would've preserved it. I was trying to do you a favor. Truth be told, I really am disappointed that you're standing behind such a poorly constructed insult. I mean.....it's really bad.
Yup those are the extreme homerism dude and no matter what you say they still think harden is better than lebron lol. I’m a rockets fan too but I know who is better. Been watching rockets since 92 I was 7. It’s ok that another player is better than a player on our team. It doesn’t mean that we suck. Harden is better than butler but I have notice that butler really tries last few seconds when it counts. No way to explain it just an eye test. That other thread had 13 pages arguing who is better lol
Only a poor craftsman blames his tools. There no small words, only small minds. Unlike yours, my jabs are lightning quick.
You call it a fallacy and then do nothing to support your position. Give me a break. YEven when Westbrook was a dumpster fire in front of you, you still find a way to blame Harden. Sure you can blame him for getting Westbrook here. But his performance this playoffs was excellent. Stop this crap. I can honestly give you numbers and you people would find any which way to twist that into Harden being bad this playoffs when it wasnt true. Some people saying Lebron is better while acknowledging that Harden has never played in a weaker conference nor with the talent level that Lebron has had in his career. I dont get why there cant be a nuanced conversation about it. And then people make up narratives about how everyone wants to play with Lebron and no one wants to play with Harden when that's just flat out made up.
Several articles from after last year's playoff run reported tensions between Harden and CP3, supposedly about CP3 wanting more ball movement on offense and Harden not liking CP3 barking orders at him. I think Harden's mentality was something along the lines of "you can't even get past your man, watch me go to work". We'll never know the details, but Harden's effort off ball has been subpar even in the playoffs and with good teammates around him IMO. Is that really our offensive scheme? Because he's the only one that's allowed to stand around 30 feet from the hoop and not be involved in the play at all. This goes back to the McHale days. No other player on MDA's teams has done this. Other great players have had issues being effective off ball, even MVPs like Lebron and Giannis. You can be a dominant player and have a weakness like that. With Harden it's confusing because he's a great shooter and should still be a threat at all times anywhere on the floor. With the ball he's one of the best, if not the best, scorers of all time. Without the ball I would say he's average at best and at times terrible. I don't think it's how we run our offense because even CP3 tried getting to certain spots when it wasn't his turn to isolate. I see it as an effort and and stylistic choice on Harden's part. If this continues under our next coach then it certainly isn't MDA's fault.
I know lebron plays in the eastern conference prior to this season but what that got to do with him being better. Eastern conference team has to play the west team during the season and in the finals too. That has nothing to do with him being better than harden. He took the cavs to finals with ilgauskas and golden and Larry Hughes and boobie freaking Gibson lol. Lebron lost to the spurs in the playoffs with an injure Hawaii? Harden was on a stack young okc team when he was the 6th man. I mean if he at least make it to some finals as the main man at least a few times then you have an argument. 10 appearances to the finals as the main guy vs 1 as a sixth man then there is no argument there who is better. Harden is 31 and you guys actually think he could somehow actually catch up and be better than lebron in the next few years lol. Better rebounder, passer, b-ball iq. It’s not like harden had sorry ass teammates his whole career. I’m not saying harden sucks. He just not better than James but somehow there are always extremely bias fans that comes up with all kinds of excuses to think harden is better.
I didnt see Cp3 calling for movement when he was amazing the year prior, did you? Cp3 grates on a lot of teammates, that is nothing new. Why is it Harden totally to blame when Cp3 has had numerous occasions where he's grated on teammates. If Cp3 could have backed it up with his play(at least close to the level of last year) than that would be different. But him not playing up to par and barking orders is another thing. Do you think Harden being off ball is the reason we lost to GS last year? I dont. It was clearly the defense and rebounding that was the problem. But between Cp3 and Harden it was Chris who was not playing up to par, not Harden and those were close games. Dantoni also does not want Harden to move, there have been articles in the athletic written about it. They dont want Harden to move because it kills the spacing by bringing more guys into the play. Nash was not some huge off ball player for Dantoni either. Nash pretty much always had the ball in his hands. Cp3 rarely moved off ball as well. Cp3 doesnt cut, he usually just spots up and takes a rest the same as Harden imo. I dont see any significant difference in his off ball movement here or at OKC. Well yea if it continues under our next coach then maybe it is Harden. But I do know that cutting out mid range isnt a Harden idea at all. Even Rivers was on record saying Harden just does what the coaches ask him to do.
So this is what you said in one of your post" For the record, I didnt say Harden was better. But I did say that Harden can be the best player in a heliocentric offense on a championship team or just flat out the best player. That's what the other dude was arguing against, he then gave me a series of horrible arguments as to why that wasnt so and how no one wanted to play with him. You can read his drivel if you want, I am done with it. Frankly though, I'd like to see what would happen if you gave have us Lillard instead and see how we'd stack up against the Lakers. If everyone is so confident Lebron is better, than they should have no problem saying wed lose with someone like Lillard instead of Westbrook." So you are saying Lebron is indeed better than Harden? Harden is the best player on his team no one is arguing that. The thing is with lebron being in the west now, these next few years will probably be the Lakers, Clippers, or Warriors as the favorite with Rockets, Nuggets, Mavs as the underdogs.
Yea and the dude has a 3-6 record in the finals. But also he's played with D Wade, Kyrie, Kevin Love, Anthony Davis. Harden has played with Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and Westbrook....you tell me which is superior. All time, no way Harden is better than Lebron. Lebron is in contention for the GOAT. But right now...I think its closer than people on here would like to admit. Or I would at least like the quality level of teammates to be the same to prove this. We trade Westbrook for AD and who do you think wins that series? Yea Lebron is better. But I would at least like the odds to be even to definitively prove that. Harden has considerably less quality teammates than pretty much any other team with a contender. Its really just Tucker, Covington and Gordon....and thats it. That is all Harden had to help him this playoffs. If we had an actual second option then its different. But as for your last sentence...I agree. We arent good enough as constructed to be competing the new few years. But that's really because we traded for Westbrook. I dont mind trading Harden...but Id like to see what a new coach does next year.
I get your point bro. I'm not arguing with you about teammates. However, Howard has also been to the finals as the main man and Westbrook is a perennial triple double threat that has also won an MVP as well. Kyrie is not even that good in my opinion. What has he done on his own? Kevin Love? Lol the guy is a nobody after Lebron left. He didn't do crap as the main guy when he was on the Timberwolves either. Slow, and can shoot the 3 and rebound but thats about it. The only two guys I think is good is Anthony Davis and D. Wade. So now we both agree that Lebron is better.
