you reap what you sow... If Blames woulda been cool, then he would still be revered... even if he walked away in free agency once his contract had elapsed...
It's freaking unbelievable the type of garbage on this forum... The OP is asking for a legitimate look at Harden's legacy, and immediately he's getting compared to the garbage that was T-Mac, and the off-court problems + differences among players. You don't have to like the guy to know he's an all-time talent on the basketball court. He's in elite class by winning MVP, appearing in the Finals and WCFs. He'll definitely go into the HOF, and is obviously better than T-Mac, and is the best thing to happen to the Rockets since Hakeem. If you don't want to talk about his resume, which is basically a measurement of legacy for any one person, then it's not objectively looking at how good he is. Everyone thinks Houston is treated like garbage by Harden. And the emotions in the threads are clearly indicative of that. The Rockets certainly could've had a lot worse. If you want to keep comparing the franchise to LAL or BOS, get it through your heads -- Houston is not the best place to be. Everyone who is worth that much money owns a house in LA, and they all want to be there.
T-Mac: NBA Hall of Fame T-Mac: 7x all-star Harden: 8x all-star T-Mac: 2x scoring champ Harden: 3x scoring champ T-Mac: bailed on Houston Harden: bailed on Houston
TOP 50 players in NBA History using analytics published in 2019 (does NOT count his best season in 2020) https://bleacherreport.com/articles...all-time-player-rankings-nbas-top-50-revealed 27. James Harden Per Game: 24.3 points, 6.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 threes, 1.6 steals Per 75 Possessions: 26.6 points, 6.8 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 threes, 1.7 steals Relative True Shooting Percentage: +6.5 Net Rating Swing: +4.7 Box Plus/Minus: 7.1 Win Shares per 48 Minutes: 0.224 Over the last five years, James Harden's box plus/minus is an exceptional 9.5. Jordan (11.0) is the only shooting guard in NBA history with a better five-year-peak box plus/minus. If you shorten the peaks to three years, the gap tightens with Harden at 10.9 and Jordan at 11.8. Yes, at least according to one metric, Harden is in the middle of a run that's comparable to one of the game's greatest players. And given the way he's scored lately, especially in 2018-19, that shouldn't be all that surprising. In a video for Thinking Basketball, Ben Taylor adjusted for pace and efficiency across all eras to level the playing field between players like Harden and Wilt Chamberlain. At the time of the video's posting (March 22, 2019), Harden was averaging 36.5 points per game. His adjusted scoring average of 36.0 was the highest of all time. And for the sake of context, Wilt's 1961-62 campaign, in which he averaged 50.4 points per game, was adjusted to 33.9, good for fifth place. What Harden is doing is unreal. And the way he's doing it may be even more difficult to fathom. This past season alone, Harden hit 342 pull-up threes (which includes his step-backs), according to NBA.com. That total nearly doubled second-place Kemba Walker's 175. Even more remarkable, the second-place team, the Trail Blazers, hit 325 pull-up threes. As if his already unique form of dominance weren't enough, Harden is apparently adding another shot to his repertoire: a one-legged, fadeaway three. Most of the gripes about his volume of free-throw attempts are probably fair. That aspect of his attack isn't the most aesthetically pleasing. But there's a chance we're taking Harden's historic scoring ability for granted. And we haven't even mentioned the rebounding and passing yet. Combining his 31.9 points over the last three seasons with 9.2 assists and 6.8 rebounds per game makes the line borderline unbelievable. Now, for the downside. These discussions never happen without some mention of titles, and Harden doesn't have one. Some of the analysis of his playoff performances is overblown. He's 13th in career playoff box plus/minus. But when things are as close as they are in a top-50 ranking, the number of championships is a fair consideration. Finally, it's worth mentioning that Harden just turned 30. He has a few years left of his prime to add to his resume. By the time he's done, he could rise further.
For all of his "partying," I've never seen Harden as lit as T-Mac when he made the Camp Chen-a-Wanda video (skip to 2:05 if nec.):
T-Mac: lost a 3-1 lead while prematurely gloating about finally getting to the second round Harden: never lost a 3-1 lead. Never had to gloat about finally making the second round because it's almost for granted. T-Mac: injury prone Harden: iron man T-Mac: never got past the first round Harden: went to the conference finals twice T-Mac: went to the NBA Finals as ring chasing bench riding has been Harden: went to the NBA Finals in his youth as a valued contributor T-Mac: never won an MVP. Never a top 3 MVP vote getter Harden: won an MVP. 4x top 3 MVP vote getter T-Mac: never an assists leader Harden: lead in 2017 T-Mac: 2x All NBA 1st team Harden: 6x All NBA 1st team And even in that he proved how cursed he is,
Maybe his legacy is the massive disparity between his absolute supremacy in 1 phase of the game and the net negative he brought in all other ways a superstar can effect team success I can't think of another HoFamer that statistically was unrivaled in his or any other era as the BEST the way Harden is historically dominant at creating points with the ball ... Yet So utterly impotent at influencing game outcomes in all other ways He is barely above average if you were able to quantify his value on court without the ball or the intangible offcourt value Maybe Iverson comes closest, but he was historically inefficient as a volume point creator
his legacy will be being the 2nd greatest player in Rockets history, 1 of the best scorers/offensive players in NBA history, and someone who took ISO scoring to a level never before seen with his iconic shot, the stepback three Harden is already a top 30 player all-time...with just 1 ring, he could sneak into the top 20 and would cement himself as the 3rd greatest SG of all-time it will be a very long time before we get another player of this caliber
I'm just gutted that he is doing this to tarnish what shouldve been a great legacy if he keeps being professional, even until eventually traded. I will never forget how fun it was during his MVP year, where we had the best record in the west and nearly damn close to win a championship. It was one rare year in the last 2 decades where I was literally try to catch every game (early morning in Indonesia) and screamed my heart out until our run came to an end. Damn shame it goes this way. Understand some of the fans disappointment. But I will cherish some of harden's great year. I don't know how many years we will have a bonafide MVP like Harden (unless wall exceeds expectation)
Harden is a top 30 player of all-time right now? With just 1 ring he could sneak into the top 20? If Harden wins a ring he'll be a top 3 shooting guard of all-time? Really? I know it's Christmas buddy but please put the eggnog down. Harden might crack the top 5 of shooting guards IF he can win a ring. Harden still hasn't surpassed AI yet... 1. Michael Jordan 2. Kobe Bryant 3. Jerry West 4. Dwayne Wade 5. Allen Iverson
What a stupid post. Next time, don’t even bother quoting me if this is the best u can do. AI over Harden. Lmao, u can move along now.
I always thought he’d be #2 in the org history behind Dream title or no title but the past 6 months now has him likely being another TMac. Greatest Rockets: -Dream -Malone -Hayes (Elvin of course) -Calvin -Yao -Drexler -Harden -TMac -Francis -Rudy T -Sampson -Barkley -Star role players (Thorpe, Horry, Scola, Cassell)
