But why though? I think it's so weird Harden feels the need to pigeon hole his game.. Just go out there and hoop. Pass the ball when you need to, shoot the damn ball when you need to. When Harden was a rocket, he abandoned every part of his game to shoot step back 3's exclusively. this dude is so weird sometimes.
When he was in OKC I remember Harden as a great all around player, he could pretty much do anything... When he arrived in Houston, over night he somehow became an offensive juggernaut. Mchale, was such an awful coach that his plays consistently became give the ball to Harden... Then MDA showed up and pretty much turned him into a step back 3 only player... Yeah, there was an evolution there from the good ol euro step Harden to the step back 3 Harden but he pretty much became specifically an iso player that was unguardable and could produce tons of assists because he is a pretty good passer and demands so much attention. After poor performances in the playoffs as usual, because teams do play him different and refs don't call the same fouls it seems to me he got tired of the "scoring only Harden"... Once he left to Brooklyn, he even said it. I don't have to score every time now. Partially its true but you could see him defer to Durant and other's in the playoffs... He became popular in the media's eye as a fun to watch player that could do so much, like score and pass and defend in the post..... I'm sure he liked being seen as a leader, problem is once again.... He is more than a facilitator. He flat out needs to take over games, I totally see him having low scoring playoff games where he gets a bunch of assists off of Durant and Irving and gets to hide the choke while saying I was just trying to help my team win.... I also see Brooklyn needing a big game from him if Irving or Durant goes down and him coming up short again but using the same excuse. I wanted to get everyone involved....
“Exclusively” is a tad dramatic % of FGA that were step back 3s (#s via stats.nba.com) 19/20 : ~34% 18/19 : ~28% 17/18 : ~12% 16/17 : ~5%
A bit hyperbolic, but we all know this man Harden would choose to shoot the weirdest shots when he had an automatic floater, and an unstoppable step back middy in his game.. his go to shot was a hard ass step back 3.
1 chip is by definition small sample size...heloooo! small sample size warning! how come they didnt destroy it the next year? it was the same team and the same league...cause they werent that better..... it was all hype, media blitz and pussyfication of the league, and if half of teams didnt tank they would have had even more difficulties and the league werent ruined... and again they had a lot of luck, kawhi went down when they were down by 20 or something...if they were worlds better than anyone why zaza needed to do that? why klay needed to undercut harden?(durant was still healthy ) why the refs didnt call the obvious fouls on harden in 2018 and 2019 series because they werent better than all the teams and the league wasnt ruined
Nets traded Jordan and some second round picks for cash and this dude: Harden is about to turn this dude into an all-star. And he's only 20. Very surprised the Pistons gave up on him so early.
Sean Marks has been on a tear ever since he arrived in BK, and he never had high picks to work with while being saddled with the burden of the Boston trade the Nets used to be so irrelevant down there slumming it with the likes Orlando, Sacramento, etc
this is why i dont really hate this nets “super team”. Its nothing short of shocking how Marks turned this around. Horrible team + no picks and turned it into this monster
Or maybe...just maybe, its nice to have dudes on your team that can actually get a bucket and be efficient. Maybe Harden was tired of going against super teams while getting zero credit. Or maybe....you just dont know anything about basketball?
Harden's teams towards the end with CP3 consisted of, CP3, Ariza, Tucker, Gordon, Luc... All can either get you buckets or hit a three.... All of them... So we are going to dismiss Harden's poor playoff performances because it was hard? You are aware that Houston led at halftime in game 7 vs GS in 2017? I keep hearing this GSW was too good, well if they were that good then so was Houston because they had GSW on the ropes.... I think Rockets were just as good that year, built to beat GSW.. CP3 was the leader Houston needed, Harden could not overcome losing CP3 because he is not built like that.... Replace Harden in that second half with Giannis, Kawhi and Houston wins the chip....
This. So much this. Harden could have put his name up there in the pantheon had he taken over and won that game and presumably a ring. There would’ve been legit Harden vs Hakeem debates. At this point any case for Harden is simply laughable. But like you said, Harden isn’t built for that. Some of us saw it a while ago but remained hopeful. In the end though he just simply wasn’t that guy.
Tucker & Luc got buckets? Who overcame losing their number 2 to beat Golden St.? What team in the West beat Warriors over those 5 years? I guess no player in the West (Including CP3 ) is "built like that". At the end of the day, The Rockets lost to a better team.
Right there with ya, I was hopeful even after the SA series... I felt like next year he would take over, like he was due... Like it was bad luck, I found things to blame... The refs, GSW is the best team ever, Harden has no help.... In fact, even in Brooklyn I felt like he would for sure shine... I mean every single excuse I ever had was solved by Brooklyn. Nah, same ol Harden....
Tucker and Luc could not drive and create shots but what I said was all could get buckets or hit threes... Tucker, Luc and Ariza could hit threes all day. They were streaky and at the time Tucker from the corner was legit. Ariza and Luc similar to Tucker were 3 & D guys.... Really good ones and CP3 and Gordon could create their own shots as well as sink 3's.... Harden still had other good players around him like Capela, I love how you say no team in the West....There were inferior teams in the East that beat them.... Harden could have beat them with that 2017 squad, at the end of the day Harden choked Houston's best chance at a 3rd chip....
They lost to Lebron ,Love & Kyrie in an all time comeback —Before KD; and injuries ( KD Achilles & Thompson ACL) ended the run vs Toronto. Otherwise they beat the Raptors too. The West was ran through 5 years in row. The Warriors ruled the West. Blaming one guy it’s just silly when the other squad has 4 HOFs in their prime on it. The Warriors were just better than the Rockets. Period.
