These early struggles for Harden are gonna ultimately make him more dangerous when it matters most. Dance on his grave now if you want, but don't get too comfortable.
Lol at people thinking Harden is done, he’s clearly still dealing with injury / injuries. And some of those non-calls are fouls, just not at the moment Harden loses the ball necessarily. And cannot fault Harden, the league rewarded him for his play for a decade, so cannot expect him to suddenly adjust. Once he gets healthy he will get his and surely the calls will come back to, no way the league will allow for one of its stars to struggle like this. Just watch.
like shooting fish in a barrel. the funny thing about it, is I don't even hate harden as much as I'm just honest about what he is and what he isn't. dude had some fantastic regular season moments in houston, gave us great memories, and some fun playoff runs.... but he choked repeatedly under pressure, flopped for fouls non stop, was a crappy teammate, made too many demands to the front office, and gave the rockets the middle finger on the way out. dunno why these fan boys are under his spell lol
I would never wish for him to be injured. I hope he gets healthy but I think hes passed his prime for sure now. Ironically, I don't think his injury issues would've became what they are now if he didn't treat the rockets the way he did on the way out. It's not good for someone to purposefully get out of shape and skip all training camp then immediately start playing 35+ minutes nba games a night to play his way into shape. That might work when you're 25 but not when you're 31
His scoring was down last year too. Sorry people age and get fat and less explosive it's the way of life. If you watched him last year vs his MVP season it's night and day the quickness and hops. The types of shots he takes at the rim is very different. Now this season most of the time he's throwing it at the hoop without fully beating his man with no lift. Harden peaked in 2019 and have been slowly declining athletically.
And now its Silver's fault, or he is still injured..... INJURED! The man playing full games last year in the playoffs lol.... I can't anymore...
its always something man. the whole world is a conspiracy against james harden's success.... yet @HP3 likes to call you the unreasonable one...
Of course he’s going to say that, but there’s still lingering effects. If anything, he’s not in shape as he used to be. If he gets back to 100% then he’s still likely a serious threat and the 30-40 points will come easily. If not, well we might see a serious decline. Harden is reportedly a gym rat so should be not a matter of being lazy or unwillingness. Unless he’s changed his mindset.
His scoring was down because his usage went down. He was playing with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and he took less FG attempts. His TS% went up. None of his advanced stats went down. His MVP season his usage skyrocketed and he was told to Iso every play. He drove the most in the league by far. I know what he looked like you dont have to tell me. Yea because he's coming off a hamstring injury with no training. He just turned 32 lmao. We'll see how much hes "declined" and what that actually means relatively when he gets back. I know you are salivating for those picks but those wont mean much for awhile.
i mean its pretty similar to his FG% and performance in the post season. Luckily he doesn't really rely on athleticism and is a very HIGH bball IQ guy when hes set on it. Going back to OKC role would be best for him
Jim Harden enjoying New York nightlife too much. You don't play well into your 30s by getting fat and staying fat after a hamstring injury caused by being fat. Harden better off if OKC kept him, not enough strip clubs and fancy restaurants in OKC for him to get lost in booty and cheeseburgers.
The rule changes are awesome. Last season I was just discussing with someone I know about how much I hated that defenders got foul calls against them simply for occupying their space. Simply for existing. They still need to clean it all the way up, but anytime the offensive player intentionally goes into a defender with some type of unnatural movement they should absolutely be penalized with a no call or offensive foul. Guys need to start trying to avoid contact and actually try to play basketball rather than baiting refs or moving their body into the defender just to get a foul call. Stop hunting for fouls and play ball. I hope Harden and the nets are a huge flop, but maybe this will actually be good for him and get him accustomed to playoff whistles. Or maybe this is who he is now.