Oakley is straight up savage. Ben Simmons, who the Nets got in return for Harden, seems to be targeting Game 4 to get back on the court after an injury kept him from making his Nets debut. Brooklyn got Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and Philly’s 2022 and 2027 first-round picks back for Harden and Paul Millsap at the trade deadline. Harden had been their marquee acquisition just a year prior, but didn’t work out. “They didn’t need James Harden,” Oakley said. “They didn’t need him. They could have kept their role players last year.” Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince, Caris LaVert and Rodions Kurucs were the players the Nets gave up in the trade for Harden. Allen, in particular, has become a key piece for the Cavaliers. “He messed that whole chemistry up over there,” Oakley said of Harden. “Because once they got him last year, they had to defer to him. And he wasn’t healthy. He wasn’t in shape.” He can blame Harden all he wants, but it was the Nets FO who were FOOLS bwahahahaha
Wait wut? Didn't Harden play the most of the big 3 last year, and it's somehow Harden's fault? He was putting up MVP type numbers before the hamstring.
I hate watching this version of him. It really is depressing to see. He can't get by even an average NBA defender anymore. No lift on his jump shot. No burst and sudden stops. Struggling to get layups. Consistently getting stuffed. It's just sad to see him fall this far. But I guess that speaks to the level he was at which was godly.
Yea I don't consider myself a Harden fan or a Harden hater, but it'd be nice to see him have just one good shooting game this playoffs.
Harden played like a champion in Houston. But the zebras singled out the Rockets for their own reasons. Morey exposed the sheer bias by the NBA and it’s officials. From then on, I now see the NBA as a watered down version of WWE sports entertainment and drama edited for TV.
Don’t try to make sense of the Harden hate among the media and many fans, including so called basketball experts on this site. Harden leads the league in scoring and takes a Rockets team whose next best player was Terrance Jones and Josh Smith to the WCF against the Warriors = loser. Jokic fighting not to lose in the first round for the second straight season = MVP BTW - except for 2015, no Harden lead team has finished lower than the 4th seed. I don’t count 2013 because it was his first year as a starter in the NBA and he had to share the ball with Linn and Parsons. Sixers about to beat a good Raptors team = who cares, I would still rather have Ben Simmons, who has not played in a game in over a year and seems to look for any excuse not to play. But hey, let’s trade Harden and keep Kyrie, who basically went on TV after game 3 and admitted that him sitting out destroyed team chemistry. So the Nets season and probably likelihood of ever winning a title is done in because Kyrie wants to prove a point. But hey, KD needs someone to hang out with while sitting on the bench sending out mean tweets, so someone needs to sacrifice. Sadly for Steve Nash, it will be his coaching career. The only positive of this mess is that the Nets can also fire Sean Marks for impersonating Billy King. Anyone trust this guy to make good draft picks? He manages as well as he played.
Is it Harden "hate" to point out that the next best players after Harden were Dwight and Ariza, not Jones/Smith?
Not everything you disagree with is a troll... Harden and Brooklyn would have all benefitted from playing together.