Officiating was funky but I don't like to blame the refs. At the end of the day injuries kept us from winning it all. It is what it is. Even without winning it all I love that season. I love rewatching games from that year. It was so much fun.
Some Sixers fans are saying Harden hasn’t played very well because he’s been hurt with the hammy. But, this is what happens when you get old. One injury after another, and it takes longer to recover. Harden will be 33yo next season. Turns out the Rockets traded him at the perfect time.
Man didn't want to take care of his health. Forcing himself to play on a jacked up hammy last season for the Nets didn't help. The one game i watched, seemed like harden wanted to b the 3rd option to the 76ers. He kept passing the ball to literally everybody else deferring to harris, embiid, and maxey. If harden wants a max contract, he needs to play like one. Deferrin the ball to maxey and embiid on an elimination game, and wanting a max contract is just laughable.
Both Dwight and Harden were unprofessional, but Harden was worse. The NBA is supposed to be a brotherhood, right? How do you think other stars felt about Harden supporting management over Dwight, especially since Dwight had a legitimate gripe?
That very well could be the case. He got hurt late into the playoffs last season. He didn't have much recovery time. Kyrie then decided to screw his team and KD and Harden we're forced to play 38 MPG while still recovering. Then KD goes down and Harden has even more of a burden. Hamstring injuries take a long time to recover from when not be constantly stressed out. Harden playing constantly on his and for big minutes only pro longed his recovery time not to mention hai retweak during the year. I still don't believe a guy can go from looking like an MVP top 5 player to this in 11 months. That leads me to believe it's injury related. Time will tell.
From mental standpoint which is what I've brought up originally, it is easier to play as an underdog with a bunch of upstarts (teammates can't say nothing if you f*ck up) against a rather soft playoff team in Worriers. Or maybe Tucker's toughness rubbed off on Harden that series. Is it not more of an exception to the rule by now though? I assume OKC knew of Harden's malcontent ways, and just didn't want to deal with it. Loyalty & culture is the only way small market teams can compete. I guess if you are ok with the Magic Johnson MVP trophy or two, then sure - we won the trade and the small market Toronto just got a lucky break that we've just never gotten during the 8 years of Harden's tenure. Sure...
You don’t think Toronto got a break with all the warriors guys getting injured? Are you giving them credit for that somehow? another question: if warriors don’t get injured and Toronto gets killed, is the kawhi trade a loss for the raptors by your logic?
I think Harden has a perception of what "playing PG" means and he simply doesn't understand how to play a role playing position because of how long he's been a ball dominant player. I do think he wants to win with Philly, but he has this mental stubbornness where he sort of envisioned himself now moving to a Steve Nash/Jason Kidd type of pure PG role, and I don't think he understands that Nash and Kidd were who they were because of the systems they ran, and the way that teams guarded them as opposed to how teams know exactly what to do to Harden in the playoffs which is throw 3 guys at you at half court, and force the offense to reset three times. No team ever would do that to Steve Nash as great as he was because those Suns/Mavs/Nets teams had other primary offensive players that the other team was focused on defending. It would be a 3 on 1 fast break essentially with a dunk from Marion or Amare or Kenyan Martin. So the coach next year and Harden need to get on the same page, and the coach & Morey need to tell Harden that look... you sign this piece of paper now to play here next year, WE WILL BENCH YOU in the playoffs if you are unable to let Maxey run the sets if you get doubled, or if you bog down the offense too long trying to figure it out. We will run plays, and you'll follow them or be benched.
What is this nonsense. It's been well documented that the trade was to cut cost. Harden wanted to b paid more and the thunders didn't so they traded him. not this "harden was a bad teammate" bs. Of course we won the thunders trade, we basically got a HoF who put us on the map for 8 years for nothing. We didn't get a ring unfortunately, but we for sure won the trade. It was basically a HoF for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round draft picks (which became Steven Adams in 2013 and Mitch McGary in 2014), and a second-round pick (which became Álex Abrines in 2013).
The second time around with both KD & Russ lasted only 1 disappointing season apiece Now it looks like Embiid could make that 3 1-and-dones in a row What does that tell you? Clutch just posted a tweet to the front page with PJ passive-aggressively calling out Harden's shrinkage by praising Butler's ferocity in big moments Next I'm gonna throw out Harden's current teammate Embiid Did you catch his post-game where he explicitly admits peak Harden is extinct? Or where he praised his GM for acquiring Drummond & Curry, the 2 teammates just traded for the Big Quit?
If our goal is to get to the WCF, we've won the trade. If title is something we are hoping for, then Harden is unlikely first banana to win it all with his particular mindset. Morey was just getting us fun players, first in Lin and Asik and then Harden, so that Mr. Alexander could keep going to playoffs. Or his Morey Ball advanced stats are crap.. He has so many bad bets. At least now we get to see a bunch of ex-rockets getting titles or going to finals. Over 1 year span, them getting to Finals makes it a win, considering that there was a chance for them to sign Kawhi and that chance could produce more trips to finals. Their roster was not great considering that they traded for Lin.
But they made it to the finals because the warriors were in the other conference. That’s completely different.
When asked how long does he think Embiid will continue to be the best player in the league, Morey gave a confused look and asked "Wait, that comment was about James. Am I missing something here?"
