Silly circular argument going on about Harden. His defense sucks in the regular season. That his defense is good in the playoffs is pointless to us right? Cause when we talk about his diminished performance in the clutch/playoffs we're told it doesn't matter cause he's coming here to teach these kids magic tricks in the regular season.
The list of NBA players who dislike Paul is lengthy. He also has a reputation as a dirty player. Not being like him is a good thing
Tatum was 2/2 on FT when guarded by Harden. Brogden didn't take any FTs when guarded by Harden. In total Tatum was exactly 1 pt/FGA when guarded by Harden ( 25 pts on 25 shots). Here's the link to the stats. I'd intended to include them but forgot. Sorry. https://www.nba.com/stats/player/201935/head-to-head
I’ve been pushing Kendrick Davis as a 2nd round sleeper. He could provide solid minutes off the bench and be a competitor to push TYTY
Looks like quite a few teams are bringing him in for a look. He's small but he's fearless. He does really like to shoot though.
Harden/Amen Green/KPJ Cam/Tari Bari/KJ Sengun/backup big what I would want to see Harden: 22, 7, and 10 on 43/37/86 splits Green: 24, 5, and 4 on 44/36/80 splits Bari: 15, 8, and 2 on 45/35-37/82 splits Sengun: 16, 12, and 5 KPJ: 15 points, 3 assists as our 6th man Amen: 10, 3, and 4 on 46/27/70 splits Rockets: top 10 on offense, below average on defense…over 40 wins and a playoff berth
I ve I don’t know if Harden is a good teacher for our guards. I’ve heard Clint Capella and Nic Claxton rave about Harden teaching them how to roll to the basket for his passes. Before people jump on me, I’m not saying Harden is a bad teammate. Teaching young people is a hard skill
I could see this. Love Cam Johnson and love weakening the Nets. BUT if that’s the lineup and I don’t want Sengun starting necessarily. We need a Claxton or something at that point. overall, I like the concept, but would rather start our pee and add a more defensive minded wing in the lineup. Jerami Grant maybe? @Reeko what do you think of Cam Whitmore?
To me, everything that has come out the past week has just been Harden's people trying to make it seem like there really is a market for him to put pressure on the 76ers to give him an extension. No sane team is going to throw 200 mil at this version of James Harden.
Windhorst: “Neither Kyrie or Harden are guys you should be crawling over glass to pay but when you look at the free agent class, those are the two guys that are available. I could see teams crawling over glass to pay them. Houston is obviously telegraphing they’re ready to do it for Harden and I could see the Lakers trying to do it for LeBron. They’ll say “He got us to the conference finals. What if we didn’t have a guy go 1-8. What if we had Kyrie Irving?” I can see them talking themselves into it. “We didn’t get anything out of Russell or Vanderbilt. We’ll find a way to replace Hachimura. And we didn’t get anything out of Beasley.” I can see them talking themselves into it.” … “Paying James Harden $50M over 4 years, which there appears to be an appetite for, I mean, it’s insane.”
People forget. This is the NBA. It's the one league where big names and narratives matter more than actual facts and play. Of course they'll be teams lining up for James. This isn't the NFL or MLB where teams only look at your production and not your name, and if you're done, you're done. Even the GOATs like Randy Moss get cut in the NFL. In the NBA a far and away washed version of Kobe got the Lakers to give him the max.
I just don't think there will be, if that was the case, I don't think Harden's camp would be so desperately leaking these kinds of things. The whole "No, seriously, Houston really does want to pay me 200 mil and I want to go there, FRFR" type stuff just comes off as laughable. If that was really the case, there would be no reason to leak anything, just do it. You only go about things this way if you are trying to convince someone else that they should offer you a ridiculous deal. Also, if anyone ACTUALLY believed this Harden BS, the Rockets wouldn't even bother talking with guys like Amen Thompson and they'd have no interest in talking with Scoot Henderson. You don't waste a #4 pick, or trade up to get a PG if you are going to tie yourself to James Harden for 4 years.
Media's overdoing the money Harden could make. It doesn't mean he'll get it. Let's not get our panties twisted up our collective ass-crack about it.
Brooklyn offered him the supermax immediately after he requested a trade to Philly in 2022. He was having a far worse season than 2023. Trust me, he's getting 200m.
That was a desperate team that didn't control their own picks and knew their entire team would fall apart if Harden left. Desperate teams offer stupid contracts. Neither the 76ers or Rockets have any reason to be that desperate.
If the rox offer James 200 million, which it seems they will, make sure the last 2 years are not guaranteed.
Jerami Grant is another solid option on the wing…definitely wouldn’t mind signing him instead I honestly didn’t pay that much attention to Cam Whitmore during the college season, but from the little I’ve seen and read about him, he gives me Josh Hart strength with an OG Anunoby type game. I don’t see star potential, but I think he could end up being a pretty good player.
