Going to be hard to win getting like what 14 points from the bench and being massively out rebounded. Obviously Harden could have played better but he's not Lebron obviously. He can't carry his team night in and night out. It's alright, Hakeem didn't win his first championship at 25 and nor did Jordan and a list of other all time greats. He'll be fine.
Harden is clearly much better this year than the last two years, both in the regular season and in the playoffs. But when he stinks he really stinks. A truly great player shouldn't have so many stinkers in a playoffs run. My take is that when things are going well, he tends to excel. And when things gets bad, he gets worse. He just needs to grow out from that.
Well, its pretty clear this year's troubles were from lack of other playmakers. He's had a high turnover playoffs. He is not a point guard. We need to fix that in the off season. He ain't no LeBron-tier. That's for sure. That's okay, he's good enough. We just need another playmakerl
Harden having 13 turnovers in a game is an anomaly. Don't be ridiculous. And yes...Harden is turnover prone at times. He is also one of the 5 best players in the NBA. Have some perspective, man.
Did I deny that he is a top 5 player? Being a top 5 player is not enough to win a ring. I'm a Rocket fan and I want the Rockets to win a ring. James Harden's current demeanor and work ethic is not going to get us there. Again, he is only 25 and that can change but it HAS to change whether it be through religion, finding a wife or just accepting the fact that he needs to be mentally stronger.
He can't do it alone. He needs a point guard, healthy DmO, better/consistent shooters and better Health/luck.
harden laid a turd. this game was just howard and a few moments of brilliance from ariza, brewer, etc. the sad thing is harden even playing mediocre could have won this game. he's just that good. he and howard could have carried the rockets to game 7 the way gsw played tonight, but rockets would have been destroyed by cavs eventually.
He has to have a tougher mentality. If the game starts bad then he gets discouraged and it snowballs. We saw it a few times in the regular season as well.
I'm ok w/ Harden and his vices but lets get real here. He is the best thing that has happened to the Rockets in a long long time. Is he at Durant or Lebron lvl? No and he will never be but that is ok because I don't recall seeing that Tier 1 lvl anywhere else. We need to surround Harden w/ smart shooters. The Rockets priority this off-season should be at the "1" and a stretch "4". We have the "3" wing defense + 3, the "5" One of the best in the league, and of course "2" one of the top 2 guards in the league. I believe in Morey and hopefully some potential free agents can see Houston as a place where they can push the Rockets into a Finals team.
Since you seem to know so much about Harden, what is his work ethic like? ...yeah what i thought, you don't know anything about his work ethic! By all means, go ahead and criticise him for his game today or whenever he plays badly - that is totally fine...i just find it ridiculous when fans talk about an athlete's work ethic, when in reality they don't know what their work ethic is like.
I always love when work ethic is questioned. I'm sure Harden became an MVP candidate with little in that department.
In tis team, Dwight should be the #1 player. By far he is the most dominant figure. Harden is not a good player, far fetched from being MVP. He is not aggressive, shows no desire to be more aggressive attacking the basket. This goes back beyond this game, this series, and past seasons. The Rockets need a player who will aid in Dwights game, and who will not be playing selfish all the time. Yes, Harden gets assists and everything, but he always holds on to the ball too much (excessive dribbling ) instead of keeping the ball moving. Harden loses notion of his role in this team. All I am saying, in summary, is that Harden is not a "to-go" player.
James Harden on the podium right now, barely blames himself and doesn't even sound that sad about the loss. Thinking about hitting the strip clubs later tonight?
Look, I'm as upset as anyone at the Harden and Smith show today, but get some perspective. This team only got to this point because of James "Frauden". Does he need some testicular fortitude? Yes, sometimes he falls back into third-wheel mentality. And we desperately need a playmaker. And we were missing two starters and somehow coaxed some good games out of Josh Smith until he went Josh Smith on us, playing for a contract and choking on the bone. But crapping on James Harden? Better forgive the man. Without him, we wouldn't have made it here. Now onto the offseason and bolstering this leaky vessel.
Don't hate Harden. He had a couple of bad games, but his playoff performance improved greatly overall. He has some maturing to do (on and off court), but he's young and will get there.
