Are some of you guys expecting TOO much of Harden ?

Love the beard, hate the choke

 

Is Harden the guy or not!? What the hell am I reading? We expect more from him because we know how good he is and how good he can become. Hell no we aren't expecting too much!

Harden has a bad game and the Rockets are done!

 

Do some members expect too much out of Harden?

Abso****inglutely.

The funny thing it's almost always these same members who are always going on and on and on about Harden's faults.

Can't stop telling us why Harden will never be MJ or Lebron then lose their **** when Harden isn't MJ/Lebron.

 

It's a classic tale of under-appreciation. It's sad really. Harden plays the best ball of any Rockets player since Hakeem in the mid to late 90's and people are complaining THIS much? I wasn't happy with his performance down the stretch in game 5, but damn, people are attacking him disproportionally, imo.

 

oh yes, expecting a mvp candidate not to choke late in the 4th and overtime is asking waaay too much.

 

Is it too much to expect him to toss me a few chickenheads every now and then? THEN SUE ME.

 

I don't expect him to look like the greatest player of all time every night. I do expect him to play the Rockets strengths every night. The second half of the last game in which he was walking the ball up the court on every possession was unacceptable. The Rockets are at their deadliest putting pressure on their opponents in transition. Every time he walks the ball up the court he's allowing one of the best half court defenses in the league to get set. We cannot beat that team playing that way.

If his shot is off - I can live with that. If he turns the ball over in the course of playing Rockets basketball - I can live with that. If he plays lousy defense - I can even live with that. But walking up the ball every possession and then proceeding to play iso/hero ball? The Rockets can't win that way so it's completely unacceptable.

He's still my favorite Rocket since Hakeem. But damn, man! Play smart!

 

Harden as a whole has been great this playoffs and deserves more credit. His playoff numbers are pretty crazy, but you never hear that narrative spun. He gets crucified by the media and fans across the country when he does bad, and gets little press when he plays really well.



HOWEVER, I think its fair to be critical of his play down the stretch in some of these games. Nobody watched the end of Game 5 without thinking things should have gone differently, and as our best player that starts with Harden. Though honestly, the more I think about it, D'Antoni should be getting more heat for the way our offense looked down the stretch, not Harden. D'Antoni runs the team, Harden isn't a Lebron "player-coach", better ball movement should start with the coaches.

 

All I ask is for 50-15-15 every night. Is that REALLY too much to ask?

 

I, for one, have no issue with if Harden has a bad game and cant contribute to usual levels - hey sometimes the shots dont fall...

My issue is if he takes us out of the game... whether its through poor decisions, lack of effort or forcing shots when its obviously not his night...

If he's sick and cant give 100%... hey, happens to all of us... sit down and get better...

This season james has done a much better job of focusing on facilitating when his scoring is struggling... I would like to see that trend carry over into crunch time...

And above all... no hero ball, please... let's live or die as a team... jus sayin...

 

Harden is the best player on the team. Rockets wouldn't be anywhere near as good as they are without him. The most passionate fans are here on CF and nobody likes losing.

It was apparent to anyone watching game 5 that in the final minutes he reverted back to old Harden dribbling the clock down and taking a contested shot. TNT talked about it, NBA TV talked about it, every article talked about it...it was frustrating to watch. I thought he was past that type of play. Fatigue, Coach letting him do it, trust issues....whatever the reason was it shouldn't have happened. We might not even be in the game at that point without what he did prior to that but that is not what fans/media are going to remember. The last minutes of a game are always magnified and what everyone will talk about.

 

You know what I take away from this?

LeBron James, with all his accomplishments, is only 30 years old. I remember watching his high school games on ESPN with my college roommates.

Ugh, I feel so old...and so small.

 

Some folks expect Harden to be perfect for 95% of the each game for 100% of the games, so the answer is yes.

 

for the very few people out there who wouldn't mind trading him or don't fully recognize how lucky we are to have him, he is ranked as the 3rd best asset in the NBA



appreciate what we have right now, because we could go another decade+ without getting a player on his level...even with all of his flaws, there are only 3-4 players in the NBA that are capable of doing a better job than James Harden of carrying this team

 

He's a superstar so it's expected. However, people need to remember the rockets wouldn't be in this position if it was not for James balling at a MVP level during the season.

I take all the bad things James does to go along with all the awesome things he does.

 

I appreciate the talent. Especially given he doesn't jump the highest or run the fastest. That said. It seems like at times he checks out. Game 5 last 8 minutes is not the time to abandon what got you there. Who knows what he will be like in the next few years. I hope he is hungry and driven to improve. I hope he is NOT simply content. Hard to tell emotionally which one he is

 

The reason Harden doesn't have a championship (or at least not finals appearance.) is not some flaw of his own, it's because of the friggin superteam Warriors.

This team has overachieved this year by all measures. I mean, right now, being in the 2nd round of the playoffs down 3-2 against the Spurs. How many Rocket fans going into this season thought this possible?

If we go on to face the Warriors (in likely lose to them for the 3rd year in a row) that is still overachieving.

Appreciate it folks, because that's right, we may go another decade before we have a player of this caliber again.

 

My emotions have calmed down. Its obvious he choked because he was GASSED. Yah no excuses and he honestly shouldve done better but we need to recognize the human element of this.

We win this game if we get 1 or 2 more calls or gordon/lou hit one of those open 3s in the 4th.

Harden is playing good defense on 4s and 5s and has the ball in his hand every second. He had nothing left.

Also one of those overtime turnovers was aldridge fouling harden according to last minute report

 

Harden needs more help, and I'm talking legit help, all star caliber help

flaws get magnified when you're the sole star on your team having to go up against playoff level defenses

it is a testament to his greatness that he can be surrounded by a bunch of role players and could possibly be making the WCF for the 2nd time in 3 years

AD is at home after another 30 something win season...PG, Butler, and Westbrook have been bounced in the 1st round...many other stars would've never gotten 55 wins and the 3rd best record in the league out of this roster

this guy is a top 5-6 player AT WORST, and he does so much while not being apart of some Big 3 or having former all stars or HOF players around him