6 spots for all nba guards 3 Guards who obviously will get the nod over him - Curry, Westbrook and Cp3 3 Guards who may have compelling cases over Harden - Lillard, Lowry, Thompson Lowry - led the raptors to 2nd seed in the East. Lillard - led a team most predicted to win under 25 games to the 5th seed in West Thompson - 2nd leading scorer and one of the core in a historic GS team. Obviously Harden easily has the advance and traditional statistical advantage over these three, but he's also the led one of the most if not the most disappointing team in the NBA this year. The rockets team like Harden has scored at effectively the same pace and efficiently as in 2014-15, but have been terrible on defense, effort and focus.
Except if you look at stats that penalize for turnovers he still turns out to be one of the top players in the league.
If I had a ballot I'd put Harden over thompson for the third team. 1st team Curry, Westbrook 2nd team Cp3, Lowry 3rd team Lillard, Harden
I don't know if half a season counts as a slow start. The second half he was definitely scoring better, but the defensive and turnover issues weren't fixed better ORtg and +/- numbers in 2nd half though . Last year he was only behind Curry. I wouldn't have taken Westbrook or cp3 over him and Curry wasn't that far ahead
Harden came into camp out of shape due to an ankle injury. McHale said so himself on ESPN after he was fired. Repeat: Harden came into camp out of shape due to an ankle injury. McHale said so himself on ESPN after he was fired. Cheers.
what's the odds that McHale in this case was trying to be diplomatic? serious question. And I'm not asking because I'm some kind of Harden hater or McHale lover. I just think there's a chance that McHale wants to be honest in that situation (which if I'm not mistaken was his first public appearance post-firing?) about James being out of shape while at the same time not wanting to trash his former player's reputation by attributing it to James's laziness or what have you.
Guys are able to stay in shape while rehabbing from surgery and broken bones. Since when is an ankle injury a valid excuse?
What a load of crap! If the guy was coming off back surgery or something, then I'd cut him some slack... but a sprained ankle topples his whole conditioning?!?!? Nah.... I'm calling it crap!
The only player definitively better than Harden is Curry. You can make the argument for Westbrooke and Lebron reasonably. Some might be able to say Green and Durant. So I would say Harden is a top 5 player in this league. How can the top shooting guard in the league not be 1st or 2nd team?
Zach Lowe puts his .02 in: (No Beard) Harden was a tougher cut, especially with Houston eking out a playoff spot thanks mostly to Utah gagging a couple winnable late-season games. Harden does everything for a broken Rockets offense. He's derided as some sort of bearded clown, but clowns don't play 82 games and lead the league in minutes -- a ridiculous, unsustainable load that contributed to his drop-off on defense. He edged Lillard for a spot on my All-Star roster just two months ago. But over those two months, Portland surged, while Houston continued spinning in mud, a miserable group loafing through entire halves of basketball. Even during their late-season playoff "push," they lost to the freaking Bulls and Suns at home, and let the pitiful Lakers hang around for 40 minutes. Losing and melodrama sapped this team's spirit. Harden didn't poison Houston's culture, but he also did nothing to mend it. He showed up out of shape, in part due to a lingering injury, lazed through defense, and too often froze Houston's offense after one action. He's a great passer, but too many of his passes -- even his assists -- come late in the shot clock, after a double team locks him in jail. Thompson blazed from January through March, and blows Harden away on defense. The Rockets would be worse if you flipped them, and shoe-horned Thompson into Harden's grueling No. 1 option role, but Houston is a mediocrity as is. In a coin flip, I have no problem defaulting to the team that just won 73 freaking games. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15198958/nba-awards-ballot-part-2 1st team G: Russell Westbrook G: Stephen Curry F: LeBron James F: Kawhi Leonard C: DeAndre Jordan 2nd team G: Kyle Lowry G: Chris Paul F: Draymond Green F: Kevin Durant C: Al Horford 3rd team G: Klay Thompson G: Damian Lillard F: Paul George F: Paul Millsap C: Karl-Anthony Towns
Washington Post: (No Beard) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2016/04/11/kevin-durant-doesnt-quite-deserve-a-spot-on-all-nba-first-team/ All-NBA First Team Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors; Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder; Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs; LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers; DeAndre Jordan, Los Angeles Clippers All-NBA Second Team Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers; Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors; Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder; Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors; Andre Drummond, Detroit Pistons All-NBA Third Team Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors; Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers; Paul George, Indiana Pacers; LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio Spurs; Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves
Top 5 is a reach. 15th RAPM, 8th BPM, 8th PER, 6th WS, 12th WS/48. The only stats that put him top 5 this season are the ones that only track offense and highly value total minutes played, like OWS and OBPM. Personally, I'd say Curry, LeBron, Green, CP3, Westbrook, Durant, and Kawhi Leonard had definitively better seasons than Harden. IMO he's about tied with Lowry for 4th best guard, which would still make him 2nd/3rd team All-NBA. Anyone who puts him lower is doing so for narrative reasons.
I don't think it was him trying to be diplomatic necessarily. At the beginning of training camp, McHale and others had mentioned that Harden couldn't play any basketball for a few weeks during the summer months due to an ankle injury.
