For those saying Harden is choking in the playoffs...

I don't think people pay attention. It's just easy to bash.

 

Don't have PER, but 25.7pts, 3.7reb, 10.0 ast, 7.0 to, 45.7%FG, 43.5%3pt, 96.2%ft, 67.0%TS.

 

Damn that's good

 

No heart. No fire. Not stepping up.

 

You have a lot of garbage posts...but don't mind me.

 

if harden can ever get over the hump that deandre jordan is when he will become trancendent player

 

He is the only playmaker on this team. Between that and our lack of defense the problem is clear. It's not that he's choking.

I'm assuming everyone complaining about Harden wants to see him force up 30 shots. Well if that doesn't work what happens?

 

Those stats are inflated because of the Dallas series when no one played d. Against the Clips, his numbers have gone way down except for assists.

 

Problem with Harden is that he isn't taking over the game. He hasn't put his stamp on any of the games. His impact hasn't really been felt.

Oh, and his defense has reverted back to last year's.

 

Not really.. But the eye test makes you think such. He's just not looking too interested.

 

If you're blaming James Harden for our problems in this series, you're simply not paying attention to what's happening in the half court. We have two main problems. 1) We don't use the clock to run plays, so we dump too much responsibility on Harden to create a shot, for himself or for somebody else, against a well-set defense. 2) When he's doubled and passes the ball, his teammates aren't hitting shots from where they are, nor are they creating plays off the dribble.

If you gave me two choices -- getting rid of Harden, or getting rid of the rest of the team and finding new players to surround him with -- I'd take the latter.

 

Finally, someone who has been here for a while posts the truth.

 

Yeah! Only 3 more turnovers per game and he's averaging a triple double.

 

Harden is not choking in the sense that he suddenly plays bad in the playoffs. His criticism is that he is not imposing his will to win games as a superstar should.

This is actually the same criticism LeBron had the first time with Cleveland. Except of course LeBron's Cavs were much worse than Harden's Rockets. And if you think McHale is not good, think Mike Brown.

Harden is clearly no LeBron. But being the best player on the team (and the MVP runner up), he bears the blunt of the blame, fair or not. The responsibility comes with the job.

 

it's not as simple as just putting his stamp or taking over

our offense is really predictable and the Clippers are focused on taking the ball out of Harden's hands, there's nothing he can do unless there's another play maker.

the people that thinks a "passionate" Harden would make a bit of differences in the losses probably thinks McHale should clap harder to make him a better coach.

 

25.7pts, 3.7reb, 10.0 ast, 7.0 to, 45.7%FG, 43.5%3pt, 96.2%ft, 67.0%TS in Clippers series.

Pretty good except for the turnovers.

 

Lebron's Cavs was a top notch defensive team. Mike Brown was actually very good defensive coach, it's just on offense he had no plays other than let Lebron make plays much like McHale

It really wasn't Lebron's fault they kept getting knocked out by Orlando and Boston in the playoffs, their offense was just as stagnant as ours with Harden. It doesn't really matter who you are, when your offense becomes that predictable in the playoffs it's not going to win you 4 games against a good team. Lebron was better than Harden now, and was a lot more athletic, if he couldn't do it that way, we are doomed too with the way we play.

Lebron is also a lot stronger than Harden and more athletic, he can just bulldoze into the lane and everyone would get the hell out of his way and let him score. Harden relies a lot of being crafty with his moves and drawing fouls because his natural abilities doesn't allow him to do things Lebron or prime Kobe does.

 

Still does not negate the fact that he should've at least tried to take over in Game 3 and needs to play defense again. MVPs are held to higher standards than other players on the team which is how it's supposed to be.

 

You can post good stats but none of those stats matter when your team is down 5 and you have the opportunity to cut it to 2 or 3. Time and time again we've seen this Rockets team falter and a manageable deficit balloon into an embarrassment. Stats don't matter then. Does Harden pass the ball, turn it over, or play passively in these circumstances? You probably won't find statistics for this.

 

he's not choking. he's been playing... ok or even good or even very good, depending on which standard you're using. but something is missing from his game, and it's not only in the losses of the playoffs. someone said he just doesnt look very interested. i cant agree more.

btw, runner-up in mvp voting doesnt mean much. i heard chicago's noah was #4 in mvp voting a couple of years back...