This is the last time I respond to your garbage. No, Im not anything towards you. You are a person that keeps making fallacious arguments. The day I regard your posts as learning opportunities is the day you post something substantial, which you havent. You quote me looking for an argument because you've never made one good one and you want to keep going at it. Really? They had Jeff Green, Bruce Brown, Joe Harris,Blake Griffin, Laundry Shamet and Nicholas Claxon(who should have gotten more time), very comparable to our 2018 squad. But he didnt. He also shot under 50 TS% 3 times and would have had a much worse performance had Harden not come back for the last three games. See....see how easy it is for me. Nope. Harden had a significantly higher box plus minus than Cp3 that game and also for the series and he kept the team in it in the first half when were getting blown out initially. There is more than one way to measure efficiency, impact matters. Because all the games matter, ignoring more than half the series just to have confirmation bias is a poor way of analyzing things. No. No, you cherry pick stats to fit your narrative. Then when I, or someone else gave you the stats(Like two pages ago) you still went ahead and made your fallacious arguments. You ignored the numbers and made up a crappy narrative to support your point. Lmao, I followed that whole conversation, YOU interjected in on that convo and proceeded to move the goal posts and then the facts got handed to you and then you couldnt take the L. Mine is fine. You are just dishonest, you are too arrogant to admit you are wrong. Im done with you for real this time. You are a waste of time and energy.
And we had Eric Gordon, Ariza, Capela, and PJ Tucker. Tucker > Bruce Brown Ariza > Joe Harris Gordon > Jeff Green Capela > Blake Griffin It's hilarious that you brought up Claxton. He literally played 1 second in game 7. Harden's 2018 supporting cast was significantly better than Durant's 2021 supporting cast (after injuries). Harden and CP3 had similar counting stats. Given that it was a close game, how can you argue that Harden's stats were more impactful than CP3's? If anything, CP3's stats should have a greater impact since he played a better 4th quarter than Harden. In a close game, the 4th quarter is more important than the 1st. You agree with this, right? Again, it depends on your objective. If the topic is a player's contribution to winning, then you look at the stats from games won. I ignored the numbers because they included irrelevant data. We all know that Harden feasts against creampuff opponents. The question is, how does he fare against better competition? Given that question, why would you include data from creampuff opponents? Which goal posts did I move? I've been extremely consistent in my stance on Harden. He beasts in the regular season and against creampuff opponents. I've maintained this stance for years. When I'm wrong, I happily admit it. You just don't realize that because you've never been right.
ITs not a harden thing, its an nba thing. You can go far back, was jordan not a winner if Paxon clanked that shot? What about Kerr? And is Hakeem not a winner if Kenny smith doesn't get the pump fake bite and hit a hard 3 against orlando game one? Horry, fisher, so on where role players make vital or winning plays and step up throughout the playoffs. The game is bit on cohesion and everyone plays a role in the marathon of a title. You act like Michael jordan in the end of hte 80s wasn't demanding trades and more roster moves for help, no surprise after 7 years of individually dominating and seeing thats not how things are won in the nba. Almost like Lebron himself did not lose for 7 straight years while also individually dominating before leavng to play with hall of famers. Or that maybe even Kobe, lakers legend, didn't demand a trade or demand help after seeing he was being used to put up numbers and sell seats rather than primarily win games. Timmy D almost left San antonio for Orlando too.... Then furthermore, when lebron did get back to cleveland, despite unlikely odds they went all in paying extra for the bloated contracts of Tristan Thompson, Klove, and JR smith...they didn't have leverage, and depth matters...history was made. Raptors paid 50 million for an aging close to 35 Marc Gasol, Leonard's shot bounced the right way and history was made. Both of those came against a historic team many were stepping aside for. Meanwhile, when we had our best chances with them at 18, we replaced our glue guy that Chris Paul himself said was the main difference and kept the team together, we replaced him with James Ennis in the offseason at the minimum, while Ennis was plying in MDA"s fustratingly short rotation, we traded him that very season in Feb for....a top 55 protected pick, no player. So James harden, who in an age of load management, who plays heavy games, minutes, useage when his contract is guaratneed and he can sit like the other stars but doesnt, comes back to the locker room after seeing the champs all spend big money and sees after another crazy high minute night of ccarrying the rockets that Daniel Houses's locker is empty. He was also in MDA's small rotation and we got him from the gleague, and we cut him for tax for 2 months mid season. A month later another locker, Ennis's sits early. You look around at small market teams even paying tax during their windows, Harden might've gotten wind of what Lebron and Kobe did, that these guys are making big banks off the stars and not meeting them for their small championship window. Then after that year the Owner goes to the media, you can go chceck how often this happens, and says rockets should've stepped on their throat and win and he would infuse that mentality the longer he is owner...basically screaming to the public blame them while demanding they have better results with a worse product and morons just keep buying the snake oil from the used car salesman, like they belive when he says 'we went all in' when 90 percent of our moves were cost cutting or that getting under teh tax was a "fluke" according to tilman when we traded a valuable first round pick and became a laughing stock because of it.
Toronto went all in for him. We complain about a 1 year 15 million deal for what chris paul called this : " Former Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul was on the Knuckleheads podcast with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson and explained the impact of the Rockets losing Ariza. “People don’t realize, that’s the biggest thing that we missed. That was tough when we lost [Ariza] because he sorta was like the glue. He was that glue for our team.” " Toronto went and took on an aging 34 year old Gasol whose stats are going down, not to mention they already had Ibaka and played him half minutes but committed 50 million dollars for him. They have no 'guarantee" like tilman said bc a guarantee to get to the finals doesn't exist, no superteam including the nets this year can count on that, so thats just an obscure moving goal post for casuals to cite, sort of how we have a brooklyn nets swap for 2021, its just for poeple not paying attention to add up we have an extra swap. But that depth, those detaisl all matter bc the margins of winning are so so small in the playoffs, raptors got there with a bounce in the conference finals, so spening in the window like they did, like thunder, like cavs is now the new par. We cheaped out, blamed the onus on the stars, lied to the fans an thats really how you lose the trust of a GM, ass GM, Head Coach, ASsociate head coach, Team President, Two stars, veterans that all want to run from a team and a 'culture'. Reason Lebron and Leonard also demand tax, they demand teams match and compete and pay up during their windows...teh fact is if they were in houston, they would've ran ""'I educated [Davis] on why I thought the team wouldn't be . . . ' He paused. 'All athletes are competitive and confident, until reality sets in. And I educated him on things.'" Paul laid out what superstars need to see from teams to give a long-term commitment. "You either need your team in place, or you need flexibility, assets, money, and the ability to make decisions. And, more important, the willingness to pay the [luxury] tax ... This ain't 'Moneyball.'" Paul was referring to a team either being ready to compete, having future flexibility to improve the team, and being willing to pay the so-called luxury tax for spending over the salary cap. According to Chotiner, the Pelicans were not willing to pay it at the time and thus kept their payroll below a certain level. -So yea, no 1A superstars are going to stick to Houston unless Tlman eats some Landry's humble pie, shuts up and lstens, and understands n this business they don't have the leverage, they are not driving the revenue-and thats why. They are far more replaceable as their main contribution is finances and there is a line of others wanting in on this 30 man ownership club especially with a new tv deal which WLLL make it more expensive yearly, but also more lucratve. Yet we have the most over leveraged owner so for rockets we just have to hope he takes this rebuildng time to get his finances in order, learn his lessons lke nuggets owner did hopefully, an then spend. Rewriting history and pointing fingers is a suckers way out
"And that was the one thing that Morey never really had. According to the cap numbers at Spotrac, which go back to the 2010-11 season, the Rockets barely went over the luxury tax (just $3.65 million over) in their one season (2015-16) as a taxpayer. The Warriors spent $49.63 million in penalties over the last five seasons, while even the small-market Thunder spent $33.73 million. There was no excuse for Houston to not open up the checkbook. This is a franchise located in the fourth-biggest metro area in the U.S. that has had a superstar in the prime of his career. Alexander sat on his hands while Houston’s rivals went all in, counting on Morey’s ability to use advanced statistics to turn water into wine. This refusal to spend money became farcical once Alexander sold the team to Tilman Fertitta in 2017. Fertitta spent so much money ($2.2 billion) to purchase the Rockets that he may not have had the liquidity to go into the red to build a title contender. Houston was a laughingstock around the league for the amount of juggling it had to do to stay under the tax. The best example came at the trade deadline last season, when Morey used a future first-round pick to shed the salaries of Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss. There was no basketball reason for the move. It was just done to cut costs. It’s not that Knight and Chriss would have helped the Rockets. But there were certainly a lot of better things that Morey could have used that pick for. Houston also spent that season in a bizarre staring contest with Danuel House Jr. House is the kind of diamond in the rough that Morey routinely uncovered in Houston, an undrafted free agent on a two-way contract who would become a starting-caliber wing. The problem was that players on those deals can spend only 45 days with the NBA team during the season before their contracts have to be converted. Money in Houston was so tight that Morey had to send House back to the G League when he wouldn’t sign a below-market long-term deal. He replaced House with two players he signed off the street (Gerald Green and Kenneth Faried) before bringing him back right before the playoffs. It’s not like House was asking for the world. He signed a three-year, $11 million contract in the offseason. But even that was more than Morey could offer at the time. Houston’s limited financial flexibility became an even bigger issue last season after the trade for Westbrook. With the team’s two best players costing a combined $76.7 million, it became almost impossible for Morey to fill out the roster while staying under the luxury tax. Morey and head coach Mike D’Antoni had to conjure up production from players other teams didn’t want. Jeff Green went from being cut by the Jazz to being a crucial piece of the Rockets’ small-ball attack in the playoffs. It was the same story with Austin Rivers, who had been on three teams in five seasons before landing in Houston, and Ben McLemore, who had one foot out of the NBA before the Rockets turned him into a 3-point sniper. All were more valuable in Houston than anywhere else in the league because Morey identified what they could do well and put them in roles that didn’t ask them to do much else." Morey is doing a job he has a mandate from a boss. Imagine going to a landrys and screaming at the manager for them using smaller cups or saving money on small details when the owner just changed the budget and the mandate. They obviously get paid to deal with the press and take the hits, but any logical person could see Les and Tilman have the power to enable the gMs and that goes for all over the league. Theres no other reason for Morey to accumulate and glowingly talk abotu assets and trading to get more when a team is at the cap, then go in 2018 during our small window, ignore all MLE rights, ignore TPE, ignore bird rights, use picks to get under the tax...unless you believe Morey's true intention for working for the nba and rockets was just to save the owner money and thats what really gets him excited? Bc the moves we did, 90 percent cost cutting, didn't help the team, didn't help the city, didn't give future flexibility to the GM...those moves were tax moves and those savings went to one man, the owner meanwhile he lied and pointed fingers every time he could AND add insult to injury to the fans, raised prices on us...mean while there will always be idiots who buy his snake oil and he knows it.
If rockets relied so much on a single role player and couldn't win game without him, then we could safely say rocket wasn't an elite team.
Thats just elementary logic. Did you see what Ayton said about Chris Paul? He said he was teh single best thing to happened to his career because he was able to push him as a big brother and have a voice in ways others can both on the court and the way he knows the game. Veterans have that influence because basketball is about cohesion, don't let ESPN/TMZ fool you about it being a 1-1 game. You could say the saem about MJ, if PAxon and Kerr's shots rimmed out. You could say olajuwon doent have his first ring if Kenny smith doesnt hit his pump fake 3. Derek fisher with .4 shot.... I mean look at the margins each year, championships are barely won. Shots, deflections, defensive plays all can ice the game along with depth and minute decisions. yea so that take would work for Steven A, Cowherd or whoever...but logically and historically it doesn't ring true. Raptors barely won got through to the finals, they still won the ring. Cavs with lebron were not projected and liklely to squeezze by with a lebron block, they still won. Each year there are so many small factors and margins. That argument doesn't hold up. Just like the Nets, Clppers, lakers, nuggets, jazz..you go all in when you have a window and anything can happen in the playoffs once you get all hands on deck, depth, injuries so on. All thsoe teams went all in, paid big bucks, with no guarantee yet they all have a shot and an injury or a shot away changes history
This board's obsession with Dame shows that the "championship or bust" mantra has always been bogus, it's all about highlights and aesthetic gameplay.
I'm still waiting for you to explain how PJ Tucker was the "ultimate Lakers killer". For all my faults, I'm glad idiocy isn't one of them. That being said, I do wish I had your childlike optimism.
Narrative talk lol? Oh the Irony, that's all you do. You twist things and create excuses so they fit your narrative. But but D Wade was not himself anymore, but but GS had significant injuries that led to some time off. Please, Harden had way better circumstances. He was up two games! and in game 7 he had the lead going into half time. But yeah, you would created excuses against Kawhi, if Harden would have won Finals MVP twice and beat both those teams you would not be creating excuses to why he Won. Every single great has caught a break or two and took advantage it. Not every single great throws away a break or two. Harden up to this date is only one of these, and its not the first.
Hakeem, MJ.... These are legends, these are players that where the heart and soul of their franchises. The teams followed them, they trusted these guys. They knew that if things got bad these guys would lead them out victorious. The teams also helped these guys become what they are, more specifically Hakeem. Because Hakeem did not win those two titles with a super star team. If anything those teams where similar to that 2016-2019 Rockets team. A superstar with a bunch of hustle players and aging borderline stars. Smith, Ellie, Horry... They got Hakeem where Hakeem could lead, Ariza, Paul and Capela got Harden to where he could lead and pooped his big boy pants. Harden has every right to seek a ring, he can join The Lakers next or maybe the winners of this year's Finals. But man he did Houston wrong, he even admitted it. Finish your contract, then leave. If he wanted Durant to carry him and gift him a ring, that's cool. I don't blame him for it. But he screwed The Rockets. MJ and Hakeem requested trades but guess what. They both stayed and led their teams to historic heights. Tilman has the least to do with this mess, Harden, Morey and MDA is where Houston got screwed. Not this owner is cheap blah blah blah gossip.
Lol, do you think giving context to the situation is narrative speak? Man, this is a waste time, you dont know ball. Harden has had more breaks against him more often than not. Every great has always had great back up when they won a ring lmao.
I'm actually right about most of my assertions, but you can't tell because you have the reading comprehension of a child.
