We would clown Westbrook worse than Harden because he shoots worse than Harden. This isn't a difficult concept.
Take Harden off this team and trade him for any other player besides Lebron and there is no way they even come close to beating GS if we even made it to the Western Finals.
This is as made up as anything. If only CP3 were healthy. If only Ariza hit a couple 3s. If only LMAM was healthy. If only the whistle was more favorable. We don't know what would happen in any of those scenarios. We do know without CP3, the team was 0-2 to finish off the year against GSW. With CP3 healthy, they might be in the Finals. or might not. With CP3 healthy and Giannis or AD, they might be in the Finals. or might not. The point of this thread, to me, since i created it, was to just note again Harden, whether with healthy CP3 or injured CP3 (but more relevant when healthy), saw his playoff play go meaningfully down from the regular season primarily because of the same flaws in his game as we've seen previously. That's all. Which resulted in his 2nd loss in the playoffs as the higher seed (should be 3rd if you count last year where they were the lower seed but the better team... and could be 4th if you count that and the LAC series where it only wasn't a loss because Harden was benched). It's just a troublesome trend that continues. Hopefully next year
The assessment will always be flawed when it never takes into account the different refereeing in the playoffs Harden is espcially affected because his game true. . . but that translates not only to his shooting Refs don't want to call fouls for him This goes beyond his shooting. . . which hacks definitely affects shooting percentage But Hacks on passes affect his turnovers as well . . . . . Basically in the Playoffs. . . Refs give Harden a great disadvantage even when he not 'seeking fouls' . .. players tend to hack and hack and hack . . .knowing the refs won't call them all I'm a stellar defender if I get unlimited fouls. Rocket River
AGREE but Had Harden got fair whistle we definitely beat them...there's no ifs and buts... which tells me Harden is this league's both RS and playoffs MVP. Zebra beating you is not Hardens fault yet adam silver and many cf keep moving goalposts for Harden. its not his fault that zebras are not doing their job.
The idea that there were no missed calls GSW way is crazy. Klay had 3 fouls in the blink of an eye. In another universe one of those could have absolutely been a non-call, for example. Hypothetical what-if's are way way too hard to know for sure... ... GENERALLY ... I mean we're not talking Lakers-Kings Game 6 here. That was obvious and blatant and embarrassing for the league.
i didnt hear reggie blaming the refs on klays fouls... and reggie is a proven rockets hater biased in favor of gsw and this year is not exception...refs jobbed vs gsw in 2015 and 2016 as well
Reggie and Webber and JVG and Mark Jackson are all pointing out missed GSW calls. Everyone's tired of GSW dominance. It's human nature. It doesn't mean there weren't also missed calls the other way. Don't get me wrong, I watch with biased Houston eyes, too. I'm ecstatic everytime a so-so call goes the Rockets way and infuriated everytime there's an obvious missed call or bad call. There were definitely A LOT of points left on the board because of the refs. But it's still a hypothetical. Most of those points were in the first half. Rockets still had a solid halftime lead they blew.
it's not made up. its the fact. Lebron is the only one who could have remotely led this team to a chip this year. unless you can list the players not named lebron who can replace harden the whole year and serve you your championship in a platter chirp... you act like you have a championship coaching cast around harden.. takeout each teams best player and rockets might not even make the playoffs
to be honest officiating and rules are not my cup of tea to me everything boils down to this 1 if officiating was biased in favor of the worriers then harden is the goat 2 if officiating was fair perhaps then it is fair to 'blame' harden for not being true MVP or not playing to his potential, but then again he was missing his helper in cp3 and with him he was on the brink of eliminating worriers because it is not 100% sure but reasonable to expect they would play worriers a lot better with cp3 either way you look at it theres no way to blame harden for not showing up in playoffs
IF tonite Klay and Curry both break their legs .. . . and then LeBron and the Cavs come back from being down 3-0 Will that mean Durant is chopped liver? Will people rake him over the coals? Rocket River
THIS Also if lebron starts getting preferential treatment from the refs NOW and he beats gsw in the finals does that mean gsw are chokers?
never harden haters are the worst homers .. they act like MDA, Cp3, Ryno, Ego, etc are locks for the chip if not for Harden
My commentary is about the playoffs. Not the last 2 games. It's troublesome that in the last 2 games Harden shot horrible and his turnovers spiked again, but it was Harden plus meh. There were 15 other playoff games. See above... but again, it's less about W/L though that's obviously relevant, and more about what we're seeing from the dude. It's also not about raking over the coals. It's about relative value among the greats of the game. At some point, in the playoffs, Harden's going to have to up his game for 20 games against great competition... whether the Rockets manage to win it all or lose to a great team in 7 games.
It's actually the opposite because the rose colored glasses guy keep making the dumbest hypotheticals. What if you switched Harden with Curry. What if Curry and Klay got injured. What if Ariza made some three pointers. What if Harden has a concussion game 6 Spurs. How about Harden just have a playoffs on par with his regular season, regardless of what the team does as a whole? That's a hypothetical for you.
so you admit there's no other superstar who could have led the rockets farther this year and you still ***** and whine about something impossible LOL this "basketball fan"
2018 Regular Season - 30/9/5 on 44/36/85 shooting splits 2018 Postseason - 29/7/5 on 41/30/88 shooting splits Mind you that 12 of the 17 games we played in the playoffs were against Top 3 defenses, all while utilizing a 6-7 man rotation. Sure, it's a slight drop-off, and you'd like the 3's to be better, but hardly anything to be up in arms about. And once again...the Rockets win the series if Chris Paul remains healthy. Criticizing Harden for the playoffs this year is just strange
I get how we are all upset about the lost but gonna keep the facts and no iFS. GSW could also made the arguments that without AI they had this series goes to 7 games. With AI they destroyed us in game 1 and would sweep us. So no ifs or buts. We lost end of story
not really Hou destroyed GS in game 2 and thats with Iggy. So there goes any validity to your post. sweep..... no they didnt even beat hou with him playing so theres absolutely 0 argument that can be made there. check your facts
It's not as light drop off. It's a meaningful drop off. His TS%, which is the defining characteristic of his offensive game, was almost a playoff worse. His PER was down 16%. Basketball Reference provides a stat called GameScore. Flawed like every other advance stat, but to the extent it is useful as a single game how did he do stat, and can be compared against itself, Harden had GameScores of 5.2, 7.2, 7.2 and 9.5 in the playoffs. His lowest GameScore in the regular season was 7.6, a game against Minny they won by 18, Harden only played 25 minutes and just couldn't find his shot. It was his only GameScore in the regular season in single digits. This isn't the only year Harden plays his worst game, or games multiple, in the playoffs. It's pretty regular. Just like his regular statistically significant PER drop. I think I did a regression chart last year, regular season PER vs. post-season on the second axis for star players for different years of their careers. Fit a best fit line, and Harden was also below the best fit line and meaningfully below. It's just stats and data. Yes, playoffs are against harder competition, tougher defenses, etc. That's the whole point though. It's worth noting that criticism of Harden of any kind is kind of pointless, though, you are correct there.
