I hate videos like this. They seriously don't give Harden any credit to Westbrook's success here. Yeah, Westbrook has been amazing and efficient. But a big reason for that is because Harden draws so much attention, which allows Westbrook to get the space and time he needs. Capela going has also helped regarding the paint being open, but the big reason is because of Harden.
Individual scoring is nice but in order to win we are looking for team scoring efficiency. And it plummets when Harden sits. Even in the post trade small ball era.
That guy is clearly a Harden hater and a casual. He claims Harden just wastes the whole shot clock and then his teammates have to force up a shot because there's no time left. Harden always gets his teammates involved..... he's pretty much top 10 in assists every year. He passes it a lot, but they're either bricking wide open shots or they're not shooting the open shot. He also didn't mentioned that Harden hasn't complained about letting Westbrook having the ball the most in the 2 months. If he was such a bad teammate, he wouldn't let Westbrook have the ball as much as he has. It isn't a coincidence why Westbrook is having a more efficient season than any other season. He has more time and space to take better looks..... all because the other team are mainly focused on Harden. If Harden wasn't as amazing as he is..... Westbrook would be drawing the double teaming, and he wouldn't have the paint as wide open as he does most of the time. The other team back off Westbrook so much because they know he can't shoot, so he then has more space to take advantage of it. Harden gets no space whatsoever. He gets double teamed, tightly guarded, they don't let him have a wide open shot and they surround him as soon as he gets near the paint 90% of the time. No other player in the league gets that amount of attention. Harden has been carrying average and G-League players to to playoffs every single season since he's been at the Rockets. The only other 2 all-stars he's played with is CP3 and Howard. CP3 was an injury-prone player before the Rockets, and with the Rockets. Howard was never the same since he left the Magic. Westbrook is the first real superstar that's still in his prime Harden has played alongside. Harden would have already had a couple of rings if he had the right support around him. Also didn't help playing against one of the best teams of all time like 4 times in the playoffs. At the end of the day, Harden is never going to get the credit he deserves. He's always going to get hate. Even if we win a championship this year, he won't get the credit.
I understand that. But the claim here is Westbrook's scoring efficiency is a result of Harden doubles.
I think it’s fair to say that based on how teams defend Harden that it’s likely Westbrook would not maintain the high 50s TS% if he had to play more minutes without Harden. As it is now it’s roughly 12 minutes a game he’s out there without Harden and based on the substitution pattern he is generally playing against opposing teams 2nd units. And when you look at how glaring the on/off numbers are, as great as Westbrook has been, it’s hard to say that the answer to the thread titles question is yes. Harden is still the man making this all work. But we have found a way to make Westbrook the best and most effective partner he has ever had to play along side him.
Are you in the locker room ako the time to make the claim that other players don't respect Harden? What kind of things are you going up in your head that somehow westbrook need motivation? Mvp should be there leader? Who makes up these rules? They are labels and are very subjective so whatever toy think about leadership, it's only your opinion. Using subjective measuring sticks can lead you to wrong decisions.
Hi there I am going on the lease for the I don’t believe anyone should trash Harden as he is a special player but this guy has some legitimate points on Westbrook and what he has accomplished thus far Westbrook will need Harden to win just like how Hakeem needed Clyde or Michael needed Pippen
I waited to reply to you to see if anyone else made the point that @jordnnnn just made. When Harden goes out, opposing coaches normally sub in the 2nd unit. So Westbrook's numbers (without Harden) are against non starters. When Harden is in without Russ, he is generally playing against the starters. So any comparison is not valid because of the talent each faces when the other is not in the game. Trust me, Harden could score even more efficiently if half his minutes came against the other team's bench.
MVP is not based on a particular part of the season. It's given to players considering their contribution to the entire season. Based on the sample of the last 20 games or so Westbrook seems to have played far better than he played in the first 35 games or so. He has been the best player on Rockets in the last 20 games or so but you wouldn't expect him to carry the same form for the remainder of the season. Harden was superb in the months of November and till of December and has again been pretty awesome after the all-star break. As a Rockets fan, I am not emotionally invested in which Rockets is my MVP. I just want both of them to be at their best. Neither is going to get the MVP anyway.
No matter what, I love watching Russ’ basketball. His speed and penetration are entertaining to watch. He doesn’t look tired at all.
Exactly. No matter what thread it is he goes out of his way to passive aggressively **** on Harden. What's even worse is that he's not even man enough to admit what he's doing. It's pathetic
Remember KD was the one voted as the FMVP twice even though opponents schemed for Curry who got all the attention by half court. Curry deserved the FMVP in the first KD year imo, but voters only saw PPG, FG% and BPG without considering the impact of Curry’s gravity and him being the core engine and catalyst for everything GS. Apparently it’s way too much to ask everyone to look beyond the quantifiable. The few who do will be the minorities in a popular vote.
This is gonna be the new narrative since Rox are obviously balling the next agenda will be to create a rift between Russ and Harden by trying to make it "me vs you". It's the same old **** media tries to do to break up a team that's what they did to Kobe and Shaq, Lebron and Wade, KD and Russ and more recently KD and Steph. That's cuz media thrives on both hype and drama, they wanna build and hype things up or they wanna tear things down. Right now they are focused on hyping the future of the NBA (Giannis, Zion, Tatum, Luka, Trae) so they are focused on destroying the top teams like Clips, LAL and Rox to make room for the new kids on the block.
