Harden's only real knock is playoff performance. You can fault specific details about his game -- like any player -- but if he just matched his regular season production it's a mute point. Other than that, his regular season has been STAT-PAD and WINNING. He's arguably a Top 10 regular season All-Time all things considered.
Dream would have gotten slaughtered by the majority of CF today. "Omg he sucks; can't even play well in high altitudes" "Are we going to ignore the fact that Hakeem hasn't finised in the Top 3 in MVP voting and it's already 1992???" "We're going into the 91-92 season and we haven't made it to at least the Conference Finals since 86. We should trade him!" "Dream can't hit any FTs!!! He needs to take it from me, an expert, that he needs to stop bobbing side to side before shooting FTs!" "I've watched the NBA for years and that Dream Shake move is obviously a travel!" "I hope Mike Woodson teaches Olajuwon something about having heart!"
Hitting a wall in the postseason and having the other team game-plan you to death. The former will probably happen again if the other main guards (CP3 and EGO) don't step it up and/or Morey doesn't come up with something good in a trade. Between Dan Toni and McHale, I'd take Toni 11 times out of 10, but no matter the coach, it's always, "Harden save us."
Yeah, I think most of us take him for granted. His numbers are almost on par with Kobe through this point in their careers. Could you guys imagine if Harden also had that extra 1.5" of height and the ability to shoot right over almost anyone, regardless of the space?
I feel most of us are in agreement that he is just...absolutely insane on the basketball court. His IQ (Yes, it can get him in trouble when he tries to make the absolute perfect pass at times), is amazing. His ability to draw fouls is an art form, (which for some freaking reason is looked down upon by the media). Seriously though, why is this? Why is the media upset that a player is good at something like that? This isn't Marcus Smart going flying ten feet in the air after being boxed out by Korver. This is a guy who sees a players hands out in front of him, so he attempst a shot which will draw a foul. Why isn't that celebrated? Why isn't that just marveled for the fact people just have never tried doing that on a regular basis like Harden does. This is like Pop's saying basketball isn't beautiful anymore. Well, that depends on the person watching. Some people still believe dribbling down the court, dumping it to a post player, and watching them try and post up for ten seconds and put up a shot is "Beautiful basketball." Let me say that for the love of everything that isn't a shot at Hakeem, he was a magician on the court, and for as amazing as he was, is still the most under rated player in the history of the sport IMO. Ok, so I apologize I went way off topic for a second, but to get back to the question....there are quite a few people on this board that have the reaction of a five year old claiming that "Harden should be benched when he decides to settle for 3's." We are watching a player that not only is one of the best offensive players to ever put on a Rockets uniform, but an amazing passer as well.
because the majority of NBA fans right now are Laker/Warriors fans and they will find any reason to discredit Harden to their friends and casual fans on social media. In the end, it becomes a general consensus outside of Rockets fans that Harden is the biggest flopper of all time and cheats his way to the line every time. I said this when Harden first arrived on the Rockets and if not enough Rockets fans defend Harden on social media, eventually the whole perception of him will be that he's a flopper who doesn't deserve any recognition. And now 5 years down the line, that's exactly what has happened amongst casual and non-rockets fans. Only Rocket fans will remember Harden for truly being an MVP level player but the facts are Harden haters won't even recognize his MVP. The only real way to shut up all those haters are if Harden finally leads this team to win a ring and we all know Daryl Morey's ****-ups over the years have sabotaged that chance (even last year when CP3 was injured, if we were paying another borderline star/good role player 20mil instead of Ryno, we likely would've won that series)
While I'm driving and listening to NBA Radio on SiriusXM today, Eddie Johnson and Rick Barry were saying they'd never want to play with a player like James Harden because he dribbles the ball too much. Barry was saying he wouldn't be eager to sit in a corner picking his nose waiting for the possibility of a shot while Harden dribbled the ball into the ground.
because that was the only Harden playoff performance I recognize as him actually giving up. The highest TO record performance vs the Warriors, even the dwightmare season I saw Harden legitimately tried but that Spurs series he just no-showed after the disaster game. I'm not going to be one of those Harden stans that sees their favorite player as someone who can do wrong.
100% If he could get 1 chip it would do wonders. If he got 2 I really believe media would start having top 15 all time discussions. Statistically and winning in the regular seasons he’s prob already top 10-15 all time. Gotta get a championship tho to truely cement himself as a top 15 guy alltime. Without that he’ll be another Karl Malone, Charles Barkley type player in terms of league alltime greats even though I think you can make a serious case he’s better than those guys.
