there's also a long argument in NBA history that jump shooting teams don't win championships. well that's how you win those these days harden/cp3 is still the best backcourt in the nba
No. But if you want to build up that strawman and beat it up, you're free to do so. I won't stop you. If you're going to come at my level of thought then at least be charitable to understand my argument. I never said anything about 'levels' of players and everything about who has won more.
I think CP3 got a similar problem to Harden, but it's not mental in his case. He runs out of stamina a tad. Plus he is injury prone, we know that now. His miniature size also doesn't play to his advantage in the clutch when driving to the hoop. You can fault him for that but I think it's just being bitter. If you give Chris Pau Kevin Durant of course he is having multiple years long tickets to the WCF.
Westbrook has played with Durant, level of teammates matter, its disingenuous to state otherwise. Nvm the fact that Paul consistently beats out Westbrook in playoff performance. When they both retire no one will ever say Westbrook is better than Paul, that would be a total joke.
You won't find an argument for me. As I said before, I'm rockets first, anyone can get it from me. I don't think Harden mentally has what it takes to lead a team to a championship. CP3 clearly can lead a team but I do think his body wears out as he goes on and then his style of play sometimes means he relies on others...at that point in time he has to just take over. I think the same is true of Yao. Yao I feel like would have been a champion, I'll never forget how he was dismantling that Lakers team, they couldn't stop him, offense, defense, he had finally put it all together...then career ending foot injury... just too big for his own good.
You missed my last sentence. You give CP3 the WB treatment of having Kevin Durant. You bet he goes to the WCF multiple times and farther.
So...is Durant really that much better than Harden then? He was able to take Westbrook a lot further than Harden has...
Does he though? Does he also get hurt multiple times and leaves Durant fending for himself? These are what ifs. I hate them. The same people use them to knock down Hakeem.
Yeah, Durant can drag his injured butt to the finish line, doesn't mean they'd cross it. That's probably luck which year he had the hammy and which year he didn't. You could argue that Durant isn't the mentally strongest either, you'd have no objection from me.
He took him to the finals when Westbrook AND Harden were on the team though. He never made a finals after that. Harden and Paul were consistently competing against the Warriors team WITH Durant.
You can talk about injures with ANY player though dude. Maybe Paul woulndt get injured if he didnt have to carry the playmaking load in OKC with Durant. It's not some forgone conclusion that hes gonna get hurt.
To be honest, I don't know who is the better player, Durant or Harden. (I mean, would you want to build a team around Harden or Durant if you had a choice? Difficult for me to answer.) What I am quite sure is that Durant would fit better than Harden with Westbrook. There's a reason why Harden was the 6th man in OKC. They didn't want Harden to play alongside Westbrook full time.
I don't think Durant is mentally strong either, he's just really talented. I think Durant is just...neutral. Like yeah, he's going to make the shots if you ggive him the ball but he doesn't go into "No, We're winning this game" take over mode like say Curry, Klay do. Like those guys mentally have it. When the Warriors need Curry, he's there. He's making big shots, impossible shots and big plays.
I think he is, but he needs to get hate from somewhere. He is driven by emotions. When he is loved like he was in OKC, he didn't have it sometimes. But he had it during the Worriers' run in the Finals. I think it's that badass combo of great thespians, playing the good and the bad, and the ugly. The reason why he is such an emo person needing recognition and hate at the same time.
While that is fair, Durant and Westbrook of course never had that chance to compete against that team since there is only one Durant. Durant and Westbrook were competing with that team though. I think some players DO get more injuries. I mean, we're Rocket fans here...we had to suffer through Tmac and Yao for a long time. Whatever it is with CP3, he has hammy issues...and I can do that if we're going with a 'what if' argument, that's why I don't like them.
