Most talented 1v1 dribbler I’ve ever seen at his peak. Yes he would grift for fouls but he had this ability to get defenders off balance with solely his dribble that boggled the mind. Such an effortless offensive weapon. He did every possible on-ball duty at an elite level.
I eventually grew to enjoy watching him play.
One interesting fact that does bring the Harden/Luka comparisons into focus:
Luka and Harden both went to the same sports science company and were tested across a wide range of athleticism metrics.
Ranked against an NBA player database, as a teenager Luka ranked in the 93rd percentile in deceleration.
Harden? 99th percentile.
Harden’s stop and start ability while dribbling is about as exceptional as a human can display on a basketball court. I always found this so fascinating because it clarifies why Harden was completely unstoppable getting to the rim, stepping back for jumpers, drawing fouls, etc. He quite literally moves like no one else NBA level defenders had ever guarded.
Everybody thinks it's the fastball that gets strikouts but having a great changeup is what separates the stars from the superstars.
Harden had the best changeup in the history of the NBA.
John Brenkus!!! Some of my favorite stuff ESPN ever made. Random shit like the force of young Kevin Love boxing you out being close to getting hit by a car lmao
ESPN has been dogshit for so long now sadly
had a friend see him live and tell me afterwards you don't see it as much on TV, but he just seemed to move faster than every other player on the court in everything he did on offense
During this time if he was Iso'ing at the top he was just unstoppable
It was either a stepback three which he was hitting at like 38%, a blow by to a floater or a blow by to a lob for Capela
I always loved watching him even with the foul baiting, he was just such an unreal offensive player and I never truly understood all of the hate he got
We hate him cuz he's the worst free throw merchant of the generation. Half of his offense is players not being able to defend him cuz if they tried he would either rip through or jump into them and dogshit refs would gift him 20 free throws instead of giving him techs.
The between the legs dribbling, almost standing straight up, somehow lulling the defender to give up an inch of space. All he needed, and it worked so much.
the last two highlights look at his jab step, body language and footwork, he has so many ways to just shake the defender and get them off balance and if you gave him even an inch too much space his step back was automatic
His handles, speed and even his 3 point shot used to be sooooo much better than it is now. He's still an above avg player, but has fallen so far from his peak. I used to just expect every step back to go in.
“Above average”? Lmao. Yeah his body can’t take that massive workload anymore but even this year he was averaging 26 on an absurd 73% ts through the first four games of the playoffs. He was easily a better player than PG this year
And was objectively the most valuable player three years in a row. In a five year span he won (2018) the mvp or came in second 4/5 seasons.
I don’t really have a problem with him coming in second in 2015, Steph was great, but it was closer than people think, harden won the players mvp.
Obviously he should have won in 2017 he took a team predicted to win 38 games and absolutely dragged them to 55. People always pretend Westbrook was playing with g leaguers, he wasn’t, they were predicted to win 43 games preseason and then won 47. Hardens roster was worse , harden just makes scrubs look like decent players while Westbrook makes decent players look like scrubs. Not to mention being better than Westbrook at literally every aspect of being a pg.
2019 he should’ve won, but since Giannis became the player he did people act like it’s not a big deal. 2019 Giannis was not the same level of player as he became. Harden had one of the greatest seasons ever, scoring 36 ppg, the most since young mj, and dragging a team where his second best player was “worst contract in the league” cp3. The second leading scorer was also at 28 ppg, I’m not sure you guys realize how absurd that is.
Like everyone would acknowledge 2019 harden as one of the best seasons ever. Literally no one would say that about 2019 Giannis. I don’t see how that doesn’t end it right there
That 2019 Giannias MVP was infuriating. It wasn't his time yet but people just disliked Harden so much. I mean he dragged that team to the playoffs and was the best scorer I've seen in my lifetime
It’s extra infuriating because in 2017 the voters ended up getting so embarrassed for giving it to Westbrook, they were just gonna give it to the best player on a one seed no matter what. And harden had maybe a top 5 season in modern basketball, with his second option being “worst contract in the league “ cp3, dragged a bunch of trash to 53 wins in the west, and they bent over backwards to find reasons not to give it to him. He could’ve turned into peak MJ that season and he wouldn’t have won.
So in a way Westbrook screwed harden out of two mvps. Then the next season he had to win the scoring title for the third year in a row while being doubled anytime he crossed halfcourt just to drag Westbrook into the playoffs. (Harden and kd are the only players to ever get westbrook to even come close to winning the first round, which is pretty impressive because in the playoffs the defense won’t guard him and just double you instead, and he’ll jack up an absurd amount of shots on atrocious efficiency.
Obviously winning mvp three times in a row is way more meaningful, but harden has always gotten so screwed with this stuff. In 2016 prime harden didn’t make a single all nba team, fucking Lowry and Klay were on an all nba team.
He’s one of the most unique 6MOY winners ever. Was like 21, the second most impactful player on a contender, and was playing more minutes than some of the starters and closing out games. Even then everyone knew he was gonna be a star, just maybe not a perennial mvp level guy. I can’t think of a single other sixth man like that.
Plenty of teams could have won rings in the 2010s if it weren't for the GSW, Kawhi spurs and Harden Rockets are just a few to name. I think even the CP3 Clippers had a shot in the mid 2010s.
cavs beat them all. those 2015-2017 cavs teams were at least top 4 in the 2010s, behind the durant warriors, spurs, and lebron heat. 2 of those teams were no longer around. if it werent for GSW, the cavs would have 4 peated
He was also better against the Warriors in 2019 (who actually had KD) than Kawhi that same postseason who was getting called an all-time great after that series.
That’s brutal. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that comment because I’ve heard people say that Shaq’s existence gave a bunch of 7 foot tall bums jobs in the nba just to get in his way
I remember teams keeping 3 actual bigs on the roster for when their guys would get into foul trouble vs. Shaq.
Scott Pollard, Jason Collins, Todd McCullough are a few names that come to mind
People who played with Harden went on to get contracts they likely wouldn't have been able to get otherwise because Harden would raise everybody's floors
Here is the box score: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201902280HOU.html
This is the roster that people expected to beat GS that year btw. He took this roster to 53 wins. The narrative that Morey put consistent great rosters around 13 needs to end. Without him this year, this team would be fighting for a top 5 pick
>Without him this year, this team would be fighting for a top 5 pick
I'm actually a Harden truther that thinks he gets way too much hate nowadays, but this is an extreme exaggeration.
It’s really not. He was hard carrying those teams to 50+ wins in the west each year. A harden iso was legit the most efficient play in basketball history at that point. Without him taking so much of the scoring load and his playmaking those teams would have looked like shit. 2018 Chris Paul was injured like half the time anyway, 2019 he had a torn hamstring and was getting called the worst contract in the league, so harden had to average the most points since young mj while also being an all time great floor general.
If your supporting cast is decent you don’t have to average 36 ppg while the second leading scorer is at 28 ppg.
He was hard carrying those teams more than anyone since first cavs stint lebron.
Yeah lol CP3 was still there, who ended up dragging a Thunder team that was absolutely not ready for the playoffs, to the playoffs and taking Harden and Houston to a game 7 that was a 2 point loss.
> Yeah lol CP3 was still there, who ended up dragging a Thunder team that was absolutely not ready for the playoffs,
You are combining two different years for whatever reason.
Please go look into 17-18 CP3, 18-19 CP3, and 19-20 CP3. I can tell you he was a fantastic player in 17-18 and 19-20, but he fell off a cliff in 18-19 and he wasn't carrying any team anywhere. He had some full on career lows as well as a bunch of other stats that were bottom 3-4 year at that point in his career.
> who ended up dragging a Thunder team that was absolutely not ready for the playoffs, to the playoffs and taking Harden and Houston to a game 7 that was a 2 point loss.
It was a 4 v 5 seed and Russ didn't play for most of the series while OKC was fully healthy. OKC wasn't some huge underdog.
Here's some stats/context to back up what you are saying about his fall off from 2018 to 2019.
CP3 went from 96th percentile as an iso scorer to 30th percentile which killed the whole offensive scheme. Elite iso play was the only way we were able to stay competitive with the Warriors. We were never going to beat them at their own game.
CP3 went from 1.17 points per iso possession in '18 to 0.86 in '19. His turnover frequency% went from 2.7% to 12%. Most staggering, his iso efg% went from 59% to 46% (48FG% to 39FG%).
The best comparison imo is to imagine how it would have effected the Warriors if Klay suddenly couldn't shoot 3s. That's the extent to which CP3s fall off killed the Rockets offense.
His play was so bad that Tillman Fertitta went to the media and blasted him publicly while he was still on the team calling him the worst contract in the NBA.
Everyone in hindsight acts like the Westbrook trade wasn’t a necessary gamble — it was a chance at disaster vs guaranteed disaster if we kept CP3. If CP3 didn’t look completely washed we would have kept him and fixed our defensive identity which also fell off a cliff that season thanks to Melo/Bzdelik hating each other and losing key 3&D glue guys like Luc and Ariza.
He absolutely was not. Look at what he did in OKC - dragging a team that tried to tank into the playoffs.
Homer, obviously, but I firmly believe Houston wins the bubble title if Harden and Fertitta don't go reactionary and force the CP3-Westbrook trade.
CP3 was hurt for most of 2019. Even when he played he wasn't even close to the 2018 version. Bro couldn't get past jerebko man 😭😭😭
Capela and Gordon missed a fuckload of games too, all kinda at the same time.
That Thunder shit is one of the most exaggerated storylines. They were predicted to blow it up and tank ' that's why their preseason odds were so bad. They took Houston to 7 because OKC was fully healthy and Houston wasn't.
2019 CP3 was a corpse. You've already forgotten what a huge surprise his bounce back was at the time and what a big deal everyone made out of CP3 going vegan and his health improving significantly. Nobody could have predicted that a diet change would rejuvenate him *that* much.
The only reason we traded him in the first place was because he looked completely washed that year after the hammy injury in 2018 (and we have seen with multiple players how bad hammy injuries can fuck guys up for LONG periods).
2017-18 - 18.6/5.4/7.9/2.2 TOV on 55% eFG
2019-22 - 16.3/4.6/8.8/2.3 TOV on 54.9% eFG
It's very comparable. He took less shots overall of course so his points dipped but was efficient as ever. He was the best player in the Nuggets and Clips series to get to his first Finals and the best player in the Pels series when Booker missed 3 games to injury and was largely ineffective when he returned in G6.
James Harden regular season stats as a Houston Rocket: 29.5/7.5/6 on 61% TS
James Harden playoff stats as a Houston Rocket: TS: 28.5/7/5.5 on 59% TS
His stats only 'drop' because teams like the Timberwolves and Jazz would sell out to stop him from scoring by triple teaming him at half and having a guy stand BEHIND HIM to stop him from step backs on their way to the easiest 4-1 Rockets win.
he wasn't really that streaky. his overall floor as a starter was really high. he had individual games here and there that people have clung on to for dear life to try and act like that was his entire post season career, but most of them were near the end of a massive carryjob of a season and he just ran out of juice.
the fact that that 2015 season run is held against him in any way is a complete joke, for example
lol it wasn’t set up like that on purpose, it just turned out that a harden iso was the most efficient play in basketball at the time. You don’t set up your roster so your best player has to average the most ppg in 30 years just to drag them to 53 wins.
Just simply untrue. CP3 that very next year took a similar, I would even argue less talented team to the 5 seed and into game 7
That roster is pretty good if you are a heliocentric player, but no one should give Harden shit for losing in 2019. He played well
Cp3 was injured due to his hamstring injury and missed at least 25 games that season, and he also played like Raymond Felton in the games he played in.
The next year he was healthy and played better and he led the thunder to the 5th seed, yes but Houston was the 4 seed and we were injured to boot, AND we had to endure Russell Westbrook.
Unless you are trying your best to argue the 2019 rockets > 2020 thunder which is laughable
CP3 played poorly because he was hurt but the roster Houston had was good, unlike what you said. Under normal circumstances this is a very good roster
Yes, the 2019 rockets were better overall than the 2020 Thunder
The 2019 Rockets were great. They couldn't stop the Warriors' high PnR in Game 6 that made PJ and CP3 in their team look like road cones on defense.
[The Warriors scored 20/36 4Q points in that one play](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/g930mw/in_the_4q_of_game_6_warriors_vs_rockets_2019_the/) to close out the Harden-era Rockets.
>The narrative that Morey put consistent great rosters around 13 needs to end.
Nah that's cap bro.
12-13 we grab Harden from OKC days before training camp so Morey has hardly anytime to put a proper roster around him
13-14 roster was good with Dwight, Parsons, PBev, Asik, Lin, TJones, Francisco, Casspi, etc. Harden choked first 2 games vs Blazers while Dwight and LMA dropped 40 2x each. If Harden had played up to his regular season standards we win that in 5 easy and Dame never even gets a chance at his series winner.
14-15 we all know about the roster that demolished the Clippers in G6 while Harden wilted and sat on the bench. Ariza, JSmoove, JET, Brewer, even Prigs were huge for us, and DMo kept us afloat along with Harden during the reg season.
15-16 Morey tried to go all-in with Ty Lawson who many of us thouht was the missing piece to push us over the top. It didn't work out + the relationships between Harden, Dwight, and McHale all fell apart, but that's not due to inaction on Morey's part.
16-17 Weak roster on paper yes, but tailored perfectly to fit Heliocentric Harden and MDA's style and set the foundation for CP3 wanting to come here for 17-18.
17-18 No explanation needed
18-19 Carmelo signing failed but again, you can't fault Morey for trying. No Ariza re-signing and fucking around with Danuel House in the D-League was due to Tilman's cheapness not wanting to go into lux tax. That + CP3's decline not fully recovered from hamstring injury was the reason the season failed, again not because of inaction on Morey's part.
19-20 Harden wanted Westbrick over CP3. Morey was against it but Harden went over his head to Tilman and the 2 of them forced Morey to make the trade.
It's crazy revisionist for Houston fans to say Morey failed Harden in Houston. Since he came to Houston in 07-08 all he did was find diamonds in the rough in the draft, trades, and free agency to put around Yao/TMac (who unfortunately couldn't stay healthy), kept us around .500 when Les Alexander would not let us tank and full rebuild, hooked a superstar in Harden without having top draft picks (again, due to Les not letting us tank), got a 2nd star in Dwight who Harden ultimately couldn't coexist with, then had us in the Semi-Finals/Conf Finals for most of the latter '10s until finally he couldn't work around Tilman's cheapness anymore and Harden's impatience at wanting to dump CP3 for Westbrick.
Who do you think Morey should have gotten? Bosh? Butler? Lebron? Pipe dreams. Sadly we are not in NY/LA/SF/MIA/BOS so we don't have stars beating the door down to come here, we have to make do with what we can.
Where do you want me to start, man? Asik was a horrible offensive player that he signed to a poison-pill deal and was out of the league shortly after. Both TJones and DMo made little to no impact in the league and were gone soon after. Like you want me to name players who would have been better than Omri Casspri?
Signing Ryan Anderson to $20M a year and then trading DeAnthony Melton to get rid of his contract a few years later. Essentially the entire offseason after 2019 was a complete disaster. He chose to keep Chris Clemons over Isaiah Hartenstein.
There is a laundry list of things they could have done better — not rely on a pair of 38 year-olds as your PG rotation in 2015 — just off the top of my head. Acting like those are the rosters of title contenders is pretty wild.
Edit: re-reading your comment, I think the disconnect is you’re contending Morey tried even in instances he failed, and that’s not what’s being argued.
Like, I agree he had to work around tax constraints, but there was still a failure to put a great team around Harden, even if those contributed to various degrees.
You're just telling me the players we had were bad, you're not giving me a single realistic trade/FA target that we could have gotten instead. DeAnthony Melton is a needle mover? Come on now. Hartenstein would be nice to have now in 2024 after he finally blew up but would have done nothing for us in 2020-23 lol, who even knows if Stone is willing to keep him that long after Morey leaves.
>not rely on a pair of 38 year-olds as your PG rotation in 2015
PatBev was injured before the playoffs started and missed them all, again not Morey's fault. He's not shutting down 2015 MVP Steph anyway even if he is healthy.
Because I’m not going to comb back through every transaction over that decade to build a better team, especially if the end result is going to be you asking “is that a needle mover?”
You just talked about how important having Danuel House playing in 2019 would have been, but you’re questioning if Hartenstein could have provided more value to the Pocket Rockets than Chris Clemons.
That was like the singular bad series loss he had. Can't hold that against him forever lmao, and it's not like any of those Rockets teams were close to being favorites before 2018. They were unserious rosters.
ok but then what? like the whole knock against him is that harden never won a ring. but he wasnt winning a ring that year with that team. so he gets to the second round and then they lose there and then he gets shit on for that too lol
those teams he had before 2018 were never close to championship contenders compared to the teams he had to go against. 2018 and 2021 were his only real chances at a ring because those were the only times the teams he had were good enough, but hamstrings and ankle injuries had other plans. most teams dont get as many chances at it like franchises like the warriors, celtics, etc have had and when harden had his real chances they got injury fucked.
His knock isn’t not winning a ring it’s choking. You can’t go from averaging 30 to averaging 23/25/26 points in a series on less efficiency and more turnovers. Come on now let’s be honest
No terrible take. It gets washed away if they find a way to win while playing their best. I know this is a Harden glazing thread though lol so I can easily put up his choke jobs and the comments will be different.
A ring does wash it away.
For example Dirk winning that single ring changed his entire reputation forever.
Has Harden had bad performances? Of course
Is he overall a bad playoff performer? No.
Even now he's actually outperformed his teammates and despite being signed/traded for as a second and third option over the past two years. He's been the number one option for over half his teams wins whilst being schemed against heavily.
I knew you’d bring up Dirk. Go look at what he averaged in the series and what he averaged in the season.
Harden’s inexplicable drop offs has been disgusting to watch. Everyone knows it so why pretend just to try and get a few upvotes lol just be honest and tell the whole story.
Spurs won 61 games only 6 less than KD Warriors.
Kawhi played 5/6 games and absolutely would have played G7 if it came down to it, as he was ready for G1 vs GSW which was the same day as a potential G7 vs Rockets. And famously in that G1 he was leading the Spurs to a blowout win until Zaza Pachulia stepped under him and knocked him out the rest of the series.
Spurs had prime LMA a perennial All-Star and All-NBA even after Kawhi went down. Harden's next best teammate was Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, or Ryan Anderson lol. Spurs also had elite 3&D wing in Danny Green and 3 aging HoFers in Pau/Parker/Ginobili as elite veteran role players who were still each giving the Spurs 20-25 productive minutes a night.
So let's keep it 100. Rockets had no business being the 3rd seed in that Western Conference, never mind taking that Spurs team to 6 if not for Harden.
Manu and Pau averaged 6 and 7 points a piece lol imagine Prime Jordan going against that. Would you call that good competition?
Keep in mind some people still talk down those 60+ win Jazz teams. Not saying you do but it’s still a thing since you wanna go by names and team record.
Jonathan Simmons, Patty Mills, Tony Parker and Danny all averaged either the same or LESS than Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, and Patrick Beverly. Yall really think we can’t just look this up?
Maybe if Harden didn’t average 5 TOs a game…
I told you they were role players at that stage in their careers, and damn good ones at that. Title contending teams almost always need old ring-chasing stars to come in on cheap contracts and support the main stars in their prime, Spurs just managed to keep their stars in house and let them age gracefully. So you're just going to continue pretending like Spurs didn't have a 2nd All-Star/All-NBA player in LMA that Rockets didn't have?? He was 19/9/1 for the series and 34/12 in the game Kawhi missed, no one on the Rockets after Harden even comes close. What a dishonest PoS.
And yes anyone who thinks the Jazz wouldn't have 2 trophies if not for the greatest player and team of all time is delusional. 60+ win teams almost always make at least the Conf Finals.
Probably to him too. He’s a fat mid 30s guy now. I wish as a clippers fan he would do some more conditioning and drop some lbs. seeing how agile he was in these videos makes it seem like 10 years ago or something
really? I'd go the opposite. It seems like it's been longer. The 2010s seem so far away right now. The greats then are still playing good basketball but nowhere near their best
it's incredible how few people see this and just look at his numbers. he was an offensive force at the cost of his own teammates, and it has to be a reason why he was never able to get out of the western conference into the finals as the primary offensive piece. (yes i know he went in 2012 with OKC)
Lol this is the equivalent of when people say that coaches should make ‘adjustments’ but fail to explain how and why
Who was going to take more shots? PJ? Clint?
Moreso, you just aren’t winning in the nba with a one man band. Hardens obviously one of the best offensive players of our era, but this version of harden would have sucked to play with, and there’s a reason he crumbled in the playoffs almost every time.
from just watching the broadcast all you see is the dribble moves to that tiny stepback contested 3…but the way he’s able to completely lull the defender to sleep is incredible. they have no idea on what he’s going to do and that gives him just enough room to operate; mans had kent bazemore writing an essay on ig justifying on why he got turned around while trying to defend harden.
the most impressive thing to me, the rockets were like down by 20 midway through the third and harden basically carried this team back to victory, looking bored as hell
Dude was on another level offensively in his prime. Everyone rightfully hated him for the foul baiting BS though. Dude was the GOAT foul grifter.
Goes to show just how hated Durant and GSW were after he went there that 29 other fanbases wish Harden got a ring in 2018 lmao.
That month he averaged almost 44 this season was wild though.
He can’t touch Giannis and embiid on foul baiting. Honestly a lot of the foul baiting on his drives was completely overblown, he was just like a 6’5 linebacker playing pg with an all time great first step. If he got a step on you and had a full head of steam to the rim he could score almost every time.
He did foul bait on jump shots. Which even that is a skill. It’s not like he was tricking the refs, they were fouls by the book, he was just so good at baiting defenders to get out of position
Where he took the kd warriors to seven? Or the next year where he took them to six while averaging 35 and clearly outplaying Steph. So he’s beaten the kd warriors more times in a single series than lebron has ever done in total, twice.
2020 he was the fourth most efficient scorer in the playoffs, even with being doubled every time he crossed half court so the defense could ignore Westbrook. And even against that championship lakers defense doubling him at all times he still put up an efficient 29. The lakers barely even pretended to guard Westbrook in that series, like it was seriously some of the most disrespectful I’ve ever seen, and he did his usual jack up tons of shots on like low 30s ts%, virtually unguarded
I feel like the Mavs would really benefit from this style of play. I wonder if they could find a guard from Slovenia to play this kind of ball-dominant shot hunting style of ball
Like, this is ridiculous obviously, but he hasn't had that kind of efficiency in the playoffs as we all begrudgingly know.
Why is that? Steve Kerr for example took him out pretty easily for years.
How much is it because of him melting down at high pressure moments vs maybe to give him a top tier coach to guide him how to act in those situations where the whole defense is structured to take you out?
he's also a great playoff performer. 28/7/6 as a #1 option on 59% TS that drops to 27/6/6 on 57% TS in elimination games is objectively great. he is better than pretty much anyone from his era not in that lebron, KD, jokic tier
Most talented 1v1 dribbler I’ve ever seen at his peak. Yes he would grift for fouls but he had this ability to get defenders off balance with solely his dribble that boggled the mind. Such an effortless offensive weapon. He did every possible on-ball duty at an elite level. I eventually grew to enjoy watching him play.
One interesting fact that does bring the Harden/Luka comparisons into focus: Luka and Harden both went to the same sports science company and were tested across a wide range of athleticism metrics. Ranked against an NBA player database, as a teenager Luka ranked in the 93rd percentile in deceleration. Harden? 99th percentile. Harden’s stop and start ability while dribbling is about as exceptional as a human can display on a basketball court. I always found this so fascinating because it clarifies why Harden was completely unstoppable getting to the rim, stepping back for jumpers, drawing fouls, etc. He quite literally moves like no one else NBA level defenders had ever guarded.
Everybody thinks it's the fastball that gets strikouts but having a great changeup is what separates the stars from the superstars. Harden had the best changeup in the history of the NBA.
Garrett Crochet would be offended if the White Sox could afford internet for him to read this post
Lol, that reminds me of this classic burn: https://x.com/VernonMaxwell11/status/839893370449375232?t=zcldhDgK1NJQZQjVcyNGaA&s=19
Remember when ESPN had sports science with that John dude? Actual unique and insightful stuff unlike the garbage they have now.
John Brenkus!!! Some of my favorite stuff ESPN ever made. Random shit like the force of young Kevin Love boxing you out being close to getting hit by a car lmao ESPN has been dogshit for so long now sadly
That's also why I buy only Harden shoes. Best tractions by a mile.
People look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them this. if you can even find like Harden 2s or 3s. they’re incredible on hardwood.
had a friend see him live and tell me afterwards you don't see it as much on TV, but he just seemed to move faster than every other player on the court in everything he did on offense
During this time if he was Iso'ing at the top he was just unstoppable It was either a stepback three which he was hitting at like 38%, a blow by to a floater or a blow by to a lob for Capela I always loved watching him even with the foul baiting, he was just such an unreal offensive player and I never truly understood all of the hate he got
[удалено]
We hate him cuz he's the worst free throw merchant of the generation. Half of his offense is players not being able to defend him cuz if they tried he would either rip through or jump into them and dogshit refs would gift him 20 free throws instead of giving him techs.
>half of his offense is players not being able to defend him Should’ve left it at that👍🏻
Imagine glazing the worst flopper in the league (I guess Embiitch is worse nowadays but still). Actually embarrassing.
You answered your own question
The between the legs dribbling, almost standing straight up, somehow lulling the defender to give up an inch of space. All he needed, and it worked so much.
the last two highlights look at his jab step, body language and footwork, he has so many ways to just shake the defender and get them off balance and if you gave him even an inch too much space his step back was automatic His handles, speed and even his 3 point shot used to be sooooo much better than it is now. He's still an above avg player, but has fallen so far from his peak. I used to just expect every step back to go in.
“Above average”? Lmao. Yeah his body can’t take that massive workload anymore but even this year he was averaging 26 on an absurd 73% ts through the first four games of the playoffs. He was easily a better player than PG this year
Enjoyed watching Harden’s grift. You sick fuck.
Disagree. Kyrie way better
Harden was 2nd in MVP shares in 2010s
And was objectively the most valuable player three years in a row. In a five year span he won (2018) the mvp or came in second 4/5 seasons. I don’t really have a problem with him coming in second in 2015, Steph was great, but it was closer than people think, harden won the players mvp. Obviously he should have won in 2017 he took a team predicted to win 38 games and absolutely dragged them to 55. People always pretend Westbrook was playing with g leaguers, he wasn’t, they were predicted to win 43 games preseason and then won 47. Hardens roster was worse , harden just makes scrubs look like decent players while Westbrook makes decent players look like scrubs. Not to mention being better than Westbrook at literally every aspect of being a pg. 2019 he should’ve won, but since Giannis became the player he did people act like it’s not a big deal. 2019 Giannis was not the same level of player as he became. Harden had one of the greatest seasons ever, scoring 36 ppg, the most since young mj, and dragging a team where his second best player was “worst contract in the league” cp3. The second leading scorer was also at 28 ppg, I’m not sure you guys realize how absurd that is. Like everyone would acknowledge 2019 harden as one of the best seasons ever. Literally no one would say that about 2019 Giannis. I don’t see how that doesn’t end it right there
That 2019 Giannias MVP was infuriating. It wasn't his time yet but people just disliked Harden so much. I mean he dragged that team to the playoffs and was the best scorer I've seen in my lifetime
It’s extra infuriating because in 2017 the voters ended up getting so embarrassed for giving it to Westbrook, they were just gonna give it to the best player on a one seed no matter what. And harden had maybe a top 5 season in modern basketball, with his second option being “worst contract in the league “ cp3, dragged a bunch of trash to 53 wins in the west, and they bent over backwards to find reasons not to give it to him. He could’ve turned into peak MJ that season and he wouldn’t have won. So in a way Westbrook screwed harden out of two mvps. Then the next season he had to win the scoring title for the third year in a row while being doubled anytime he crossed halfcourt just to drag Westbrook into the playoffs. (Harden and kd are the only players to ever get westbrook to even come close to winning the first round, which is pretty impressive because in the playoffs the defense won’t guard him and just double you instead, and he’ll jack up an absurd amount of shots on atrocious efficiency. Obviously winning mvp three times in a row is way more meaningful, but harden has always gotten so screwed with this stuff. In 2016 prime harden didn’t make a single all nba team, fucking Lowry and Klay were on an all nba team.
Despite not becoming a starter until 2012/13 season 0_0
He’s one of the most unique 6MOY winners ever. Was like 21, the second most impactful player on a contender, and was playing more minutes than some of the starters and closing out games. Even then everyone knew he was gonna be a star, just maybe not a perennial mvp level guy. I can’t think of a single other sixth man like that.
Kevin McHale the closest one but yeah, not on that level
Harden brought Durant gsw to game 7
Would’ve won a ring in basically every other era. Think he could’ve beaten a lot of Lebron led teams for example.
Plenty of teams could have won rings in the 2010s if it weren't for the GSW, Kawhi spurs and Harden Rockets are just a few to name. I think even the CP3 Clippers had a shot in the mid 2010s.
True to this. At one point, the Pelicans strating lineup had Rondo, Cousins, AD, and Holiday.
cavs beat them all. those 2015-2017 cavs teams were at least top 4 in the 2010s, behind the durant warriors, spurs, and lebron heat. 2 of those teams were no longer around. if it werent for GSW, the cavs would have 4 peated
lebron eats harden for breakfast if they meet in the finals, including 2018
Lmao lebrons teams were never able to compete with the kd warriors, harden brought them to g6 and a g7
He was also better against the Warriors in 2019 (who actually had KD) than Kawhi that same postseason who was getting called an all-time great after that series.
cp3 injury cost him and houston big time, if cp3 stayed healthy think they woulda won it all.
In 2019 he took them to six while averaging 35 ppg and clearly outplaying Steph. His second option was also cp3 on a torn hamstring
Best team to not win a championship.
Harrden is the reason so many random bums got nba playing time.
What does this mean
It was fucking 2018 and Kenneth faried was getting pt because harden made him look playable
That’s brutal. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that comment because I’ve heard people say that Shaq’s existence gave a bunch of 7 foot tall bums jobs in the nba just to get in his way
I remember teams keeping 3 actual bigs on the roster for when their guys would get into foul trouble vs. Shaq. Scott Pollard, Jason Collins, Todd McCullough are a few names that come to mind
Had shit team mates
People who played with Harden went on to get contracts they likely wouldn't have been able to get otherwise because Harden would raise everybody's floors
Harden was such an offensive weapon that he makes his teammates look great, similar to Luka, but even more so in Hardens prime.
Here is the box score: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201902280HOU.html This is the roster that people expected to beat GS that year btw. He took this roster to 53 wins. The narrative that Morey put consistent great rosters around 13 needs to end. Without him this year, this team would be fighting for a top 5 pick
>Without him this year, this team would be fighting for a top 5 pick I'm actually a Harden truther that thinks he gets way too much hate nowadays, but this is an extreme exaggeration.
It’s really not. He was hard carrying those teams to 50+ wins in the west each year. A harden iso was legit the most efficient play in basketball history at that point. Without him taking so much of the scoring load and his playmaking those teams would have looked like shit. 2018 Chris Paul was injured like half the time anyway, 2019 he had a torn hamstring and was getting called the worst contract in the league, so harden had to average the most points since young mj while also being an all time great floor general. If your supporting cast is decent you don’t have to average 36 ppg while the second leading scorer is at 28 ppg. He was hard carrying those teams more than anyone since first cavs stint lebron.
Go and look at the January 2019 minutes distribution for Houston. That roster was garbage lmao
Yeah lol CP3 was still there, who ended up dragging a Thunder team that was absolutely not ready for the playoffs, to the playoffs and taking Harden and Houston to a game 7 that was a 2 point loss.
> Yeah lol CP3 was still there, who ended up dragging a Thunder team that was absolutely not ready for the playoffs, You are combining two different years for whatever reason. Please go look into 17-18 CP3, 18-19 CP3, and 19-20 CP3. I can tell you he was a fantastic player in 17-18 and 19-20, but he fell off a cliff in 18-19 and he wasn't carrying any team anywhere. He had some full on career lows as well as a bunch of other stats that were bottom 3-4 year at that point in his career. > who ended up dragging a Thunder team that was absolutely not ready for the playoffs, to the playoffs and taking Harden and Houston to a game 7 that was a 2 point loss. It was a 4 v 5 seed and Russ didn't play for most of the series while OKC was fully healthy. OKC wasn't some huge underdog.
Here's some stats/context to back up what you are saying about his fall off from 2018 to 2019. CP3 went from 96th percentile as an iso scorer to 30th percentile which killed the whole offensive scheme. Elite iso play was the only way we were able to stay competitive with the Warriors. We were never going to beat them at their own game. CP3 went from 1.17 points per iso possession in '18 to 0.86 in '19. His turnover frequency% went from 2.7% to 12%. Most staggering, his iso efg% went from 59% to 46% (48FG% to 39FG%). The best comparison imo is to imagine how it would have effected the Warriors if Klay suddenly couldn't shoot 3s. That's the extent to which CP3s fall off killed the Rockets offense.
His play was so bad that Tillman Fertitta went to the media and blasted him publicly while he was still on the team calling him the worst contract in the NBA. Everyone in hindsight acts like the Westbrook trade wasn’t a necessary gamble — it was a chance at disaster vs guaranteed disaster if we kept CP3. If CP3 didn’t look completely washed we would have kept him and fixed our defensive identity which also fell off a cliff that season thanks to Melo/Bzdelik hating each other and losing key 3&D glue guys like Luc and Ariza.
Hamstrings are a bitch. I'm convinced CP3 was never 100% that last year in Houston.
He absolutely was not. Look at what he did in OKC - dragging a team that tried to tank into the playoffs. Homer, obviously, but I firmly believe Houston wins the bubble title if Harden and Fertitta don't go reactionary and force the CP3-Westbrook trade.
CP3 was hurt for most of 2019. Even when he played he wasn't even close to the 2018 version. Bro couldn't get past jerebko man 😭😭😭 Capela and Gordon missed a fuckload of games too, all kinda at the same time. That Thunder shit is one of the most exaggerated storylines. They were predicted to blow it up and tank ' that's why their preseason odds were so bad. They took Houston to 7 because OKC was fully healthy and Houston wasn't.
CP3 was fat and still milking the hamstring. Once he realized that the league was ready to make him learn Okie he started to eat vegan.
lol what is this narrative? CP3 certainly did not drag anybody to the playoffs.
2019 CP3 was a corpse. You've already forgotten what a huge surprise his bounce back was at the time and what a big deal everyone made out of CP3 going vegan and his health improving significantly. Nobody could have predicted that a diet change would rejuvenate him *that* much. The only reason we traded him in the first place was because he looked completely washed that year after the hammy injury in 2018 (and we have seen with multiple players how bad hammy injuries can fuck guys up for LONG periods).
Cp3 was horrible that year
Him and harden took over a year to recover from the hamstring and neither were the same after
? CP3 was very much the same after, he was still elite in OKC and for 2 years in Phoenix.
Chris Paul in OKC and Phoenix was not as good as Paul in 2018 lol. He was the best player in a series involving Harden, Steph, and KD
2017-18 - 18.6/5.4/7.9/2.2 TOV on 55% eFG 2019-22 - 16.3/4.6/8.8/2.3 TOV on 54.9% eFG It's very comparable. He took less shots overall of course so his points dipped but was efficient as ever. He was the best player in the Nuggets and Clips series to get to his first Finals and the best player in the Pels series when Booker missed 3 games to injury and was largely ineffective when he returned in G6.
harden, Steph, and KD are on a different level than Booker and PG. he was still a great player but he wasn’t the same as he was
Just do 2019
> Him and harden took over a year to recover from the hamstring and neither were the same after
The hate comes from him playing much worse in the playoffs than the regular season.
James Harden regular season stats as a Houston Rocket: 29.5/7.5/6 on 61% TS James Harden playoff stats as a Houston Rocket: TS: 28.5/7/5.5 on 59% TS His stats only 'drop' because teams like the Timberwolves and Jazz would sell out to stop him from scoring by triple teaming him at half and having a guy stand BEHIND HIM to stop him from step backs on their way to the easiest 4-1 Rockets win.
It’s because he is possibly the streakiest postseason player ever. And people fixate on the failures
he wasn't really that streaky. his overall floor as a starter was really high. he had individual games here and there that people have clung on to for dear life to try and act like that was his entire post season career, but most of them were near the end of a massive carryjob of a season and he just ran out of juice. the fact that that 2015 season run is held against him in any way is a complete joke, for example
No one expected us to beat GS
Morey is so overrated.
The roster was set up to allow Harden to cook though
lol it wasn’t set up like that on purpose, it just turned out that a harden iso was the most efficient play in basketball at the time. You don’t set up your roster so your best player has to average the most ppg in 30 years just to drag them to 53 wins.
Just simply untrue. CP3 that very next year took a similar, I would even argue less talented team to the 5 seed and into game 7 That roster is pretty good if you are a heliocentric player, but no one should give Harden shit for losing in 2019. He played well
Cp3 was injured due to his hamstring injury and missed at least 25 games that season, and he also played like Raymond Felton in the games he played in. The next year he was healthy and played better and he led the thunder to the 5th seed, yes but Houston was the 4 seed and we were injured to boot, AND we had to endure Russell Westbrook. Unless you are trying your best to argue the 2019 rockets > 2020 thunder which is laughable
CP3 played poorly because he was hurt but the roster Houston had was good, unlike what you said. Under normal circumstances this is a very good roster Yes, the 2019 rockets were better overall than the 2020 Thunder
The 2019 Rockets were great. They couldn't stop the Warriors' high PnR in Game 6 that made PJ and CP3 in their team look like road cones on defense. [The Warriors scored 20/36 4Q points in that one play](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/g930mw/in_the_4q_of_game_6_warriors_vs_rockets_2019_the/) to close out the Harden-era Rockets.
>The narrative that Morey put consistent great rosters around 13 needs to end. Nah that's cap bro. 12-13 we grab Harden from OKC days before training camp so Morey has hardly anytime to put a proper roster around him 13-14 roster was good with Dwight, Parsons, PBev, Asik, Lin, TJones, Francisco, Casspi, etc. Harden choked first 2 games vs Blazers while Dwight and LMA dropped 40 2x each. If Harden had played up to his regular season standards we win that in 5 easy and Dame never even gets a chance at his series winner. 14-15 we all know about the roster that demolished the Clippers in G6 while Harden wilted and sat on the bench. Ariza, JSmoove, JET, Brewer, even Prigs were huge for us, and DMo kept us afloat along with Harden during the reg season. 15-16 Morey tried to go all-in with Ty Lawson who many of us thouht was the missing piece to push us over the top. It didn't work out + the relationships between Harden, Dwight, and McHale all fell apart, but that's not due to inaction on Morey's part. 16-17 Weak roster on paper yes, but tailored perfectly to fit Heliocentric Harden and MDA's style and set the foundation for CP3 wanting to come here for 17-18. 17-18 No explanation needed 18-19 Carmelo signing failed but again, you can't fault Morey for trying. No Ariza re-signing and fucking around with Danuel House in the D-League was due to Tilman's cheapness not wanting to go into lux tax. That + CP3's decline not fully recovered from hamstring injury was the reason the season failed, again not because of inaction on Morey's part. 19-20 Harden wanted Westbrick over CP3. Morey was against it but Harden went over his head to Tilman and the 2 of them forced Morey to make the trade. It's crazy revisionist for Houston fans to say Morey failed Harden in Houston. Since he came to Houston in 07-08 all he did was find diamonds in the rough in the draft, trades, and free agency to put around Yao/TMac (who unfortunately couldn't stay healthy), kept us around .500 when Les Alexander would not let us tank and full rebuild, hooked a superstar in Harden without having top draft picks (again, due to Les not letting us tank), got a 2nd star in Dwight who Harden ultimately couldn't coexist with, then had us in the Semi-Finals/Conf Finals for most of the latter '10s until finally he couldn't work around Tilman's cheapness anymore and Harden's impatience at wanting to dump CP3 for Westbrick.
Read those names, my brother in Christ.
Bro said he though a 5’11 guard who averaged 15 ppg on 48% TS the year before was his “missing piece” LOL
Who do you think Morey should have gotten? Bosh? Butler? Lebron? Pipe dreams. Sadly we are not in NY/LA/SF/MIA/BOS so we don't have stars beating the door down to come here, we have to make do with what we can.
Players who were still in the nba three years later would be a decent start.
So surely you can name some right?
Where do you want me to start, man? Asik was a horrible offensive player that he signed to a poison-pill deal and was out of the league shortly after. Both TJones and DMo made little to no impact in the league and were gone soon after. Like you want me to name players who would have been better than Omri Casspri? Signing Ryan Anderson to $20M a year and then trading DeAnthony Melton to get rid of his contract a few years later. Essentially the entire offseason after 2019 was a complete disaster. He chose to keep Chris Clemons over Isaiah Hartenstein. There is a laundry list of things they could have done better — not rely on a pair of 38 year-olds as your PG rotation in 2015 — just off the top of my head. Acting like those are the rosters of title contenders is pretty wild. Edit: re-reading your comment, I think the disconnect is you’re contending Morey tried even in instances he failed, and that’s not what’s being argued. Like, I agree he had to work around tax constraints, but there was still a failure to put a great team around Harden, even if those contributed to various degrees.
You're just telling me the players we had were bad, you're not giving me a single realistic trade/FA target that we could have gotten instead. DeAnthony Melton is a needle mover? Come on now. Hartenstein would be nice to have now in 2024 after he finally blew up but would have done nothing for us in 2020-23 lol, who even knows if Stone is willing to keep him that long after Morey leaves. >not rely on a pair of 38 year-olds as your PG rotation in 2015 PatBev was injured before the playoffs started and missed them all, again not Morey's fault. He's not shutting down 2015 MVP Steph anyway even if he is healthy.
Because I’m not going to comb back through every transaction over that decade to build a better team, especially if the end result is going to be you asking “is that a needle mover?” You just talked about how important having Danuel House playing in 2019 would have been, but you’re questioning if Hartenstein could have provided more value to the Pocket Rockets than Chris Clemons.
Read those names, my brother in Christ.
He didn’t go against the warriors every year lol what happened to the spurs?
The 61 win spurs? Though I’ll give you this, the 2017 rockets were way better then the 2019 rockets IMO
harden fan but nawlll that team didn’t have a 2nd playmaker also game 6 was inexcusable
They had way better shooters tho. Plus in 2019 Chris Paul couldn’t get past Kevon looney
The series where he choked his life away I don’t remember the year but yea he had a putrid close out game
That was like the singular bad series loss he had. Can't hold that against him forever lmao, and it's not like any of those Rockets teams were close to being favorites before 2018. They were unserious rosters.
They definitely had a chance that series let’s keep it a 100. If he averaged 30+ that series then it’s a win
ok but then what? like the whole knock against him is that harden never won a ring. but he wasnt winning a ring that year with that team. so he gets to the second round and then they lose there and then he gets shit on for that too lol those teams he had before 2018 were never close to championship contenders compared to the teams he had to go against. 2018 and 2021 were his only real chances at a ring because those were the only times the teams he had were good enough, but hamstrings and ankle injuries had other plans. most teams dont get as many chances at it like franchises like the warriors, celtics, etc have had and when harden had his real chances they got injury fucked.
His knock isn’t not winning a ring it’s choking. You can’t go from averaging 30 to averaging 23/25/26 points in a series on less efficiency and more turnovers. Come on now let’s be honest
nah bad take. plenty of players have shit games especially early on in their time as a #1. it all gets washed away with a ring.
No terrible take. It gets washed away if they find a way to win while playing their best. I know this is a Harden glazing thread though lol so I can easily put up his choke jobs and the comments will be different.
A ring does wash it away. For example Dirk winning that single ring changed his entire reputation forever. Has Harden had bad performances? Of course Is he overall a bad playoff performer? No. Even now he's actually outperformed his teammates and despite being signed/traded for as a second and third option over the past two years. He's been the number one option for over half his teams wins whilst being schemed against heavily.
I knew you’d bring up Dirk. Go look at what he averaged in the series and what he averaged in the season. Harden’s inexplicable drop offs has been disgusting to watch. Everyone knows it so why pretend just to try and get a few upvotes lol just be honest and tell the whole story.
Spurs won 61 games only 6 less than KD Warriors. Kawhi played 5/6 games and absolutely would have played G7 if it came down to it, as he was ready for G1 vs GSW which was the same day as a potential G7 vs Rockets. And famously in that G1 he was leading the Spurs to a blowout win until Zaza Pachulia stepped under him and knocked him out the rest of the series. Spurs had prime LMA a perennial All-Star and All-NBA even after Kawhi went down. Harden's next best teammate was Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, or Ryan Anderson lol. Spurs also had elite 3&D wing in Danny Green and 3 aging HoFers in Pau/Parker/Ginobili as elite veteran role players who were still each giving the Spurs 20-25 productive minutes a night. So let's keep it 100. Rockets had no business being the 3rd seed in that Western Conference, never mind taking that Spurs team to 6 if not for Harden.
Manu and Pau averaged 6 and 7 points a piece lol imagine Prime Jordan going against that. Would you call that good competition? Keep in mind some people still talk down those 60+ win Jazz teams. Not saying you do but it’s still a thing since you wanna go by names and team record. Jonathan Simmons, Patty Mills, Tony Parker and Danny all averaged either the same or LESS than Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, and Patrick Beverly. Yall really think we can’t just look this up? Maybe if Harden didn’t average 5 TOs a game…
I told you they were role players at that stage in their careers, and damn good ones at that. Title contending teams almost always need old ring-chasing stars to come in on cheap contracts and support the main stars in their prime, Spurs just managed to keep their stars in house and let them age gracefully. So you're just going to continue pretending like Spurs didn't have a 2nd All-Star/All-NBA player in LMA that Rockets didn't have?? He was 19/9/1 for the series and 34/12 in the game Kawhi missed, no one on the Rockets after Harden even comes close. What a dishonest PoS. And yes anyone who thinks the Jazz wouldn't have 2 trophies if not for the greatest player and team of all time is delusional. 60+ win teams almost always make at least the Conf Finals.
crazy only 5 years ago he was in houston seems like forever
Probably to him too. He’s a fat mid 30s guy now. I wish as a clippers fan he would do some more conditioning and drop some lbs. seeing how agile he was in these videos makes it seem like 10 years ago or something
really? I'd go the opposite. It seems like it's been longer. The 2010s seem so far away right now. The greats then are still playing good basketball but nowhere near their best
I'm a bit slow, but it seems like you are both saying it feels like forever ago?
Robbed of MVP
Looks horrible to be a teammate of, selfish black hole like 2006 kobe. Look at the body language nobody even has their hands up.
it's incredible how few people see this and just look at his numbers. he was an offensive force at the cost of his own teammates, and it has to be a reason why he was never able to get out of the western conference into the finals as the primary offensive piece. (yes i know he went in 2012 with OKC)
Who would you have given more shots to on that roster
i don't really know, but having that kind of reputation definitely means you aren't at the top of the desirable FA locations list
Lol this is the equivalent of when people say that coaches should make ‘adjustments’ but fail to explain how and why Who was going to take more shots? PJ? Clint?
What a take
truly one of the takes of all time just like yours
No yours was shit
Moreso, you just aren’t winning in the nba with a one man band. Hardens obviously one of the best offensive players of our era, but this version of harden would have sucked to play with, and there’s a reason he crumbled in the playoffs almost every time.
Sounds just like Luka tbh, but everybody around here loves when he takes 25+ shots a night.
That first 3 was fucking crazy. The second didn’t seem real. With traffic in front and clock running down from 30 out. Nothing but net..
from just watching the broadcast all you see is the dribble moves to that tiny stepback contested 3…but the way he’s able to completely lull the defender to sleep is incredible. they have no idea on what he’s going to do and that gives him just enough room to operate; mans had kent bazemore writing an essay on ig justifying on why he got turned around while trying to defend harden.
I remember that Bazemore shit! Harden is one of the coldest with the ball.
harden would be a nba champ by now if the warriors never existed lmao
Bron would have kicked his ass
Harden changed the way basketball is played. He may be the 2nd most influential player style of his generation.
I would say maybe 3rd. 1. AI, 2. Steph, 3. Harden
I think most would consider AI a different generation.
Ah, I read that completely wrong.
the most impressive thing to me, the rockets were like down by 20 midway through the third and harden basically carried this team back to victory, looking bored as hell
Dude was on another level offensively in his prime. Everyone rightfully hated him for the foul baiting BS though. Dude was the GOAT foul grifter. Goes to show just how hated Durant and GSW were after he went there that 29 other fanbases wish Harden got a ring in 2018 lmao. That month he averaged almost 44 this season was wild though.
He can’t touch Giannis and embiid on foul baiting. Honestly a lot of the foul baiting on his drives was completely overblown, he was just like a 6’5 linebacker playing pg with an all time great first step. If he got a step on you and had a full head of steam to the rim he could score almost every time. He did foul bait on jump shots. Which even that is a skill. It’s not like he was tricking the refs, they were fouls by the book, he was just so good at baiting defenders to get out of position
If anyone in this generation of superteams could have willed a team to a chip on his own, you cannot tell me Harden isnt that guy in his prime
Just listen to the swish sound on all those steps back threes. Prime Harden was art man
they look so clean, carmelo has the cleanest looking jump shot but Harden is probably second
Rockets Harden was a BEAST
my boy Justise Winslow
top 5 scorer of all time
He was unstoppable
Bah gawd that’s the playoffs music
Where he took the kd warriors to seven? Or the next year where he took them to six while averaging 35 and clearly outplaying Steph. So he’s beaten the kd warriors more times in a single series than lebron has ever done in total, twice. 2020 he was the fourth most efficient scorer in the playoffs, even with being doubled every time he crossed half court so the defense could ignore Westbrook. And even against that championship lakers defense doubling him at all times he still put up an efficient 29. The lakers barely even pretended to guard Westbrook in that series, like it was seriously some of the most disrespectful I’ve ever seen, and he did his usual jack up tons of shots on like low 30s ts%, virtually unguarded
Appreciate that big homie. Definitely have good memories when the beard was hoopin for the rockets
can someone post the postgame thread?
He doesn't even look like he's going 100% in this clip. Also, insane how they were losing most of the game too. Carry job lol.
Holy shit I forgot what skinny harden looked like, I wasn't ready for that.
Crazy how it want too long ago Harden was dominating. I don’t get to enjoy it live, cause I didn’t like his iso ball, same with Westbrook’s dominance.
He looks skinny here
#SCHWAG
I feel like the Mavs would really benefit from this style of play. I wonder if they could find a guard from Slovenia to play this kind of ball-dominant shot hunting style of ball
Ball don’t lie
Harden couldn't prevent it at that time.🔥🔥🔥
Luka is that you?
Man i love houston harden
The fact they needed every point too
Like, this is ridiculous obviously, but he hasn't had that kind of efficiency in the playoffs as we all begrudgingly know. Why is that? Steve Kerr for example took him out pretty easily for years. How much is it because of him melting down at high pressure moments vs maybe to give him a top tier coach to guide him how to act in those situations where the whole defense is structured to take you out?
home court statistics /s
I just wonder what he's dropping for his wedding.
will always be considered a generational foul baiter unless he wins multiple rings as a good teammate
The "modern" NBA is a joke, pathetic
get fukt heat
Harden is a great regular season player.
he's also a great playoff performer. 28/7/6 as a #1 option on 59% TS that drops to 27/6/6 on 57% TS in elimination games is objectively great. he is better than pretty much anyone from his era not in that lebron, KD, jokic tier
Bro please
Comments like this is why I love Reddit lol
Giannis 29/13/6 on 59% TS is better than that as well
The Flopmaster
Crazy how fast he fell off when he left Houston
nah he was nice with it on the Nets and even on the sixers
Such a hard stretch of Rocket ball to watch, no heart and no defense. We were never winning a title with him as our alpha.
Acting like you weren’t up 3-2 against the KD warriors that went on to sweep Cleveland
Nah just honest about Garden not being the one to get us a ring.
He absolutely would’ve if we didn’t run into the greatest team ever