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rates Harden as the 13th best player in the NBA behind the likes of Klay Thompson, Lowry, Aldrige, Lillard, Paul George and Draymon Green to name a few.

I have never seen a player get crapped on more than Harden by ESPN, when Harden plays good defense, then he is a ballhog, when Harden passes the ball, he is not scoring enough, when harden goes for rebounds espn's amin elhassin claims hes a stat padder smh... this is getting insane

the dude is a top 5 player, but gets no respect, he was robbed of mvp, and didnt once bit*h about it.. the players voted him mvp and espn still hasnt gotten over it

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15090956/russell-westbrook-passes-lebron-james-kevin-durant-chris-broussard-player-power-rankings-nba

It's Broussard. He's a pretty well known idiot on par with skip and Steven A. and doesn't speak for all of ESPN at all. No reason to be upset, these rankings mean nothing.


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I was going to come here and open a new thread but this seems like a good place to offer my question.

Do Rockets fans (in general) like James Harden and if so, why?

He is clearly not a #1 guy for a championship team. So if winning a title is your goal (and shouldn't it be?) then why support him again articles such as this? If winning a title isn't the and rather simply being an entertaining team is all you want then sure but I would ask you (and Harden himself), where is your competitive spirit?

Did you wake up from coma and miss all of last season? Seemed like a good number one guy then


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K_chile22 wrote:Did you wake up from coma and miss all of last season? Seemed like a good number one guy then


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False. They were lucky to avoid the Spurs and were spanked by the Warriors.

Calling Harden a bad defending is an insult to players who are working on improving. Harden flat out doesn't care. He holds the ball in isolation which enflates his own stats and ruins team offense. If he is firing on all cylinders then it doesn't matter as much. This can earn you a fun regular season but in the playoffs against the best teams who can game plan for you over a series this just isn't going to work... ever.

MagicFan101 wrote:

K_chile22 wrote:Did you wake up from coma and miss all of last season? Seemed like a good number one guy then


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False. They were lucky to avoid the Spurs and were spanked by the Warriors.

Calling Harden a bad defending is an insult to players who are working on improving. Harden flat out doesn't care. He holds the ball in isolation which enflates his own stats and ruins team offense. If he is firing on all cylinders then it doesn't matter as much. This can earn you a fun regular season but in the playoffs against the best teams who can game plan for you over a series this just isn't going to work... ever.

Who can win being the number one guy?
Curry? How Iguodala won the Final MVP?
Leonard? He got former Final MVP in Duncan and Parker to help him.
LeBron? He got Wade. Another former Final MVP. Let see if he can win with Irving and Love.
Can Harden win being the number one option? I believe he can with enough help.
How much do you watch the Rockets play?
Do you know this team isn't capable of scoring without Harden?
He's saving all his energy on offensive end, that's why you see him being lazy on defense (actually being tired).
NBA players voted Harden to be the MVP, because he IS the most valuable player to his team.
Warriors without Curry still can win at least 50% of the game.
Rockets without Harden will be last place in the West.
Do I like Harden? No. I don't like Morey either.

MaxRider wrote:

MagicFan101 wrote:

K_chile22 wrote:Did you wake up from coma and miss all of last season? Seemed like a good number one guy then


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False. They were lucky to avoid the Spurs and were spanked by the Warriors.

Calling Harden a bad defending is an insult to players who are working on improving. Harden flat out doesn't care. He holds the ball in isolation which enflates his own stats and ruins team offense. If he is firing on all cylinders then it doesn't matter as much. This can earn you a fun regular season but in the playoffs against the best teams who can game plan for you over a series this just isn't going to work... ever.

Who can win being the number one guy?
Curry? How Iguodala won the Final MVP?
Leonard? He got former Final MVP in Duncan and Parker to help him.
LeBron? He got Wade. Another former Final MVP. Let see if he can win with Irving and Love.
Can Harden win being the number one option? I believe he can with enough help.
How much do you watch the Rockets play?
Do you know this team isn't capable of scoring without Harden?
He's saving all his energy on offensive end, that's why you see him being lazy on defense (actually being tired).
NBA players voted Harden to be the MVP, because he IS the most valuable player to his team.
Warriors without Curry still can win at least 50% of the game.
Rockets without Harden will be last place in the West.
Do I like Harden? No. I don't like Morey either.

Winning as the #1 guy doesn't mean you don't have quality players around you. Along with the examples you gave there are countless more throughout the history of the league.

To use your own examples, why is it that Wade and Bosh could start with Lebron but Harden couldn't with Durant and Westbrook? We have seen great players adjust their game to fit into a team and find ways contribute when there might not always be enough shots to go around. But guys like Harden and Carmelo Anthony ruin the offense of their teams while adding nothing on defense. If you're going to give him free rein on offense then you have given up on winning a title.

I grew up in Florida (hence being an Orlando fan) but I have lived in Texas for the past 7 years. The support for Harden among Rockets fans always puzzled me. Don't get me wrong, I have had the same conversation with Orlando fans who loved Tobias Harris for jacking up fluffer stats. So this isn't an anti-Rockets post, but rather a search for why fans of a TEAM would go so far to defend such a limited player.

It's not that he couldn't, he closed with them every game. Scott Brroks just liked him coming off the bench. Did you ever watch the thunder? "Well Ginobli couldn't start with Tim and Tony so something must be wrong with him"

Such a dumb point and I don't think you have your objective glasses on. Harden is not like Carmelo at all. He's 100x more willing and able to pass the ball


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Comparing Harden to Tobias Harris. Good lord


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It's Broussard, and the dude is arguably more stupid than Skip Bayless. Still, Harden's limitations have become maddeningly frustrating this season. If he doesn't have the ball he runs over to get it or just stands at the three point line waiting for it. His offense consists of him holding the ball our for three seconds and shooting a step back or charging into the lane hoping for a whistle. He's the same player he was when he got to Houston. He's useless without the ball. I don't care about his stats. Kevin Love put up big numbers. He isn't a number one guy on a contender either.

If I thought we could get a decent point guard and keep Howard, I'd trade Harden for Klay without thinking about it.

about right. he's a bit of a joke on defense, and aside from gifting other players points, it's seirosuly demoralizing to have your leader again and again just flat out not play defense. on offense he's very talented, but dribbles way too much and creates a stagnant offense without good man and ball movement.

the ranking sounds right too me, I do agree with the player rankings.

bigbreakfast wrote:about right. he's a bit of a joke on defense, and aside from gifting other players points, it's seirosuly demoralizing to have your leader again and again just flat out not play defense. on offense he's very talented, but dribbles way too much and creates a stagnant offense without good man and ball movement.

agreed.

OP you need to watch more basketball other than Harden because you seem disconnected with reality.

Harden is a great player, but that doesnt mean he is better than those above him in the rankings - for MANY reasons. He just isnt as good on many different levels.

People keep forgetting Harden was a superior 6th man, he didn't at any point show during his time at OKC that he was LEADER that played both sides of the ball - every single possession. As a scorer he is a great weapon, on the offense, he isn't the ultimate weapon but he contributes points.

No one was saying he had elite bball iq, or elite defense, or was a floor general etc - just because he got signed to a large contract and given the reigns to the Rockets never meant he was automatically graduated to top 10 nba.

So after the Thunder get back to WCF tonight, OKC fans are saying they won the Harden trade with Steven Adams having a very good semi final series. He's only 22 and could develop into an all star. Will be a great matchup against Bogut in WCF (Aussie vs Kiwi). Hopefully Capela can develop into a similar player.