The James Harden Thread (2019-20)

[Krodis]

You know, I don't know if I've seen a player have gravity towards the half court line before.

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[ShotCreator]

Harden is having one of the greatest seasons of all-time. He is GOAT-level right now without exaggeration.

Playing the best defense I’ve ever seen from him and maybe the best offense ever as well.

Him getting spam doubled by a team of Toronto’s caliber is incomprehensible. His gravity is topping Curry or Shaq’s right now. A true cheat code and good defender.

[ShotCreator]

OTOH Westbrook has to be having the worst season for a recent MVP ever. How many guys went from league MVP to journey man(Rondo) level in two seasons?

[Krodis]

Harden is having one of the greatest seasons of all-time. He is GOAT-level right now without exaggeration.

Playing the best defense I’ve ever seen from him and maybe the best offense ever as well.

Him getting spam doubled by a team of Toronto’s caliber is incomprehensible. His gravity is topping Curry or Shaq’s right now. A true cheat code and good defender.

One of the best defensive teams in the league, who has locked up opposing stars all year, has basically decided they're not even going to try dealing with Harden even if it means the Rockets basically play the entire game as a secondary break. This is a regular season game.


This is just beyond silly.

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[Colbinii]

OTOH Westbrook has to be having the worst season for a recent MVP ever. How many guys went from league MVP to journey man(Rondo) level in two seasons?

Rose, McAdoo, Walton

All injuries.

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[Colbinii]

I really don't get why people hate on athletes. They perfect a craft to a point where I can't do anything but be amazed.



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[Peregrine01]

Harden is having one of the greatest seasons of all-time. He is GOAT-level right now without exaggeration.

Playing the best defense I’ve ever seen from him and maybe the best offense ever as well.

Him getting spam doubled by a team of Toronto’s caliber is incomprehensible. His gravity is topping Curry or Shaq’s right now. A true cheat code and good defender.

One of the best defensive teams in the league, who has locked up opposing stars all year, has basically decided they're not even going to try dealing with Harden even if it means the Rockets basically play the entire game as a secondary break. This is a regular season game.


This is just beyond silly.

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The Raps can do that because Russ is basically a complete non threat on the weak side. He can’t hit an open 3 and he doesn’t even cut either.

[Krodis]

Harden is having one of the greatest seasons of all-time. He is GOAT-level right now without exaggeration.

Playing the best defense I’ve ever seen from him and maybe the best offense ever as well.

Him getting spam doubled by a team of Toronto’s caliber is incomprehensible. His gravity is topping Curry or Shaq’s right now. A true cheat code and good defender.

One of the best defensive teams in the league, who has locked up opposing stars all year, has basically decided they're not even going to try dealing with Harden even if it means the Rockets basically play the entire game as a secondary break. This is a regular season game.


This is just beyond silly.

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The Raps can do that because Russ is basically a complete non threat on the weak side. He can’t hit an open 3 and he doesn’t even cut either.

Well they couldn't really do it.

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[Peregrine01]

One of the best defensive teams in the league, who has locked up opposing stars all year, has basically decided they're not even going to try dealing with Harden even if it means the Rockets basically play the entire game as a secondary break. This is a regular season game.


This is just beyond silly.

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The Raps can do that because Russ is basically a complete non threat on the weak side. He can’t hit an open 3 and he doesn’t even cut either.

Well they couldn't really do it.

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It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

[Krodis]

The Raps can do that because Russ is basically a complete non threat on the weak side. He can’t hit an open 3 and he doesn’t even cut either.

Well they couldn't really do it.

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It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

I don't think you and I watched the same game.

[Peregrine01]

Well they couldn't really do it.

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It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

I don't think you and I watched the same game.

?? The Raps basically stifled the HOuston half court offense. They lost because they gave up 24 offensive rebounds to their own 33 defensive rebounds and couldn’t hit an open 3. I thought that this was pretty obvious. And the missed long threes were practically turnovers that fed transition opportunities.

A lot of teams are gonna look at the defense that the Raps played when Russ is on the floor and are gonna do the same. I don’t blame them - Russ is hitting 22% on (mostly open) threes.

[GSP]

It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

I don't think you and I watched the same game.

?? The Raps basically stifled the HOuston half court offense. They lost because they gave up 24 offensive rebounds to their own 33 defensive rebounds and couldn’t hit an open 3. I thought that this was pretty obvious. And the missed long threes were practically turnovers that fed transition opportunities.

A lot of teams are gonna look at the defense that the Raps played when Russ is on the floor and are gonna do the same. I don’t blame them - Russ is hitting 22% on (mostly open) threes.

Umm teams have generally been playing them like this since Denver put the blueprint out. Denver's timing on the late shot clocks and playing Hardens direction on drives were close to perfect tho

[Krodis]

It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

I don't think you and I watched the same game.

?? The Raps basically stifled the HOuston half court offense. They lost because they gave up 24 offensive rebounds to their own 33 defensive rebounds and couldn’t hit an open 3. I thought that this was pretty obvious. And the missed long threes were practically turnovers that fed transition opportunities.

A lot of teams are gonna look at the defense that the Raps played when Russ is on the floor and are gonna do the same. I don’t blame them - Russ is hitting 22% on (mostly open) threes.

A large part of the reason they gave up so many offensive rebounds is because the defense was scrambling.

[Dr Spaceman]

OTOH Westbrook has to be having the worst season for a recent MVP ever. How many guys went from league MVP to journey man(Rondo) level in two seasons?

I’d actually like him better if he played more like Rondo ie. Refusing to shoot instead of going 7/27 from the field.

[Dr Spaceman]

Since the Miami debacle Harden is shooting 12 threes off the dribble per game at 39.5%. That means his step back three alone is worth 1.2 points per possession- and that’s without accounting for fouls which he gets a lot.

This is completely broken. He has more on-ball gravity right now than any player since I’ve been watching seriously. He’s basically become the perimeter Hakeem except he’s sorting threes instead of 2s. At this rate this is going to end up the greatest offensive regular season of all time.

[Colbinii]

The Raps can do that because Russ is basically a complete non threat on the weak side. He can’t hit an open 3 and he doesn’t even cut either.

Well they couldn't really do it.

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It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

Umm....The reason they couldn't rebound is because they were scrambling and the non-shooters of Houston crash the paint while the defenders werw running towards the perimeter.

I'm sort of shocked you are saying this. I watched the entire game and it wasn't some "fluke" as to why Houston was getting these rebounds.

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[Dr Spaceman]

Well they couldn't really do it.

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It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

Umm....The reason they couldn't rebound is because they were scrambling and the non-shooters of Houston crash the paint while the defenders werw running towards the perimeter.

I'm sort of shocked you are saying this. I watched the entire game and it wasn't some "fluke" as to why Houston was getting these rebounds.

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It’s not worth it, his mind was made up years ago. The only thing that works to him are 18 passes per possession and Durant and Harden are trash and cancers on the league.

[Peregrine01]

Well they couldn't really do it.

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It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

Umm....The reason they couldn't rebound is because they were scrambling and the non-shooters of Houston crash the paint while the defenders werw running towards the perimeter.

I'm sort of shocked you are saying this. I watched the entire game and it wasn't some "fluke" as to why Houston was getting these rebounds.

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Thats possible but a defense is always scrambling against a five out offense. Importantly, the Raps were basically not even guarding Russ outside of the paint so Gasol and Ibaka just sat under the rim. Not convinced that that was the reason why the Rockets had a near 40% ORB rate (Capela alone was at 25%). Sometimes that’s just the way the ball bounces.

[Colbinii]

It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

Umm....The reason they couldn't rebound is because they were scrambling and the non-shooters of Houston crash the paint while the defenders werw running towards the perimeter.

I'm sort of shocked you are saying this. I watched the entire game and it wasn't some "fluke" as to why Houston was getting these rebounds.

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Thats possible but a defense is always scrambling against a five out offense. Importantly, the Raps were basically not even guarding Russ outside of the paint so Gasol and Ibaka just sat under the rim. Not convinced that that was the reason why the Rockets had a near 40% ORB rate (Capela alone was at 25%). Sometimes that’s just the way the ball bounces.

While defense is normally scrambling the fact that Toronto doubled Harden every possession changed the type of scramble it was and made it even more chaotic than normal.

Houston is one of the best OReb teams in the league already while Toronto is one of the worst [Houston 3rd, Toronto 29th].

None of this is surprising. None.

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[Colbinii]

It did work. Raps just couldn’t get any rebounds or hit a three. Rockets did most of their damage in transition.

Umm....The reason they couldn't rebound is because they were scrambling and the non-shooters of Houston crash the paint while the defenders werw running towards the perimeter.

I'm sort of shocked you are saying this. I watched the entire game and it wasn't some "fluke" as to why Houston was getting these rebounds.

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It’s not worth it, his mind was made up years ago. The only thing that works to him are 18 passes per possession and Durant and Harden are trash and cancers on the league.

Players who maximize their skill-sets within the framework of the rules are trash. Didn't you know that Spaceman?

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