Prokorov wrote:Hello Brooklyn wrote:Prokorov wrote:
Harden has been pretty elite in the playoffs. 2 Game 7's have really skewed the narrative on a guy with 100+ playoff games whose only black eyes in the playoffs are losing to the KD warriors in 7 and the Lebron lakers.
Ok fair point.
Hes been bad in pivotal moments in the playoffs.
There was also that Spurs series in 2017.
And he lost to the Warriors without KD in 2019 at home w/ 0 points for Steph in the first half. That was by far his worst one.
yeah i mean he has definetly laid some eggs in big spots. but people over-hate on him in the playoffs. he led his teams to 55-60+ win seasons and deep playoff runs. conference finals, was in 1 NBA final. and for the most part he has been a jauggernaut. i think its easy to point to game 7 while overlooking he helped force a game 7 as an underdog in those series after already getting his team a few rounds deep.
its one of those things where you almost get penalixed for losing deeper. like lebron losing 5 NBA finals or whatever. is that somehow worse then MAgic or MJ losing in the conference finals? (not saying he is better then MJ).
Its almost like if another player loses in 6 he doesnt take as big a hit for being a chocker then someone who dominated game 6 to send it to game 7 and then laid an egg.
My overall thoughts on Harden:
-arguably the best RS player in the league
-clearly less effective in the PS than the RS, and not purely just because he's facing better defenses, but because of some legit flaws in his game, which have led to underwhelming performances in some big spots (loves to ball stop and dribble out the shot clock, loves to dominate the ball in general, useless off the ball by choice, is always going to be below average defensively, style of play leads to him getting tired the deeper a series/playoff run goes and like I said, he doesn't have enough counters as an off ball player in order to remain effective)...but still overall an excellent player that can lead a deep playoff run, but he's no LeBron, and he's proven to be a little hard to find the right second star for (has had issues with Dwight, CP3, and Westbrook)
-due to his ball-dominant style of play and disinterest in being an effective off ball player, I think there are legit concerns about his ability to fit with other talented players in order to produce something that's at least the sum of its parts, if not moreso...I think you're more likely to get diminishing returns
-overall though, one of the best players in the league, a top 7 player at minimum, excluding Durant and Curry since we don't know how they'll look coming back (whatever order you want to put him in with Davis, Giannis, Luka, Jokic, and Kawhi, with LeBron at #1)