At this point, I'm just rooting for Harden to have a Beard-like season when all is said and done.
I wasn't a big fan of the trade last season because I feared this kind of thing (James slowing down) was pretty inevitable, even if the exact timing was hard to predict. Still, in terms of this season, I personally believe he'll continue to get stronger, but the writing is kinda on the wall here, far as I can see.
Our team has given me unexpected joy this season (I love defense), but we're going to need a peak-form Beard and some other X-factor (I was hoping Clax would be it) in order to overcome whichever lethal killer comes out of the West (Dubs or Suns).
It just is what it is IMO.
I predict us continuing to get cohesive all season, yet still being edged out in either the East Finals or the NBA Finals, both to better-knit teams.
I hope my utterly damnest that I'm completely wrong, but we'll see.
I'm really not a fan of Shemp Curry (I've never been a fan of celebrating in other peoples' faces), but this guy is just crushingly, amazingly good, like even Ray Allen and Reggie Miller dropping-jaws-time, times two. Times
anything, really.
I think we MIGHT be able to upset these absolute killers, but it would likely require Clax getting back on track, Blake rediscovering his mojo, and Beard getting back in to peak form.
One can only imagine if Kyrie were to descend from Mount Olympus in order to seal the deal. Because despite everything, I think I'd buy that!

(also heavily disagree that he'd be disruptive, because Kyrie's a brilliant iso-scorer, and that's who we are at this point, que non?)