And he took a $10 mil pay cut for the Sixers to sign Danuel House and PJ Tucker. I have always argued the Sixers made a wink wink deal to give him a max deal and they reneged. No matter what they say now. He has proved time and again that he is a good teammate.
Bro, Nic Claxton told us that the Nets locker room wasn’t the same after Harden left.
Maxey has directly benefited from Harden tutoring but hey he is bad teammate because he didn’t want to compete with Demarcus Cousins, John Wall and old antivaxx self form of Kyrie after playing on one leg during the Bucks series.
He’s very disliked by fans and a lot of media, people were saying he should’ve been benched for Russ when he got to the clippers which was literally just a brain dead take if you watch basketball in any capacity. People generally aren’t even objective when discussing harden unless absolutely forced to like they are today.
> people were saying he should’ve been benched for Russ when he got to the clippers which was literally just a brain dead take if you watch basketball in any capacity.
Some people still unironically think this.
The Locked on Clippers guy (@Dime Dropper) is one of them.
Just supremely low bball iq.
Honestly think some of it is that he doesn’t give a shit about his rep or the media so he doesn’t get the puff pieces other guys get or media connections who will discredit negative reports.
Didn’t he not have an agent?
He quit on us, twice. Miami heat series 2 seasons ago and Celtics last season. It was very obvious he didn’t give a shit
I don’t wish anything bad for harden but I do not miss him one bit, if we had him now we’d still lose in the 2nd round like always.
it’s time for a rebuild
He almost single handedly won y'all 2 games last year while dealing with some lingering injuries, including one game without Embiid
He wasn't great in every game but that series is on Doc and your overall team just not being that good
Of course it’s not all on harden.(he’s the only reason we won 2) Embiid didn’t show up (no surprise) doc sucked (no suprise) and in both 6/7 against the Celtics harden was a no show and his body language showed he didn’t give a fuck. Like I said no hate to him I’m glad he’s hooping again but I stand what I said. Even with him now , we wouldn’t touch an ECF
Lmao he’s literally the reason yall even pushed that series
He drops 45 with a game winner in Boston without Embiid
Then drops another 40 piece at home Game 4 while carrying Embiid who was not efficient whatsoever
34 yr old Harden doing this while dealing with lingering injuries
And yall did him dirty after that. Can’t believe Philly hates on him. You guys would’ve been in Cancun in 4 games if Harden didn’t do his thing
Your right man it’s no debate, in my post earlier I said (he’s the only reason we won 2 games) but like I said what’s it matter? Cancun in 4 or 6 still a loss. end result would still be the same even if we had him now, 2nd round AT MAX.. rebuild time, starting with trading the big guy.
The Mavs idea of shading him to one side just let him attack the basket relentlessly while the big was in drop. Would have liked to see them maybe stop guarding him that away after he got his 758th basket in a row.
Shading means you defend a guy angled in one direction more. So if a guy has a strong left hand you would shade him left (cutting off the option to go left) and forcing him to go right. Players that are less ambidextrous and can only dribble one way are generally shaded more because it takes their stronger hand away.
I think it means to force him to drive specifically to one hand (either drive left or drive right) while positioning themselves in a way where Harden can’t cross back towards the other side, which would force help. The problem with Dallas dropping their bigs is that Harden has an elite floater and he can pass very well, so bigs have to drop back to stop his lobs, which allows him to get to his float game
Positioning your body as the defender on angle to encourage the offensive player to go in one direction. Typically this is to force them to their weaker hand, or where there is already help waiting.
Imagine the amount of times you have seen Currys TS% stated. Harden is 1.6% less for his career. These guys are the greatest shooters ever, and will both finish 1st and 2nd all time in 3s made.
And that series was arguably the easiest of the Warriors' entire 2022 run as well(and they played 0 7 game series so the bar isn't even that high here)
Celtics and Grizzlies were clearly more competitive series and somehow they got crushed just as bad if not worse as the garbage 2022 Denver team as well
Out of the 4 Dallas losses 3 of them were more or less wire-to-wire(games 1/3/5) with only game 2 being one that they even really had a chance to win
It honestly probably was easier bc games 3-5 in the nuggets came down to the wire at least. If it wasn’t for will bartons stupidity in game 3 or curry’s heroics in game 5 Denver might have won either of those games.
Harden and CP3 were so close to taking down a healthy KD warriors, no one else came close to doing that. Literally a couple of calls or 1 or 2 threes go in and they're finalists, slight favorites to be champions and neither one is slandered like they are now.
Even with cp3 going down, it took a historically bad shooting in game 7 and some horrid reffing (waved off 3s, no calls on egs drives) to lose. Also worth noting that harden was good in the first half in game 6 and 7 (if I remember correctly), but was gassed in the second halves, didnt seem like he had the stamina to carry an entire offense without cp against a team like golden state. Still doesn’t completely excuse his performance but he probably doesn’t finish nearly as bad with cp in that series.
That will probably remain the biggest what if for my hopeless Rockets fandom.
Even without CP3 in the finals, that team beats CLE. With CP3? Gentlemen's sweep.
A ring (and career defining narrative shift) was right there for Harden, it just didn't work out.
"I think what you mean to say is,
Ask the producer to pipe this into the Clippers locker room so I can talk to you James. I hope you’re taking notes. I’m telling you in advance, you’re welcome, for the wisdom I’m about to spew. Because listen, I get on my knees every night and pray for someone to believe in me like Daryl Morey believed in you. You wanted a certain coach, they brought in Mike D’Antoni. You wanted to play a certain style, they played it. You wanted Dwight Howard, they brought him in and got rid of him when you were tired of him. You wanted Chris Paul, they brought him in and got rid of him when you were tired of him. They brought in your old friend Russell Westbrook. You want to go to Vegas on off days? They looked away. You wanted the team to stay over so you could go out at night, they changed the schedule—and it didn’t work.
And you know what, you said I’m gonna break up with my woobie, not good enough. I see the bright lights of New York. I want to go there. My old pal Kevin Durant. It’s gonna work, the big three—and all after one year you wanted out. You realized, “oh my gosh! I took this guy for granted, the guy that believed in me. I want back with Daryl Morey.” They traded Ben Simmons for you—how did they pull that off?
And you know what? You went there, and you got a partner who got the MVP. He won the MVP, and what did you say afterwards? You said, “they didn’t hand me the reins.” You’re the point guard! You were holding the reins! And what did you do when you had the reins? You scored 9 points in Game 7 against Boston, you blew a 3-2 series lead. So they fired their coach, not good enough. You broke up with the guy that believed in you again, you said “the bright lights of LA! That’s where I want to go! Let’s see if that works.”
Listen James, have you ever had those friends who had bad roommates? Over and over they complained about their bad roommates: “this guy’s terrible,” “the bad roommate here,” they never thought to be self aware enough that THEY’RE the bad roommate! They’re the problem! Hey James, YOU’RE the PROBLEM! If this doesn’t work this year, in this system, with this team, then you’re gonna go and point fingers at everybody else and then you’re gonna go back home and you’re gonna start swiping right for another team, and there’s not gonna be anyone left. Because James, you’re not the beard, you’re not the system, you’re the problem."
> You love to see it. Chances PG or Kawhi say fuck this and become free agents this off season?
What the fuck are these idiots smoking? So embarrassing especially Harden is outplaying Kawhi and PG by a mile this series
This man just doesn’t lose in the first round. Never been swept too. One of the most underappreciated and constantly underrated playoff performers ever.
People are talking about the floaters that he got in the last few minutes, but the way he was organizing the offense once the lead got to single digits was masterful. Just kept his composure and was absolutely not rattled by the atmosphere like some of his teammates.
This old veteran version of Harden might not have the explosiveness that he once had but just might be the most complete he’s ever been in the playoffs.
heh. I definitely never said that, I respect Harden and think he's underrated. still hopeful we pull out the series though. Luka hasn't been quite right this whole series, he's yet to have a great game. Hopefully he gets it together in game 5.
yeah I mean the Clippers don't have their best player in Kawhi so that should be the outcome
and yet... Luka is still sucking ass and Harden is leading the league in efficiency this post season for anyone scoring over 20 ppg
That could very well happen but it's still possible (and likely) that Harden ends up with a better series than Luka.
Luka has been straight up terrible.
both are my favorite players of all time with harden being slightly ahead but I think 4 games is to little to completely disregard that. I think Luka is harden but gets BETTER in the playoffs. Harden isn't a choker but he definitely doesn't go higher than his reg szn.
So far in the playoffs, Luka is averaging 29/9.8/8.5 on 50.6% (38.6/26.5/80.6) with 3.8 tpg. Harden is averaging 26/4/7 on 73% ts (54.1/50/91.3) with 2.3 tpg.
Make of that what you will
Back to back yr of Playoffs Harden being the best player on his team despite "on paper" Embiid/Kawhi/PG should've been better. Shit, he's been the best offensive player this series
Giving harden props now before elimination games is like giving the mvp to embiid before he gets injured. Let's fucking wait till the series gets closed out first. He has historical precedence of choking it when it matters
The implication of slandering his elimination game performances is saying that he can't perform when pressure reaches its highest point. I'm countering that by pointing out the stakes of this game.
It isn't elimination at the end of the day no matter how high the stakes are. You can call it "elimination like" but it isn't winner take all. It isn't lose and you go home.
You are pointing out two different things in your initial post.
1.) He plays poorly in elimination games. This is true.
2.) "He has historical precedence of choking it when it matters." The people responding to you are correctly pointing out that game 4 being down 2-1 matters a ton.
73.1% TS is beyond insane
The Harden slander has been outrageous, after what he did for the 76ers last postseason. Never understood the hate he receives.
And he took a $10 mil pay cut for the Sixers to sign Danuel House and PJ Tucker. I have always argued the Sixers made a wink wink deal to give him a max deal and they reneged. No matter what they say now. He has proved time and again that he is a good teammate.
He has also said the same thing. That they promised him a max when he signed the 1+1 deal on a paycut.
Then Philly fans tried to argue he was in the wrong and acted like Morey of all fuckin people was some unsung hero lol
Daryl Morey is a liar (and might be the reason PG doesn’t sign with the Sixers in the offseason)
Bro, Nic Claxton told us that the Nets locker room wasn’t the same after Harden left. Maxey has directly benefited from Harden tutoring but hey he is bad teammate because he didn’t want to compete with Demarcus Cousins, John Wall and old antivaxx self form of Kyrie after playing on one leg during the Bucks series.
He’s very disliked by fans and a lot of media, people were saying he should’ve been benched for Russ when he got to the clippers which was literally just a brain dead take if you watch basketball in any capacity. People generally aren’t even objective when discussing harden unless absolutely forced to like they are today.
> people were saying he should’ve been benched for Russ when he got to the clippers which was literally just a brain dead take if you watch basketball in any capacity. Some people still unironically think this. The Locked on Clippers guy (@Dime Dropper) is one of them. Just supremely low bball iq.
He will never like him, i know he is going give him credit for today's performance but once he struggles, he will start whining bout the trade again
Honestly think some of it is that he doesn’t give a shit about his rep or the media so he doesn’t get the puff pieces other guys get or media connections who will discredit negative reports. Didn’t he not have an agent?
Yeah, a relative handling agent duties and no one to put out PR from his side so people would only hear the teams perspective
How about now?
I mean a lot of it is from your fanbase. More hate for him than Kyrie lol
I hate how he’s a flopper but he’s fucking amazing as a player.
He quit on us, twice. Miami heat series 2 seasons ago and Celtics last season. It was very obvious he didn’t give a shit I don’t wish anything bad for harden but I do not miss him one bit, if we had him now we’d still lose in the 2nd round like always. it’s time for a rebuild
He almost single handedly won y'all 2 games last year while dealing with some lingering injuries, including one game without Embiid He wasn't great in every game but that series is on Doc and your overall team just not being that good
Of course it’s not all on harden.(he’s the only reason we won 2) Embiid didn’t show up (no surprise) doc sucked (no suprise) and in both 6/7 against the Celtics harden was a no show and his body language showed he didn’t give a fuck. Like I said no hate to him I’m glad he’s hooping again but I stand what I said. Even with him now , we wouldn’t touch an ECF
He was the best player for y’all in the Boston series
Agreed. He still quit in 6/7 2 things can be true
Lmao he’s literally the reason yall even pushed that series He drops 45 with a game winner in Boston without Embiid Then drops another 40 piece at home Game 4 while carrying Embiid who was not efficient whatsoever 34 yr old Harden doing this while dealing with lingering injuries And yall did him dirty after that. Can’t believe Philly hates on him. You guys would’ve been in Cancun in 4 games if Harden didn’t do his thing
Your right man it’s no debate, in my post earlier I said (he’s the only reason we won 2 games) but like I said what’s it matter? Cancun in 4 or 6 still a loss. end result would still be the same even if we had him now, 2nd round AT MAX.. rebuild time, starting with trading the big guy.
The Mavs idea of shading him to one side just let him attack the basket relentlessly while the big was in drop. Would have liked to see them maybe stop guarding him that away after he got his 758th basket in a row.
What does shading mean? I see that term a lot
Shading means you defend a guy angled in one direction more. So if a guy has a strong left hand you would shade him left (cutting off the option to go left) and forcing him to go right. Players that are less ambidextrous and can only dribble one way are generally shaded more because it takes their stronger hand away.
Ty
My pleasure
I think it means to force him to drive specifically to one hand (either drive left or drive right) while positioning themselves in a way where Harden can’t cross back towards the other side, which would force help. The problem with Dallas dropping their bigs is that Harden has an elite floater and he can pass very well, so bigs have to drop back to stop his lobs, which allows him to get to his float game
Positioning your body as the defender on angle to encourage the offensive player to go in one direction. Typically this is to force them to their weaker hand, or where there is already help waiting.
Definitely feels like a coaching failure in those last couple of minutes. Harden was scoring so easily and there was no adjustment.
the way Harden played in the 4th it wouldn't have mattered
Most of his 3s are heavily contested too.
Imagine the amount of times you have seen Currys TS% stated. Harden is 1.6% less for his career. These guys are the greatest shooters ever, and will both finish 1st and 2nd all time in 3s made.
Wow looked and harden is only 37 behind Ray Allen for 3’s
I haven't seen anyone say Curry like TS%, but yeah for guards those are the standards.
"Injured Superstar Teammate in the Playoffs" Harden is up there with the greats. A little wordy, though.
2024 Harden outplaying “BITW” Luka
Playoff Harden at that
Harden is leading the league this post season in TS% for anyone scoring over 20 PPG.
And then they say he clears prime Harden. Man put fear in the hearts of Steph and KD, while Luka can’t even make the Wiggins warriors sweat
And that series was arguably the easiest of the Warriors' entire 2022 run as well(and they played 0 7 game series so the bar isn't even that high here) Celtics and Grizzlies were clearly more competitive series and somehow they got crushed just as bad if not worse as the garbage 2022 Denver team as well Out of the 4 Dallas losses 3 of them were more or less wire-to-wire(games 1/3/5) with only game 2 being one that they even really had a chance to win
It honestly probably was easier bc games 3-5 in the nuggets came down to the wire at least. If it wasn’t for will bartons stupidity in game 3 or curry’s heroics in game 5 Denver might have won either of those games.
Harden and CP3 were so close to taking down a healthy KD warriors, no one else came close to doing that. Literally a couple of calls or 1 or 2 threes go in and they're finalists, slight favorites to be champions and neither one is slandered like they are now.
Even with cp3 going down, it took a historically bad shooting in game 7 and some horrid reffing (waved off 3s, no calls on egs drives) to lose. Also worth noting that harden was good in the first half in game 6 and 7 (if I remember correctly), but was gassed in the second halves, didnt seem like he had the stamina to carry an entire offense without cp against a team like golden state. Still doesn’t completely excuse his performance but he probably doesn’t finish nearly as bad with cp in that series.
Everyone likes to clown them for the missed 3s, no one likes to acknowledge the hatchet job the officials pulled on them in the same game.
That will probably remain the biggest what if for my hopeless Rockets fandom. Even without CP3 in the finals, that team beats CLE. With CP3? Gentlemen's sweep. A ring (and career defining narrative shift) was right there for Harden, it just didn't work out.
this is my favorite thing to say to luka fans.
"I think what you mean to say is, Ask the producer to pipe this into the Clippers locker room so I can talk to you James. I hope you’re taking notes. I’m telling you in advance, you’re welcome, for the wisdom I’m about to spew. Because listen, I get on my knees every night and pray for someone to believe in me like Daryl Morey believed in you. You wanted a certain coach, they brought in Mike D’Antoni. You wanted to play a certain style, they played it. You wanted Dwight Howard, they brought him in and got rid of him when you were tired of him. You wanted Chris Paul, they brought him in and got rid of him when you were tired of him. They brought in your old friend Russell Westbrook. You want to go to Vegas on off days? They looked away. You wanted the team to stay over so you could go out at night, they changed the schedule—and it didn’t work. And you know what, you said I’m gonna break up with my woobie, not good enough. I see the bright lights of New York. I want to go there. My old pal Kevin Durant. It’s gonna work, the big three—and all after one year you wanted out. You realized, “oh my gosh! I took this guy for granted, the guy that believed in me. I want back with Daryl Morey.” They traded Ben Simmons for you—how did they pull that off? And you know what? You went there, and you got a partner who got the MVP. He won the MVP, and what did you say afterwards? You said, “they didn’t hand me the reins.” You’re the point guard! You were holding the reins! And what did you do when you had the reins? You scored 9 points in Game 7 against Boston, you blew a 3-2 series lead. So they fired their coach, not good enough. You broke up with the guy that believed in you again, you said “the bright lights of LA! That’s where I want to go! Let’s see if that works.” Listen James, have you ever had those friends who had bad roommates? Over and over they complained about their bad roommates: “this guy’s terrible,” “the bad roommate here,” they never thought to be self aware enough that THEY’RE the bad roommate! They’re the problem! Hey James, YOU’RE the PROBLEM! If this doesn’t work this year, in this system, with this team, then you’re gonna go and point fingers at everybody else and then you’re gonna go back home and you’re gonna start swiping right for another team, and there’s not gonna be anyone left. Because James, you’re not the beard, you’re not the system, you’re the problem."
One of the weirdest rants from someone with no stake in the situation. Harden is absolutely a problem for them now though
Indeed. Harden has been awesome.
Bro pulled up like Thanos and said "Fine, I'll BE your problem." Fucking BALLING out of his mind.
The way people ate that shit up and acted like that guy was cooking with that rant is still embarrassing
I was in awe by the stupidity of that rant and all the comments about it on this sub. That dude really thought he did something
Tbf Harden is a fucking problem tho
The Problem/The System
wtf? Who said this?
mavs announcer at the start of the season lmao
This man was supposed to be third option for us when we traded for him
I'm de captain now
Unstoppable tonight. Floater after floater.
Philly could use him right now
I like that
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/BwfRDnXJZV
> Bro left the league MVP and a team with a ton of depth to completely destroy the clippers overnight These comments are insane man
> You love to see it. Chances PG or Kawhi say fuck this and become free agents this off season? What the fuck are these idiots smoking? So embarrassing especially Harden is outplaying Kawhi and PG by a mile this series
I love how people were overreacting to Harden being a “bad fit” when it was clear that they had to improve their chemistry
Has he been covering these games or is he still avoiding the Clippers?
Like Chris Hemsworth said to Anthony Hopkins, he’s a coward and a fool.
Actually disgusting how many upvotes that got.
This man just doesn’t lose in the first round. Never been swept too. One of the most underappreciated and constantly underrated playoff performers ever. People are talking about the floaters that he got in the last few minutes, but the way he was organizing the offense once the lead got to single digits was masterful. Just kept his composure and was absolutely not rattled by the atmosphere like some of his teammates. This old veteran version of Harden might not have the explosiveness that he once had but just might be the most complete he’s ever been in the playoffs.
That's my fat playoff choker
Didn't people say Luka was Harden, but without the playoff choking? Where are those people now?
HELLO MOTHAFUCKA
heh. I definitely never said that, I respect Harden and think he's underrated. still hopeful we pull out the series though. Luka hasn't been quite right this whole series, he's yet to have a great game. Hopefully he gets it together in game 5.
Series isn’t over.
Hi. Mavs in 6
yeah I mean the Clippers don't have their best player in Kawhi so that should be the outcome and yet... Luka is still sucking ass and Harden is leading the league in efficiency this post season for anyone scoring over 20 ppg
Kyrie is the reason for that, not Luka
Yeah too bad harden never played with him
Are you stupid or just ignoring the fact that they both got injured in the only playoffs they played together?
No I’m not being sarcastic
That could very well happen but it's still possible (and likely) that Harden ends up with a better series than Luka. Luka has been straight up terrible.
I mean.. Clips without their best player, and Kyrie hard-carrying Luka's playoff legacy might be the reason.
The recency bias ITT is hilarious. How about the past 7 years?
I mean harden has some blunders in the past , this probably only time we’ve seen Luka underperform
both are my favorite players of all time with harden being slightly ahead but I think 4 games is to little to completely disregard that. I think Luka is harden but gets BETTER in the playoffs. Harden isn't a choker but he definitely doesn't go higher than his reg szn.
LMAOOO hall of fame floater game GESSIR
So many less upvotes than deserved. He was hugeeeee tn.
So far in the playoffs, Luka is averaging 29/9.8/8.5 on 50.6% (38.6/26.5/80.6) with 3.8 tpg. Harden is averaging 26/4/7 on 73% ts (54.1/50/91.3) with 2.3 tpg. Make of that what you will
he was frying the "defensive stopper" Luka over and over again
Back to back yr of Playoffs Harden being the best player on his team despite "on paper" Embiid/Kawhi/PG should've been better. Shit, he's been the best offensive player this series
Outplaying the shit out of Luka too
He has been really really great. I sure hope he starts missing at some point.
Carrying them boys
Harden outplaying luka lmfao
Straight up best mode in the 4th...cold as ICE... Kyrie was unbelievable as well tbf
he's back
Clippers always make the best trades
Former Thunder and current Thunder are eating in these playoffs
[удалено]
Being held back by Doc Rivers and his terrorist spacing with Embiid/PJ Tucker/Tobias
Giving harden props now before elimination games is like giving the mvp to embiid before he gets injured. Let's fucking wait till the series gets closed out first. He has historical precedence of choking it when it matters
“Only one game matters. The rest of the playoffs series doesn’t matter”
This was practically an elimination game. They would've been 3-1 down with Kawhi in the infirmary
There's no such thing as practically. It either is or isn't
The implication of slandering his elimination game performances is saying that he can't perform when pressure reaches its highest point. I'm countering that by pointing out the stakes of this game.
It isn't elimination at the end of the day no matter how high the stakes are. You can call it "elimination like" but it isn't winner take all. It isn't lose and you go home.
You are pointing out two different things in your initial post. 1.) He plays poorly in elimination games. This is true. 2.) "He has historical precedence of choking it when it matters." The people responding to you are correctly pointing out that game 4 being down 2-1 matters a ton.
how does todays game not matter? in what world is it possible to say avoiding going down 3-1 and reclaiming home court doesn't matter
Looks like we found Zach Lowe's reddit account
That's why the "so far" Just stating the stats, obviously it could go either way from here on out but he's been good so far
it doesn't matter to avoid going down 3-1 while on the road and missing the teams best player? there's no pressure to win? you are a completely moron
As I've said before elimination and elimination like aren't the same thing
This game is what you call a historical if he doesn't perform well