If you knew him, you would say otherwise. Perhaps he turned realist in this thread but overall he is still one of the biggest homers.
You must be crazy to put Leonard ahead of Harden, Yes Leonard is probably the best defender in the league but there is no chance in hell I would take him over Harden.
I agree, that in reality elite wing offense is easier to build a team around, and no one defender is on an island thus offense is better.. Leonard's offense definitely isn't on the level of Harden's but it's good enough to be option 1A on a championship team IMO. No one superstar, aside from maybe Lebron is carrying a team to the finals by himself anyway. And he's definitely the best on defense.
but Kawhi Leonard isn't Tony Allen. so much disrespect for a guy who can create his own shot, score over 20 without dominating the ball, plus shoot 10% from 3 better than Harden.
I disagree on him as option 1A on a championship team. A strong secondary option though imo. And multiple superstars could carry a team to the Finals if they were in the Eastern Conference in LeBron's place.... Competition is weak and just look at the talent out East in comparison.... Who is the second best player out East? Name the top 5 players in the East outside of LeBron... Exactly.
He's solid at getting his own shot.... It's easier to score when you have multiple playmakers and quality passers on your team that can get you easy layups and wide open jumpshots.... Harden would shoot higher %s overall and over 40% from 3 if he was playing on the Spurs also cuz he'd get a lot more catch and shoot opportunities too and wouldn't be the sole playmaker.... And he's in the 90th percentile in those situations. Just think about how different things would be for Kawhi if he was on a team like Houston in Harden's place.... He'd be much less efficient and the team would struggle even more to score.
Top 5 most talented, but not top 5 performance if you add up both ends of the floor and helping your team.
People thought Curry, Westbrook and Durant chocked in the playoffs. Harden couldnt even put us in a position to choke last season, and the season before that he did 12 turnovers in the last game.
I know right?! I know what I'm gonna do! I'm gonna get registered up on a Rockets Fan forum so I can spend all my time hating on the Rocket's best player! Ooh I know what I'm gonna do today! I'm gonna spell Harden, but check this out....I'm gonna leave the D out! Could be following teams and players I like but I'm gonna do this instead! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Can't Relate.
Well being a Rockets fan doesn't mean being overly optimistic about players. People criticize every other person in this franchise, from Brewer to Beverley to Dwight to the coach to Morey and Les. Even past greats like Barkley and Tmac. But for Harden we have to pretend he's top 5 when objectively he isn't? When he showed up completely out of shape the year after the WCF and showed really poor effort? The vast majority outside of Rockets fans don't have him in top 5. My position has been the same, he was top 5 two years ago, not last year. You can say he's a top 5 talent but he has to actually perform like it to make the list
Nope. No need to be sensitive about it either because Harden has the tools to prove everyone wrong. LeBron, Durant, Curry, and Westbrook are all definitely better. Then you have Anthony Davis and Chris Paul and K. Leonard that are debatable. Cousins and Towns could be more "valuable" at some point in the near future too so there are no guarantees.
Curry had Klay, Donkey, Iggy, and co. Westbrook and Durant had each other as well as Kanter and Ibaka. Who the hell did Harden have, huh?
League leading 38 mins/gm Scoring runner-up 29.0 pts/gm First among non-PGs 7.5 asts/gm (more than Lebron and Curry) Tied for 2nd among guards 6.1 rebs/gm Tied for 4th among guards 0.6 blks/gm Drives, scores off drives, and passes off drives as much as Lebron http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/drives/?sort=DRIVES&dir=1 Moves around as far (works as hard) on offense and defense as Steph Curry and more than Lebron, WB, and KD http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/speed/?sort=DIST_FEET&dir=1 Generates points of touches as efficient as Steph Curry but more efficient than Lebron http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/possessions/?sort=TOUCHES&dir=1 Catch and shoots 3 pointers more efficient than KD http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/pl...GE*3&Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Regular Season Shoots pull ups more efficient than WB http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/pullup/?sort=PULL_UP_PTS&dir=1 Defends the rim almost as good as WB http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/pl...Type=Regular Season&sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT&dir=1 All those while carrying the heaviest burden in the NBA - a team (roster and coaching staff) which is league bottom 3 at best if all teams removed their best player
and that was 3 years ago not sure what's the relevance to this thread But since your at it last year Igoudala won Finals MVP. Knowing you hate Harden so much you'll probably pick him over Harden as well.
