LOL. Thought the same. An ENTIRE article built on EFFICIENCY and this is one of the comments.... So, you are a WSJ reader (educated?) and that is your takeaway? It is easily obvious to spot the "plain haters" versus people that are open to facts and analysis.
not even a 1/5th of the way into the article and need to stop to post this: "Westbrook is delightfully inefficient."
Why do I feel like we paid someone and sent them all the data for this article? It is the WSJ after all. Anyhow, Harden deserves the good PR right now. Not just for what he's producing, but more importantly: 1) Where its coming from: a transcending kind of leadership which is dropping jaws and shaming whiny teammates without saying a word; and 2) How the numbers are leading to an insane rate of wins. When Kobe went on his streak, it was not about wins. This is all about wins.
Still not enough talk about his layups. He's going to the line, because he's such a threat to score on drives. Despite all the foul trips on layups, he still actually converts more than Kobe did.
I am convinced that most NBA fans, or at least most who bother to comment about it on the internet, are haters in some way or other. Saw it on here towards Donovan Mitchell in the playoffs a year ago. Whether it’s jealousy, or rivalry, or whatever, sports fans tend to struggle with objectivity. We complain a lot about how the national sports media hates on Harden, but my view is that they are pretty balanced, when you exclude the ones who’s job is predicated on being highly opinionated, as compared to ordinary NBA fans who happen to not be Rockets fans.
Thank you! That EXACT quote was pretty telling. "Delightfully" is an interesting word to describe something poor. A pretty "teflon" descriptor if I ever saw one.
There is already a thread on this. But wanted to make sure people read it. Good stuff from Goldsberry
Aside from the ballhog comment, that's close to how Popovich would've criticized Harden and MDA (not publically) before his analytics team proved the math to him. And that's not really even disrespect to Pops. It just shows you how revolutionary Harden is, and became, when surrounded by a Coach and GM who were prepared to explore the limits of the 3pt line, and it's effect on layups and FTs. And Harden upped it by improving that ridiculous Step Back to primary-weapon status. And it shows you how backward and slow the game was to figure out the 3pt line. I mean, pretty sure NCAA embraced it faster. That Arkansas team comes to mind, and I know Bobby Knight talked about it being the first to embrace it. And Coach K changed his offense to shoot the most 3s with Battier, on the way to the title.
One thing that a lot of these articles are failing to mention, and is perpetuated by all of these screaming sport "journalists" (and random WSJ comments) is that Harden has almost completely eliminated the gimmicks and negatives that have led to so much criticism of his game. He now rarely hooks opponents arms, swings his arms under defender arms (unless actually being impeded), he doesn't seem to be embellishing with his head when getting hammered, doesn't jump into mid-air defenders, etc. Yes, he is getting fouled, but most of the time, he is LEGIT getting fouled, simply because his defenders can't stop him. In addition to this, he is consistently playing defense with focus and hustle, and there are many instances where he is taking the challenge on the defensive end against the opponents top tier offensive players. It's not that he is getting "chosen" by opponents, it's that HE is the one who is taking on the challenge of defending the best. Both of those points I feel will help Harden finally dominate in the playoffs, since he won't have to rely on refs and he is building habits to be a difference maker defensively. Once that happens, a lot of these pundits will have to actually pay attention and realize this is not your father's Harden. The Oracle crowd saw it first hand in that last game, and I feel like NBA fans in general will as well when the playoffs roll along.