look at the on and off stats......The rockets dominate more when Harden is out there than westbrook does without Harden. Westbrook was in the minus today even though he had a great game
I think as it goes, harden may just be just resting his talents for the playoffs lol. Russ is always been great thou.
there is a reason that James Harden leads the whole league in VORP and win shares i like Westbrook but lets not try and say he is the MVP of the team. He is a great sidekick, can't we just enjoy that instead of worrying if he has taken over as MVP of the team
Guys, this is not the time or place to be fighting over who is better or who is carrying the team between the Beard and Broodie. We have great thing going right and we shouldn't mess it up by creating a divide within the team. The reason Broodie is a Rockets is to keep other team honest when it comes to doubling the Beard. Now, is pick your poison: Double the Beard and Broodie goes off or pack the paint to stop Broodie, then the Beard goes off behind three-pointers.
Without Russ playing a back-to back, the Rockets likely lose. Without Harden playing a game, Rockets likely win. Russ takes regular season MVP and Harden takes playoff MVP. Don't let the Boston announcers tell us who they voted because they will vote for Jaylen Brown.
Since jan 30 the Rockets have an offensive rating of 121.2 (191 min)....when Harden is on the court without Westbrook. Westbrook without Harden is at 104.6 (95 min)..........but the good news is the offence has exploded when both are on the court together at 116.7 (third) in the past month after being 16th in January https://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_...mergence-changed-houston-rockets-james-harden
"I think we guarded [Harden] well," Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown said. "I think we accepted his challenge. We just didn't do a good enough job with Westbrook. "We had a lot of attention on James Harden, and forgot about the other MVP over there. He came out and asserted himself early and took over and dominated this game." Jaylen Brown said it best. Harden is the other teams first focus every single Night
but you also must take into account rebounding and defense which Russ has been stellar at he is playing like a point center snatching rebounds and is all over the court harden at times can be a very effective scorer but Russ as the new face of the team is the teams MVP given the complete package that he brings I think come playoff time when he is fully adjusted to being the man in this small ball system, we will see one of the most remarkable playoff performances ever
So far, it seems sort of evenly split amongst Russ being the MVP or Harden as MVP of the team I would like to make it a poll but dont know how? Can I edit and change this post?
Come again? Harden is by far the most dominant offensive player in the NBA. “At times an effective scorer” is not a good description of his game. Westbrook has been fantastic and I don’t want to pit them against each other since we have both, but if you could only have one it would be Harden every time.
I think he is our catalyst for what we are doing, but the fact that they are Ying and yang to each other, makes me say "who gives a turkey who the MVP is? "
I think this is the most eye opening thing of this pairing. Many of us thought Russ wasnt the ideal robin to James Harden's batman. Wow were we wrong. Always seemed like we needed another shooter and spacer with good defense. Turns out, someone who takes advantage of the space to this degree and rebounds like Russ was exactly what the doctor ordered. Pretty amazing to me.
Why? MVP is a label and has no influence on wheter you win or not. JH has benn been playing on an MVP level for the last 5 yrs and we dont have a ring yet. So what does labeling one person have anything to do with the way we play?
The MVP of the team should also be the team captain Someone who all the players look up to, respect and follow This is one of the areas that Harden had lacked in the past where Russ excels at by his passion and setting an example. Should really motivate team members when the smallest guy on the court is outrebounding 7 footers nightly I think we finally have our true MVP and team captain and I am more excited than ever of our future
Russ = Floor raiser Harden (new version) = Ceiling raiser Harden's style is more inconsistent but more explosive (in terms of efficiency) on his good nights. Russ is always going to put pressure on the defense with his style, no matter the score, and that's what kept us in the game when Harden was struggling.
I think we're all left wondering if this is going to work in the playoffs. It seems like it should because Westbrook has the speed to the basket to break down defenses and that should open it up for everyone else. What we know doesn't work especially well is whatever Harden tries to do with the ISO game where his only moves are to take a 3 or drive it to the basket. Harden doesn't have the same moves to the basket as Westbrook. And, Harden is no threat for any kind of mid-range shot most of the time whereas Westbrook is. And, we all know come playoff-time what happens to Harden when he tries to take it to the hole like he does in the regular season. He runs into a wall of traffic and gets hammered not getting the calls he would have got in the regular season. The thing Harden needs to be more aware of in the playoffs that he has a problem with now is knowing when to stop jacking 3s when they aren't going in and be more of a facilitator. He can literally shoot you out of the game when his 3s aren't falling and he exhibits little self-control to stop when it isn't falling. I'm looking forward to seeing this team in the playoffs. It doesn't feel like it has felt the last several seasons where we were mostly reliant on Harden's game. He's actually got an equivalent who commands the same attention. In the end, that's going to make one of these guys a big problem for opposing defenses because they will have to focus more than on just the one. As we saw this last game, they put more into stopping James and Westbrook destroyed them. Before Westbrook, it was always just stop James and let the rest of the team beat you. And, they never could.
I don't know, but I'm loving the pace the team sets when he's on the floor. It's torrid, many teams simply can't hang. I would hate to be a big and play this team just for that factor alone.
