Chris Paul Says James Harden Will Be MVP And It’s ‘Not Even Going To Be Close’

Performance like tonight justifies his case

 

I thought it was Paul tonight that got the team going at a critical point in the game.

Takes so much pressure off of James.

 

Harden did not have a good game for his standards at all. His defense was why it was ever close all game. The bad PNR defense stopped in the second half. He was just terrible in every facet of defense until the 3rd quarter where he made a few good rotations. Otherwise, Isaiah Thomas level.



Anyway, people feel he had a quiet 36 and that's because he used his possessions so well on offense. Total opposite to the shitshow that happened in Cleveland. Start to finish, Harden only took what the defense gave. Didn't hunt switches, forced Allen onto him when he overcommitted to stopping his penetration. I would've rather seen him go by him but w/e it's still a win if the roll man has been completely covered.


Had a couple off-ball movement 3's, a damn good, smart cut. Some good aggressiveness in semi-transition which I love because it puts so much pressure on a defense and there is typically no help defense in that situation.

He had a pretty impressive, sound, dominant offensive night and it's a shame he completely mailed it in on D.


Cleveland game: Harden +11, Paul +47

Tonight: Harden -7, Paul +13

CP3 shouldn't have so badly outplayed James in these games. James hasn't really been strong lately on the whole. His defense was fine against Cleveland, very strong interior help. Nothing noticeably bad on the perimeter at all.

 

Paul started hitting those midrange when the game bog downed for us and Green, Moute, and Tucker all hit big threes. Then Harden took over in the 4th. It was what we expected out of our team and stars, so while enjoyable as a game, not an unexpected outcome. The only surprise were how fiesty the Nets team was this game, but that's also generally expected of a young team with nothing to lose.

 

James can chill on the bench while Rockets dominate fools.

Ariza is chilling in street clothes in preparation for a healthy/fresh 2nd Half and Playoffs.

Future looks bright. Shades necessary... preferably Versace.

 

A quiet 36 points. How friggin spoiled are we?!??!?

 

ofcourse it's going to happen, but that boy HAREN got it in the bag, it's his year bruh.

 

That's fine and all but what does Potato head have to say?

 

Are you okay though?

 

Cp3 knows what’s up

 

I'm fine.


Rockets did a 135 ORTG last night. By far the best in like at least a month.

Pace was at 91. They completely torched Brooklyn in 90% halfcourt sets, and some semi-transition from Harden and Green. That is INSANE no matter how bad a defense is.

Harden is a GOAT-level offensive player when he plays like he did last night. That he is capable gives me a lot of optimism for the playoffs.

I think the defensive problems don't start with Harden and don't end with him, and part of last night was lack of first half intensity with bad strategy.

 

I was expecting for 60 points triple doubles every night!

 

Go ask the guy who started the "Trade Harden" thread.

 

Can't rely on +/- on a game-by-game basis unless you think LMAM posted the greatest game in NBA history. You are going to see fluctuations that don't always reflect on court performance by an individual. Very hard for me to believe that Harden hurt us yesterday with that performance.

 

Pretty sure teams are throwing their best defenders at Harden and not CP. Hence our record. It’s your best chance to win but you’re still prolly gonna lose.

 

That's typically true.

But from a +/- perspective, especially with just the one game sample size, conforming to the eye test, the problem with Harden last night (lol, the problem) was defense for sure.

 

That has to be the problem when you score 36 and end up with a negative +/- haha. That being said, the magnitude of BPM and it's actual relation to on-court performance is not linear on a game-to-game level. In other words, even if what you said were true (and I think you're right), BPM is not a reliable way to measure that.

For example, Harden had an individual ORTG of 135 and DRTG of 128. That goes with your eye-test of bad defense, but it also suggests the exact opposite result - that Harden caused the Rockets to outscore the Nets while he was on the court. If you go by aggregate measures of impact, his game score was excellent (26.1). Just can't read too much into one game. Other than Ryan Anderson sucks and PJ Tucker can't score to save his life.

 

Why would Paul not “outplay” Harden on occasion? Paul is a top 3-4 player at his position all time. Meaning he is a top 50ish player all time in the game of basketball. On occasion he will play great while Harden has an off game. Kind of one of the two main reasons he was brought here.

 

Sure, absolutely agreed.

Eye test on a one game basis is the easiest to me.

If I'm going to a stat, I might first go to +/- though, even though its not perfect. Because at the end of the day I want to know did the team do better as a whole when he was on the court then when he was off. So really I'd probably look at +/- relative to overall point spread. James was a -7 when the team was a +10 overall, so they were a +17 without him. But definitely don't put much stock into that, for sure. Then you look at other stuff. Harden played a solid game, great game score, and that the Rockets might have been better against the Nets bench, when the Rockets bench includes CP3 and Eric Gordon isn't surprising. Still, you'd have hoped the Rockets starters as a unit performed better than the Nets starters as a unit. And they didn't because Harden and Clint struggled defensively.