Whitlock... wut. Gordon was highly thought of, yes, and I remember him going to Indiana was a big deal for them, but to say "he was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan" is absurd. No one was saying that. And even if they were, using Gordon's high school hype to try to bring down Harden's accomplishments is stupid.
I still remember Cowherd criticizing the Rockets really hard when we traded for Harden. He was going on about how Harden was a "B" player
How does this hack keep getting gigs like this? Why do Whitlock's sports takes still matter? I'll never understand. Cowherd isn't much better but if he's come around then you know Harden's earned MVP. It's really not even close at this point. That being said, it's pathetic how some posters here continually bash James. It's so bad, most can't even enjoy game threads anymore. The interwebs is a sad, sad place.
I actually like Cowherd but, it's cool to see everyone starting to jump on the Harden bandwagon. Winning solves alot of problems.
Winning changes everything. I really don't believe Harden is a significantly better player this year compared to last year. He has more offensive responsibility and his teammates/coach have complemented his strengths really well. Now everyone is willing to overlook the flaws and just focus on the good things he does. That's how it goes for any star player. If the Rockets were at .500 and Harden was playing at the same level, it would go the other way.
That was a good segment, not sure who that Hispanic dude was but he laid out points we all been saying. No one thought the rockets would be this good and because they are this good, they don't give credit to harden to making everyone better and giving them good looks.WB doesn't make anyone else better and now everyone says the rockets have the better cast but before the season the rockets had a bottom tier playoff team
ESPN has made a deal with the devil. If they don't already, what people need to understand is that making dumb, inflammatory remarks improves ratings, so that is what they feed the Heads to spew. These guys don't actually believe what they are saying to be true, necessarily, but its what keeps people saying "OH WTF?!", passing around a link and tuning in each week to get mad at the same personalities each week. Even me posting that link feeds into their model. What will eventually happen, hopefully, is people will just become disciplined enough to treat ESPN like the drunk uncle and ignore them entirely.
I agree with the bolded statement. I think there's 3 key differences in Harden that's making him standout more than last year: 1) He's putting forth way more effort on the defensive end, 2) He's taking more responsibility in rebounding 3) the team's winning. Assist #s don't surprise me at all. He's been setting up teammates at ease since he's been in Houston, but has never had this many shooters to set up. Last year, he had Dwight who didnt wanna play the role (pick n roll/defend) Clint, Harrell, and Nene are more than happy playing (just look at the offensive numbers Harrell has been putting up - no post-ups required!) He had JSmith, TJones, CBrewer spotting up for 3s, but now dishing to Bev (42%), Ryno/Gordon (Both 41%), Ariza (37%), Dekker (33%). I think he also sees and understands the Rockets are going to be weak on the boards, and he's putting forth more effort on the glass - hence his 10+ triple doubles, and counting this season. All of this is going more noticed now simply because the team's winning again. If the Rockets won 50+ last year, may not have been in the MVP convo, but certainly would not have been left off the All-NBA teams.
This dude legitimately ended the argument: Harden came off the bench in OKC so that automatically makes him worse than WB. What a dunce.
