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Eric "The Wimp" Grd
they're going to have the slowest old man backcourt in the nba lol
Eric "The Wimp" G
This trade will go down as the worst decision for the OKC franchise to date, and probably will still be considered the worst over the next 5 years too.
All because they didn't want to pay the extra 1.25m a year to Harden.
Tbh, I don't see OKC getting back to the Finals any time soon because of this.
They essentially chose Ibaka over Harden. Ibaka is a good player, but they must be banking on him having a really high ceiling to choose him over Harden. I just don't see it. I know Ibaka is young, but I just don't see him blossoming into an All-Star caliber player, which is what he'll have to become to justify picking him over the Beard.
Harden is the better player, but the overlap they had at the wing position was reason enough to justify choosing Ibaka over Harden. I just don't know if he's as good a player as they hope he is.
I think you always choose talent over positional orthodoxy. You can play the three of them at the same time. They wouldn't be in this position if they had been willing to amnesty Porkins.
Johnson is only good example if you are trying to denigrate the man. Westbrook is a chucker and not a creating master like Nash. Quite the contrary in this instance as down the stretch it was often Harden that was asked to create. He gets to the line because he is uber aggresive going to the hoop. He is not like Martin and to a lesser degree Wade who try to jump into people all the time.
Harden can drive off iso's and pnr sets and finish at the rim or find the open man. He is not an elite passer but he is a pretty good one and with more experience and his relatively young age it stands to reason he will get a better feel for it. Johnson is more of a jumpshooter whereas Harden has shown he can finish against at the rim despite plus shotblockers.
Harden is the third best SG in the league easy and if he continues to develop then he is going to pass up the other two as they age sooner than later.
OKC picking Ibaka over Harden is like picking Camby over Manu, tbh, fwiw, imo
Wow, what the Presti? This been drinking and driving with RC or some .
I don't think it's choosing Ibaka over Harden as much as it was choosing Westbrook over Harden. In today NBA financial climate, you just can't lock up three perimeter players on max deals and expect to contend. I don't have a problem with them locking Ibaka up because good bigs are hard to find, but I was completely against the Westbrook contract and said it would bite them in the ass someday from the beginning.
90s allan houston
00s joee johnson
10s harden
all 3 overrated hacks
OKc should have kept Serge and Harden and let westbrick go.
This is devastating! I mean, if Parker was shooting his normal average, he would have made 56.4 shots instead of a paltry 51 shots for a grand total difference of 10.8 irreplaceable points since 2004-2005! Parker played 14 games against them since 04-05 season, which translates to a whopping 0.77 points a game. I can see Howard totally destroying Parker and shut down the entire Spurs offense.
As for Westbrook, we are talking about a difference of 23.6 shots made vs. 22 shots made for a difference of 3.3 points over 8 games, or a difference of 0.41 points! OMG! Where can the Thunder come up with that extra 0.41 points?
Curiously, the author did not talk about how Parker and Westbrook fair against Nash. Against Nash, Parker averaged 18.4 ppg on 48% shooting with 4.7 assists in the regular season, and 21.2 ppg on 47% shooting with 5.2 assists. That compared to 16.8 ppg on 49% shooting in the regular season and 18.9 ppg on 46% shooting in the playoffs.
As for Westbrook, 20.2ppg on 47.2% in regular season vs. Nash and 19ppg and 43% shooting vs. every body else.
Interestingly, Howard's defensive presence doesn't seem to cover up Nash's defensive flaws. In H2H matchups, Parker averaged 19.1 ppg on 49.8% shooting vs. Howard, and 18.36 ppg on 50.6% shooting vs. everybody else over the same period.
Westbookr averaged 19 ppg on 40% shooting vs. Howard, and 19 ppg on 43% against everybody else. Doesn't seem to compute.
I guess purple and yellow glasses can only read purple and yellow articles.
Spurs da Champs coming up with the royal baaaaaaaaaaads.
One - Nobody is comparing Harden to Dirk and Lebron in terms of playing ability. What FL was doing is to illustrate that one bad series does not a career make. Will Harden bounce back, I don't know, and neither should you. Harden hasn't played in regular season minute after the Finals meltdown.
Two - The blueprint to stopping Harden is to have some of the best perimeter defense in the league. Some things cannot be duplicated, and the Heat defense could only be accomplished by a handful of teams.
Is Harden worth the max? I don't know. To me, he is borderline based on today's markets, but every transaction have some risks, and this one is no different than signing Joe Johnson (which didn't pan out) or signing a Tony Allen or a Kyle Lowry (which did pan out)
Care to bring anything else to the table? Or name what Joe Johnson has done in the playoffs?
Jj has done jack as far as im concern, dude is not franchise player material....
Same as Harden.... choking and gagging against the real teams, tbh....
Pot calling the ing kettle black.
Nice to see Rocketfans other than me and DJ around here
Durant's contract is up in 2016. Not likely, but a scenario where Durant gets tired of playing with Westbrook, or he hasn't won anything by then and wants to leave, what about a Harden + Durant reunion in Houston?
Yeah, I think it's a matter of picking Westbrook over Harden. Not just in who they'd sign, but even before that in how many plays they allowed him to run by comparison. Harden is an underrated playmaker imo, and was at best slightly worse than Westbrook at it despite getting far less time actually running the offense.
Soon as they signed Westbrook to that big deal, I knew Harden was gone the following year. OKC owner has a history of being extremely cheap (any Sonics fan will talk your ear off about how much of a liar and cheapskate Clay Bennet and his little business group are). So, much like any other cheap owner in any sport, it was just a matter of milking Harden for as many of those rookie deal years as he could before dumping him while his market price was still at it's highest (final year of contract).
I'm not trying to bash Westbrook or anything, the guy is absolutely a talent. But man. . .James Harden was an excellent player. Bennet seriously didn't want to pay the extra 1.25m a year for a rare talent like Harden? The Thunder could've been scary as going down the road with Durant/Westbrook/Harden/Ibaka/Perkins. . .now they're just another annual 4th/5th seed who might surprise you and get the 3rd seed every now and then. All just to save a few bucks. They're in for a rude awakening if they think Harden's that easily replaceable, or that Westbrook is gonna carry them to a le.
durant be traded before he leave jus like Dwight. lakers gon be off the books n Durant playin with Dwight mo appealing than wit harden. harden from LA so he prolly prefer there too. lakers gettin da DDH dynasty more likely n logical judging from how the league been movin this decade. Kobe bein off the books will be significant in da movement of players
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