James harden = most underrated player ever

[NZStreetBaller]

This video says it beautifully

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPa49XHTPOE

Okc never touched the finals without him.

Rockets cant touch the playoffs without him

Leads his team in most catagories.

:bowdown:

[bobopenguin]

This video says it beautifully

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPa49XHTPOE

Okc never touched the finals without him.

Rockets cant touch the playoffs without him

Leads his team in most catagories.

:bowdown:

only rockets fans love to pay to see someone practise FT, dwight and josh and harden.

[AussieSteve]

He should've been on an All-NBA team. I agree.

However, 29ppg amd 7.5apg sounds great, until you see .439 FG% and 4.6 TOV. He's putting up a lot of shots for his points and he's wasting a lot of the ball for those assists.

Give me Paul, Curry, or Westbrook any day over Harden. They don't throw up bricks and they are more careful with the ball. They also give effort of defense, despite working just as hard on offense. Most importantly they help their team win. I'd also take Lillard's 2016 over Harden's any day of the week. He may not have had the numbers, but he got 44 wins out of a team that was supposed to get 34. Harden got 41 wins out of a team that was supposed to get 50+.

[AirBonner]

He should've been on an All-NBA team. I agree.

However, 29ppg amd 7.5apg sounds great, until you see .439 FG% and 4.6 TOV. He's putting up a lot of shots for his points and he's wasting a lot of the ball for those assists.

Give me Paul, Curry, or Westbrook any day over Harden. They don't throw up bricks and they are more careful with the ball. They also give effort of defense, despite working just as hard on offense. Most importantly they help their team win. I'd also take Lillard's 2016 over Harden's any day of the week. He may not have had the numbers, but he got 44 wins out of a team that was supposed to get 34. Harden got 41 wins out of a team that was supposed to get 50+.
Is 44% fg really that bad? Didn't kobe average that?

[UK2K]

Is 44% fg really that bad? Didn't kobe average that?

No, it's not.

But since there's nothing else statistically you can point to...

Because we know PG shot 42%, Lowry shot 43%, Lillard shot 42%, and Westbrook shot 45%.

And they all made an all-NBA team.

What else can you bash him for? Dude had 34, 17, and 8 last night. Yes, he had 7 TO's, but given his usage (and his +10 +/-) I'd say he more than makes up for it.

[antonAC]

He should've been on an All-NBA team. I agree.

However, 29ppg amd 7.5apg sounds great, until you see .439 FG% and 4.6 TOV. He's putting up a lot of shots for his points and he's wasting a lot of the ball for those assists.


westbrook will be lucky to get those numbers this season, he should maybe do a little better in assists, but it will be high volume points with a low FG%, and there's a ton of people picking him as MVP.

[AussieSteve]

Is 44% fg really that bad? Didn't kobe average that?

For most of his prime I think Kobe was more like 46%, but anyway you're right, 44% isn't that terrible. My point was mainly that his gaudy numbers aren't as impressive when you consider his efficiency.

I did say that I thought Harden should have been on an All NBA team, I was just trying to point out that his season wasn't as historic as the dude in the video tries to make out. And so it wasn't as historic an All NBA snub as he suggests. It was a snub for sure, but I understand the rational of him not being there. His team under performed.

Also you can make solid cases for both Lowry and Klay over Harden. Lowry led the Raptors to 56 wins, and Klay was part of the most epic backcourt ever and he played defense.

[JohnMax]

For most of his prime I think Kobe was more like 46%

Kobe only shot 46% in 7 of 20 seasons. link (http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&type=totals&per_minute_base=36&per_poss_base=100&season_start=1&season_end=-1&lg_id=NBA&age_min=0&age_max=99&is_playoffs=N&height_min=78&height_max=79&debut_yr_nba_start=1997&debut_yr_nba_end=2016&franch_id=LAL&birth_country_is=Y&birth_state=PA&as_comp=gt&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_gf=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_fg=Y&pos_is_fc=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_cf=Y&force%3Apos_is=1&c1stat=fga&c1comp=gt&c1val=1&c6mult=1.0&order_by=fg_pct)

[Wally450]

He's gonna put up monster numbers this year. Although the TOs will mount also. Not too worried about that though, he literally has the ball in his hands damn near every possession. I think he accounted for like 80 something of the Rockets points last night. Insane.

[Jacks3]

He should've been on an All-NBA team. I agree.

However, 29ppg amd 7.5apg sounds great, until you see .439 FG% and 4.6 TOV. He's putting up a lot of shots for his points and he's wasting a lot of the ball for those assists.

Give me Paul, Curry, or Westbrook any day over Harden. They don't throw up bricks and they are more careful with the ball. They also give effort of defense, despite working just as hard on offense. Most importantly they help their team win. I'd also take Lillard's 2016 over Harden's any day of the week. He may not have had the numbers, but he got 44 wins out of a team that was supposed to get 34. Harden got 41 wins out of a team that was supposed to get 50+.

he had a 60% TS and a turnover rate of 16% which isn't bad at all. and a 60% TS is great scoring efficiency. i have no idea why you're using useless archaic numbers fg% and to's per game. 2016 harden's problem was his awful defense and crap leadership/intangibles...his offense was amazing as ever.

[Paul George 24]

This video says it beautifully

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPa49XHTPOE

Okc never touched the finals without him.

Rockets cant touch the playoffs without him

Leads his team in most catagories.

:bowdown:
AND THE WORST DEFENDER IN THE LEAUGE :lol

[scm5]

Harden would more highly regarded if he actually played defense and didn't have games where he's completely ineffective.

He'll go unbelievably cold or turn into a turnover machine for the entire game. It's hard to watch when this happens, but otherwise he's a fantastic offensive player. Kinda like the Steve Nash of SG's except with Corey Maggette's skills at getting to the FT line.

[Smoke117]

This video says it beautifully

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPa49XHTPOE

Okc never touched the finals without him.

Rockets cant touch the playoffs without him

Leads his team in most catagories.

:bowdown:


Rockets can't touch the playoffs without the player they built their team around...nooo...really?

[ISHGoat]

Stop this nonsense. His TS% is 60%. Thats elite.

[aj1987]

I still believe that he didn't make an All-NBA team last season putting up 29/6/8. Ridiculous. Getting that Wade treatment.

This is coming from someone who absolutely detests him, BTW.

[Rocketswin2013]

he can be underrated, yes.

[Father Prime]

You mean James Haren is unerrated

[Nick Young]

more like overrated. He's the kind of empty scoring and assist numbers. Gilbert Arenas on crack.

[SCdac]

Harden seems like a regular season warrior.. when teams clamp down on him in the playoffs and the pressure is high, his FG% drops and he starts chucking 3's and flailing for FTs. I agree he's like a rich mans gilbert arenas or michael redd.. I'd say awesome players hit hard by injuries like Grant Hill are more underrated overall, if we're talking most underrated "ever"

[UK2K]

Harden would more highly regarded if he actually played defense and didn't have games where he's completely ineffective.

He'll go unbelievably cold or turn into a turnover machine for the entire game. It's hard to watch when this happens, but otherwise he's a fantastic offensive player. Kinda like the Steve Nash of SG's except with Corey Maggette's skills at getting to the FT line.

Was it last year's playoffs....

When Harden went like 8-10 from the floor in the first quarter and had 17 points, and the rest of the team went 0-11 or something crazy?

Yeah, I get that's the line used to diminish what he does on the court, but in all honesty if I was far and away the best player on that team, I'd do the same thing.

He's not God. Sure he falls asleep on defense sometimes, everyone does. You can make a montage of PG getting back door cut and losing his man if you really wanted to.

But the thing I think most people overlook is how frustrating it must be to be one of the greatest players on the planet (he showed that when he led team USA to gold) but be stuck with mediocre players. I've been on plenty of teams where I was the best player, by far, and it becomes a drain to try and do everything.

Even in 2014 (or 15, whatever) when his DRPM was sky high and he was top 5 in the league in steals, people still gave him shit over the myth that he doesn't play defense. But you could make a montage of him on the low block beating Draymond's shit and shutting down driving lanes if you wanted. But nobody ever does.

[aj1987]

Was it last year's playoffs....

When Harden went like 8-10 from the floor in the first quarter and had 17 points, and the rest of the team went 0-11 or something crazy?

Yeah, I get that's the line used to diminish what he does on the court, but in all honesty if I was far and away the best player on that team, I'd do the same thing.

He's not God. Sure he falls asleep on defense sometimes, everyone does. You can make a montage of PG getting back door cut and losing his man if you really wanted to.

But the thing I think most people overlook is how frustrating it must be to be one of the greatest players on the planet (he showed that when he led team USA to gold) but be stuck with mediocre players. I've been on plenty of teams where I was the best player, by far, and it becomes a drain to try and do everything.

Even in 2014 (or 15, whatever) when his DRPM was sky high and he was top 5 in the league in steals, people still gave him shit over the myth that he doesn't play defense. But you could make a montage of him on the low block beating Draymond's shit and shutting down driving lanes if you wanted. But nobody ever does.
Sometimes? Let me put it this way. You can probably pick a 100 plays for PG from last season and that works out to about 1 play per game. With Harden, you can do that from a 10 game sample.

Also, he was never a net positive in DRPM.

2014: -2.84 (http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2014/sort/RPM/position/2)
2015: -0.16 (http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2015/sort/RPM/position/2)
2016: -0.98 (http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2016/sort/RPM/position/2)

[Prometheus]

I don't respect players who play literally no defense. It would be one thing if he was a bad defender... he's probably the worst defensive player I've ever seen.