Elephant in the room is whether or not Harden signs the extension. He could walk in two seasons and easily make that money back
To be clear, you think a guy that just decimated his own turnover record has only one area that he needs to make a jump? Which also ignores defense?
Well no, I meant only one weakness when it comes to "offense" only, albeit I should have said 2 because turnovers were overlooked on my post. He needs to bring down the turnovers, albeit I don't think it's the biggest deal like some considering his usage, and increase his shooting efficiency. He's uber efficient overall but he could get better with actually shooting %. I'd like to see his turnovers dropped also, so I'll recant and say he has 2 areas to improve offensively.
by the way, not too sure I got the point of all the extended car analogies, but . . . isn't part of the complaint against James the fact that he appears to have LOST his Ford Focus in Game 5?
Ok. I think turnovers are bar none his biggest problem. As you note he already has good efficiency. That it relies so heavily on FTs is an issue, but if you look, his FTA per 100 possessions isn't that much less than in the regular season. The turnovers are super problematic because of how they impact the team defensively more than anything. I mean it's not great that it also impacts them offensively, but it leads to so many easy points the other way, and in a league where the Warriors and pretty much any decent offensive team thrives off turnovers, it's a problem. Meaning it has a exponential impact to overall net rating, moreso than efficiency. I'm not going to be one of these guys that says he has to be under x/game or they can't win a championship. it's not so black and white... but it is definitely clear it's a big problem.
By who? The man has 3 rings and had to beat the Western Conference Champs for all of them. CP3 hasn't made it to a WCF. The point was great players need a great team around them to win, no one guy does it alone.
Same teams that have been kicking CP3's ass. Mainly the Spurs/Clippers/Rockets/Thunder/Warriors/Mavericks etc over the last 15 years. No more early round cakewalks.
so what? by the time he gets to the finals, his teams have been well rested coming off cake walk matchups. harden hasn't made it to a wcf either as the main guy. the one time he did, he was sitting on the bench when they were on the brink of elimination watching. if you're gonna **** on cp3, hold harden to the same standards
Did the Rox and Clippers play a game 7 that year? James had 31pts 8asts and 7rebs and 3stls vs Cp3 and the Clips in Game 7 (and Clipper roster largely viewed as more talented than HTown.)
and? so that one game that happened not because of harden, just capitulates and means everything over a cp3 and your attempt to bash him for not making a wcf or finals. no not really
And a lot of times when this happens, while he's the one closer to the backcourt, he never runs back, he stays there watching or he walks to get back while the other teams runs to score...that's why i can actually see Ariza being pissed off in the ot of a game 5 after Harden lost the ball like 3 times in a row in the most dumb ways.
Clips, Rox, and Thunder never made it out of the west and LBJ has beat SA & GS before in the finals. The west is tough is the excuse people use to give CP3 a pass.
How about the Rockets, Memphis, LAC or Utah? Yes Lebron's knocked off West teams before, but he's also had a cakewalk to the finals in the East every year. By the time he gets to the finals he's already well rested. The other team is most likely coming off a tough 6-7 game series or 2. Let's not act like thats not a huge difference
