AROUND THE NBA - April/Playoffs

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handiman said:
So, you're making a joke whenever you start a thread about how the NBA is rigged, it's the worst officiated game ever, all the journalists you worked with are hacks, such and such player is washed up, etc.?

If so, I admit I've totally missed your sense of humor.
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The NBA is rigged, though...
 
handiman said:
So, you're making a joke whenever you start a thread about how the NBA is rigged, it's the worst officiated game ever, all the journalists you worked with are hacks, such and such player is washed up, etc.?

If so, I admit I've totally missed your sense of humor.
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You got me. I just post those same five things over and over.

Posting is cathartic for me. When I'm happy, I don't usually take the time to post because I'm too busy jumping around yelling. When I'm annoyed/pissed off, I feel better after I vent it on here. :dunno:
 
Also, all the people I used to write with were fucking hacks. That one was true. Especially John Canzano.
 
Again my take on the NBA being rigged.

Isn't it fair if everybody is subjected to terrible calls?
 
Natebishop3 said:
What was the terrible unfair call for the clippers?
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I don't know about this game because I don't watch games looking for bad calls, but I do know there have been plenty of calls that have gone our way in the series. One that really sticks out in my mind is Plumlee not getting called for a double dribble in game 4, the play led to dames open drive down the lane for a dunk.

There have been plenty of incorrect calls, or incorrect no calls that have gone our way as well. It's a part of the game, and I think most of it can be chalked up to human error, not NBA rigging.
 
Strenuus said:
He's not someone to build around, even though he does everything for that team. He's a horrible player.
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One bad season doesn't make him a terrible player. This Rocket team had a TON of issues, Harden is ONE of them but he's the only thing this team has going for it as well.

This team ALWAYS had poor coaching. Terrible coaching. When I tell you that once the Rockets were down 3 with 4 seconds left to go and they had Dwight in the game...DOWN 3...I do not lie. They had Beverly on Livingston the entire time. The stress that causes a defense...and no one on this team rotates or plays any semblance of team defense. People blame Harden for everything that goes wrong with this team but when he goes out things get bad...quickly. It's why he continues to log the most minutes for the team because he is the entire team's offense. This narrative that he ball hogs, another false narrative. When he goes out of the game the Rockets do the same thing, except they then run ISO plays for Beasley, Ariza, or Beverly or whoever. Their entire offense is beat your man, drive and kick. It's been that way under McHale FOREVER now. When he had Lowry, Dragic, and now it's Harden. The one thing McHale did was get the players motivated but when that went out of the window the organization did what they felt was right to get a kick out of the team.

Harden has his issues, but so does every other player in the NBA. Harden can't do everything and he can't make up for the numerous terrible coaching decisions, the somewhat random rotation this team suffered through, Dwight doing what Dwight does in every contract year seemingly, and everything that went wrong this season.

He had a bad year for his team. It happens to the best of players. Happened to Dirk, Kobe, and all that. I just don't get it actually.

Last year he put the team on his back and lead them to the WCF and that was the narrative. This year he's incapable of being a leader and a horrible team players? Perhaps it's not that simple and he's not the only guy that has an affect on whether his team wins or loses.
 
Superbeard said:
One bad season doesn't make him a terrible player. This Rocket team had a TON of issues, Harden is ONE of them but he's the only thing this team has going for it as well.

This team ALWAYS had poor coaching. Terrible coaching. When I tell you that once the Rockets were down 3 with 4 seconds left to go and they had Dwight in the game...DOWN 3...I do not lie. They had Beverly on Livingston the entire time. The stress that causes a defense...and no one on this team rotates or plays any semblance of team defense. People blame Harden for everything that goes wrong with this team but when he goes out things get bad...quickly. It's why he continues to log the most minutes for the team because he is the entire team's offense. This narrative that he ball hogs, another false narrative. When he goes out of the game the Rockets do the same thing, except they then run ISO plays for Beasley, Ariza, or Beverly or whoever. Their entire offense is beat your man, drive and kick. It's been that way under McHale FOREVER now. When he had Lowry, Dragic, and now it's Harden. The one thing McHale did was get the players motivated but when that went out of the window the organization did what they felt was right to get a kick out of the team.

Harden has his issues, but so does every other player in the NBA. Harden can't do everything and he can't make up for the numerous terrible coaching decisions, the somewhat random rotation this team suffered through, Dwight doing what Dwight does in every contract year seemingly, and everything that went wrong this season.

He had a bad year for his team. It happens to the best of players. Happened to Dirk, Kobe, and all that. I just don't get it actually.

Last year he put the team on his back and lead them to the WCF and that was the narrative. This year he's incapable of being a leader and a horrible team players? Perhaps it's not that simple and he's not the only guy that has an affect on whether his team wins or loses.
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Analytics. Morey. Analytics.
 
Superbeard said:
One bad season doesn't make him a terrible player. This Rocket team had a TON of issues, Harden is ONE of them but he's the only thing this team has going for it as well.

This team ALWAYS had poor coaching. Terrible coaching. When I tell you that once the Rockets were down 3 with 4 seconds left to go and they had Dwight in the game...DOWN 3...I do not lie. They had Beverly on Livingston the entire time. The stress that causes a defense...and no one on this team rotates or plays any semblance of team defense. People blame Harden for everything that goes wrong with this team but when he goes out things get bad...quickly. It's why he continues to log the most minutes for the team because he is the entire team's offense. This narrative that he ball hogs, another false narrative. When he goes out of the game the Rockets do the same thing, except they then run ISO plays for Beasley, Ariza, or Beverly or whoever. Their entire offense is beat your man, drive and kick. It's been that way under McHale FOREVER now. When he had Lowry, Dragic, and now it's Harden. The one thing McHale did was get the players motivated but when that went out of the window the organization did what they felt was right to get a kick out of the team.

Harden has his issues, but so does every other player in the NBA. Harden can't do everything and he can't make up for the numerous terrible coaching decisions, the somewhat random rotation this team suffered through, Dwight doing what Dwight does in every contract year seemingly, and everything that went wrong this season.

He had a bad year for his team. It happens to the best of players. Happened to Dirk, Kobe, and all that. I just don't get it actually.

Last year he put the team on his back and lead them to the WCF and that was the narrative. This year he's incapable of being a leader and a horrible team players? Perhaps it's not that simple and he's not the only guy that has an affect on whether his team wins or loses.
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But do you think a championship team can be built around his need to play one on one and play terrible defense?
 
I can't tell you guys how happy the Rockets loss is...seriously I hate them more than the Lakers at this point.
 
Fonzthecpt1 said:
Again my take on the NBA being rigged.

Isn't it fair if everybody is subjected to terrible calls?
Click to expand...

Apparently not to Stephen A Smith and his side hack Skip Bayless. Their main argument this morning on the DWade "Non Foul call" was based on....." he is a super star and Cody Zeller is not even a starter for Charlotte". So therefore the call was inexcusable. They were dead serious that Wade deserved the call because he was a super star. They were not arguing that the call should have been made based on past super star treatment, but rather because that is the way it should be. Because D Wade earned it over the years..........Unfuckingbelievable.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Apparently not to Stephen A Smith and his side hack Skip Bayless. Their main argument this morning on the DWade "Non Foul call" was based on....." he is a super star and Cody Zeller is not even a starter for Charlotte". So therefore the call was inexcusable. They were dead serious that Wade deserved the call because he was a super star. They were not arguing that the call should have been made based on past super star treatment, but rather because that is the way it should be. Because D Wade earned it over the years..........Unfuckingbelievable.
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Which is sad, because really the only argument is that...it was a legitimate foul.
 
honkicracker said:
Analytics. Morey. Analytics.
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Morey has been the Rockets head coach for a while now and this also means under Rick Adelman. In fact Morey doesn't pick the coaches, Les the owner does. The owner is leading the charge for picking the coach so I'm not sure it's all Morey's fault here. I'm guessing what did happen is Morey shared his information with McHale and since McHale didn't have much of a plan any ways they ran with it.

KingAlbertoJrSpeed said:
But do you think a championship team can be built around his need to play one on one and play terrible defense?
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I think the whole "Who is the first option? Who is the leader?" stuff is overplayed. I think teams have multiple leaders. I look at great championship teams and they have multiple guys out there carrying the load. I don't think he has a need to play one on one. Harden is a guy that comes out nearly every game passive to a fault. He TRIES sometimes he tries really hard to get his teammates involved but the problem is his team is filled with guys that can't create their own shot and they don't have an offense that creates it for them. Harden usually gets most of his points in the 2nd half, otherwise he seems to be content with not being aggressive.

I heard Charles talk about how Harden didn't take responsibility for not being the best he can be but he said like three times last night that he has to come back better.

With that said, yes I do think they can build a championship around him. He doesn't have to be the main leader but if they get a coach that knows what he's doing? Sure. The Rockets are going to have massive bait this offseason if Dwight opts out (Which is certain) they will have the lure of two max contracts to hand out.
 
^^^Unfortunately for you I get the impression that other players view Beard the same way they viewed old-Kobe - ie, not someone they want to play with.
 
blue9 said:
^^^Unfortunately for you I get the impression that other players view Beard the same way they viewed old-Kobe - ie, not someone they want to play with.
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I think Harden is a fraud, a joke, and a horrible teammate. I have never seen someone play with so little fire. He's one of the worst "stars" the league has ever had. And again, you can't build around him... as you can see.
 
blue9 said:
^^^Unfortunately for you I get the impression that other players view Beard the same way they viewed old-Kobe - ie, not someone they want to play with.
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Any evidence to that? Harden was voted MVP by the players, this included glowing praise from the likes of Wade, Blake Griffin, Durant and more. I've never heard anything bad about Harden as a teammate, Even McHale had good things to say about him. Coaches that work with Harden do as well, including Coach K who called him the leader of Team USA.

“James has been as good a leader as we’ve had for this team,” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said,via USAB.com. “He has a great personality. He is an upbeat guy, smart, and he’s obviously very, very talented. With this group, especially after Kevin left, he has asserted himself even more as an older guy. I know him, he knows me, because we have worked together. He’s really one of our key guys. There is no question about it.”

Strenuus said:
I think Harden is a fraud, a joke, and a horrible teammate. I have never seen someone play with so little fire. He's one of the worst "stars" the league has ever had. And again, you can't build around him... as you can see.
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How can we see? He led his team to the WCF last year? Does that not count? Was Kobe less of a leader when his team was 8th seed twice? Was Dirk less of a leader when his team was knocked out of the first round? (From an 8th seed at that) He's had more team success and individual success then your star player to be fair.
 
Superbeard said:
Any evidence to that? Harden was voted MVP by the players, this included glowing praise from the likes of Wade, Blake Griffin, Durant and more. I've never heard anything bad about Harden as a teammate, Even McHale had good things to say about him. Coaches that work with Harden do as well, including Coach K who called him the leader of Team USA.

“James has been as good a leader as we’ve had for this team,” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said,via USAB.com. “He has a great personality. He is an upbeat guy, smart, and he’s obviously very, very talented. With this group, especially after Kevin left, he has asserted himself even more as an older guy. I know him, he knows me, because we have worked together. He’s really one of our key guys. There is no question about it.”



How can we see? He led his team to the WCF last year? Does that not count? Was Kobe less of a leader when his team was 8th seed twice? Was Dirk less of a leader when his team was knocked out of the first round? He's had more team success and individual success then your star player to be fair.
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True, but Dame isn't coddled. Harden is. Harden doesn't get contact, he fakes contact. I just think James Harden is a fraud. \

I think Dame will earn his in time.
 
Strenuus said:
I think Harden is a fraud, a joke, and a horrible teammate. I have never seen someone play with so little fire. He's one of the worst "stars" the league has ever had. And again, you can't build around him... as you can see.
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Harden needs to be treated like an elite Jamal Crawford. He's a block but not a pillar.
 
Superbeard said:
One bad season doesn't make him a terrible player. This Rocket team had a TON of issues, Harden is ONE of them but he's the only thing this team has going for it as well.

This team ALWAYS had poor coaching. Terrible coaching. When I tell you that once the Rockets were down 3 with 4 seconds left to go and they had Dwight in the game...DOWN 3...I do not lie. They had Beverly on Livingston the entire time. The stress that causes a defense...and no one on this team rotates or plays any semblance of team defense. People blame Harden for everything that goes wrong with this team but when he goes out things get bad...quickly. It's why he continues to log the most minutes for the team because he is the entire team's offense. This narrative that he ball hogs, another false narrative. When he goes out of the game the Rockets do the same thing, except they then run ISO plays for Beasley, Ariza, or Beverly or whoever. Their entire offense is beat your man, drive and kick. It's been that way under McHale FOREVER now. When he had Lowry, Dragic, and now it's Harden. The one thing McHale did was get the players motivated but when that went out of the window the organization did what they felt was right to get a kick out of the team.

Harden has his issues, but so does every other player in the NBA. Harden can't do everything and he can't make up for the numerous terrible coaching decisions, the somewhat random rotation this team suffered through, Dwight doing what Dwight does in every contract year seemingly, and everything that went wrong this season.

He had a bad year for his team. It happens to the best of players. Happened to Dirk, Kobe, and all that. I just don't get it actually.

Last year he put the team on his back and lead them to the WCF and that was the narrative. This year he's incapable of being a leader and a horrible team players? Perhaps it's not that simple and he's not the only guy that has an affect on whether his team wins or loses.
Click to expand...

With a username of Superbeard, I suspect there is a possibility you may be ever so slightly biased.

When you find yourself constantly making excuses for your best player, that's a pretty good indication you need to start looking for a new best player.

Yes, Harden is a HORRIBLE teammate, perhaps the worst in the league. Good teammates at least make an effort to play defense. Honestly, is there a lazier, more indifferent defender in the entire league than James Harden? There are plenty of bad defenders in the league, but I honestly can't think of anyone who puts in less effort on the defensive end than James Harden. To me, that's a shitty teammate.

As the best player and leader of his team, HE needs to step up and get his teammates on the same page. The whole Harden/Howard "cordially bad" relationship is at lest half Harden's fault.

And then there is this:

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/201...houston-rockets-face-dysfunctional-end-season

"Before the Houston Rockets lost Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, James Harden arrived at Oracle Arena in a black SUV with his bodyguard, marketing rep and four friends.

He chose not to ride in either of Houston's two team buses, something he has done all season because he likes to be certain he arrives at a specific time before every game, despite how it might look to observers.

When Harden walked through the arena's metal detectors, he held out his toiletry bag for a security guard and, instead of placing his cellphone into a customary plastic box, he handed it to his own security guard. He didn't wait for his bag to be checked. Harden instead strolled toward the locker room with the knowledge that someone would get his bag and bring his phone to him.

It was such a diva-like arrival to a playoff game, and rather odd given how badly the Rockets need togetherness in a trying season that has seen them underachieve and face criticism that they are not on the same page."

That makes Harden sound like the biggest douchebag, prima donna in all of sports. He's an aloof prick that considers himself too good to be sullied by sharing a ride with his lesser teammates. That is not a leader. That is not a good teammate. Rather than trying to build team unity, he spends his off court time hanging out with strippers and dating Kardashians. Neither seems to have endeared him to his teammates.

Quite frankly, I loved seeing the Rockets fail this season. I was actually glad when they stumbled into the playoffs, as it cost them their draft pick and I knew they would be slaughtered by the Warriors in the first round. A true best case scenario. Harden is my least favorite player in the entire league right now. As someone who has been following NBA basketball for almost 50 years, he offends me on every level. On one end, his game relies heavily on deception and fooling the refs into giving him free throws that he doesn't deserve. That's why I love the playoffs, the better, more experienced refs don't fall for his flopping nearly as often. On the other end, he puts forth zero effort. As a fan of the game of basketball, I hate watching him play. He is a disgrace. I'd also hate to be his teammate. His lack of effort on the defensive end would piss me off to no end. He saves all his effort to pad his stats on the offensive end, which gets him praise, notoriety and endorsement deals, but hurts his team. Anyone who knows anything about basketball can clearly see he's only half a player. I hope he retires a Rocket.

BNM
 
Harden is a manufactured star. It's that simple.

Who is James harden without the free throw line?
 
Harden could still be a good player, but he's so fixated on drawing contact. It's a massive flaw in his game.
 
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