Harden to Brooklyn

Discussion of the league and of our favorite team.
User avatar
O_Gardino
Posts: 6620
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 12:47 pm
Location: Shreveport, LA

Re: Harden to Brooklyn

Post by O_Gardino »

Flagrant Fowl wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:56 am
Mori Chu wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:43 am
I watched most of Harden's debut game with Brooklyn against the Magic. He looked a little off and a little overweight but decent overall. He ends up with a triple-double, 32 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds. He was even hustling on defense a little; clearly trying to make a good first impression.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267350
Not saying you expected him to, but Harden isn't going to suck in Brooklyn. The guy is easily a top 5 player in the league who was just sandbagging it in Houston for the last month. Put aside your feelings about that and it's pretty clear that he's going to be his MVP level self pretty much every night.
Hard to put aside those feelings. Somehow the LaVert situation makes me hate Harden even more. Harden could average 40/15/15 and I still wouldn't give him my MVP vote. If I had one.
The league needs heroes, villains... and clowns. -- Aztec Sunsfan

User avatar
Indy
Posts: 19339
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Harden to Brooklyn

Post by Indy »

Flagrant Fowl wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:54 am
"Who He Play For" and other stuff like it are just just comedy bits. He's not supposed to get them right even if he actually knows the player.

Inside the NBA is still the best NBA TV show because the humor is usually pretty funny, but I had to learn to completely ignore Shaq and Chuck when they're talking about which teams are good or who should/will win such and such game or series. For the most part, they're not watching games every night. They can really just provide insight about a game that just happened.

They can talk about why "Player X" is struggling or what they're doing well because they've played and trained at the highest level for thousands of hours. But they have almost no grasp on team dynamics from game to game, which is why they can't be taken seriously with identifying players or which teams are real contenders in January. Instead they turn their ignorance into "Who He Play For" comedy bits. I've read some Twitter opinions of people who think it's disrespectful or unprofessional of them, but I think those people are missing the context I described.
Yeah, when I watch it, I watch to hear Ernie and Kenny. The other guys are just there for comedy. I wish they could keep them off the stage and just cut to them when they need it. You can tell they only seem to watch the games on TNT (and not even all of them) and don't take their job seriously.

User avatar
Superbone
Posts: 33490
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 11:44 am
Location: San Diego, CA (Phoenix Native)

Re: Harden to Brooklyn

Post by Superbone »

Gladiator wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:12 am
I watched a fair bit of Harden’s BKN debit as well. They are going to be very hard to stop offensively but I found it pretty boring to watch - just Harden and Durant taking it in turns to go one-on-one against the defence. I’m sure it would be different if they were playing for Phoenix but as a neutral observer it was, to me, a bit of a yawn fest.
Barkley said it best. Durant went from the Splash Brothers to the Dribble Brothers.
"Be Legendary."

User avatar
Mori Chu
Posts: 20875
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 10:05 am

Re: Harden to Brooklyn

Post by Mori Chu »

Superbone wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 11:26 am
Gladiator wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:12 am
I watched a fair bit of Harden’s BKN debit as well. They are going to be very hard to stop offensively but I found it pretty boring to watch - just Harden and Durant taking it in turns to go one-on-one against the defence. I’m sure it would be different if they were playing for Phoenix but as a neutral observer it was, to me, a bit of a yawn fest.
Barkley said it best. Durant went from the Splash Brothers to the Dribble Brothers.
That's a great line. I think Brooklyn will find at some point that their 3 big stars can't all pound the ball and chuck as many shots as they want. I don't think that's championship-winning basketball to just "take turns" going 1-on-5. That's kind of what Durant and Westbrook used to do in OKC, and it was sort of what Durant and Curry did in Golden State. But Curry isn't quite the same breed. He does sometimes chuck up shots, but he loves moving without the ball, he loves passing, he loves seeing teammates score. You can have a Curry and a Durant and make it work because only one of the two is truly selfish (Durant). I don't think you can win with 3 selfish stars in the same starting lineup.

User avatar
pickle
Posts: 3065
Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2014 7:10 pm

Re: Harden to Brooklyn

Post by pickle »

Does Kyrie realize he's the 3rd option now? There's no way the chemistry on this team works mid term, let alone long term.

All three of these guys could be gone in 2 years...

Post Reply