Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on James Harden’s step back: “To change someone’s coverage to the point where they want to play at a disadvantage all game is an insane amount of gravity.”
Peak harden was so damn good offensively
I’ll always stand on that he deserved the 2019 MVP over Giannis
That’s not even the one, he deserved MVP over Westbrook
They switched narratives on him, he lost on 14⁄15 because Curry had the better record but worse stats, then in 16⁄17 he had the wins but they went with Westbrook who had 2 more rebounds lmao
He led a team with Eric Gordon as the 2nd best player to 55 wins and 2nd best offense in the NBA
Thought he deserved it over Russ.
Russ had a great narrative that just couldn’t be beat. KD left and he averaged a triple double.
But James was so much better. Ridiculous what he was doing on the court
Westbrook had a great year he just did not have a better year than Harden, Harden got cuked by voters who decided to care about an arbitrary number once and then gave zero fucks about it after, Westbrook perfect year to do it with KD leaving him and people feeling so sorry
Harden is kind of unlucky, he should minimum have 2 MVPs and the runs he had on the West in the playoffs was insane
People need to go look at the teams that he faced, it’s the hardest runs of all time, from KD/Westbrook OKC finalist to champions Warriors to 60+ wins Spurs to KD Warriors to Bubble Lakers
He had some awful chokes but man he played some insane teams, he just needed one lucky run, every single team he lost to was favorites over him
1⁄27 😔 and a healthy CP3 hammy away
We will always remember. That year was special
Some of those 0/27 shots were legit fouls that the refs just refused to call for some reason.
Harden made the Rockets play so well in 2017 that the argument flipped and voters thought Harden had a better team than Westbrook.
You could argue any or 2015, 2017 and 2019
Yep.
The 2015 one is insane the more you look at it. Curry avged 23//4/7 on a 1st seed
Harden avged 27/6/7. 2nd seed in the west with honestly a pretty pathetic roster to get 2nd seed with in the west. But whatever. Curry has 11 more wins right
Then 2017 harden had neatly the same stats but far more wins than wb and lost. Didnt make sense considering.
Then 2019 hardens stats were out of this world yet lost.
He got fucked. He dragged mediocre casts those 3 years big time.
Harden got so screwed playing in the West that season. The Rockets only got the 4th seed in the West despite Harden having an all-time great offensive season. Meanwhile, Giannis and the Bucks cruised to the 1st seed in the Wast.
It’s sad that this is somehow an unpopular opinion
Just not when it matters
Give Jordan 4 steps and see what happens
Nobody mentioned Jordan, don’t need to randomly inject him into a convo that has Jack shit to do with him
It’s 2026 if you think hardens step back or euro is a travel you have rocks for brains
Unfortunately we’ll never know.
Just like we’ll never know how crazy Harden, SGA, or any of the other great modern 3 level scorers would have cooked the entire league if they got to play when zone defense was literally illegal and you were guaranteed a 1 on 1 or a pass to somebody wide open.
Everybody like to talk about travels, nobody like to talk about the reality that defense was checkers level back then and let great iso hoopers play the game on easy mode.
I always thought that type of defense was less about the step back and more about fouls
nah it was about taking away the 3 and funneling him to rudy gobert at the rim.
houston/d’antoni’s offense basically prohibited midrange shots, so utah played a style defense that conceded the midrange and tried to take away the 3 and the rim.
It was also about keeping Gobert at the rim and not allowing the switch to leave him on an island with Harden out at the perimeter
Kind of both. And in general they wanted him to drive and let Rudy protect the paint. Honestly it generally worked. Harden went 11⁄26, 11⁄24, 3⁄20, 8⁄19, 10⁄26 from the field in the series with only one game with more than 10 FTAs. The Jazz could not shoot worth a lick in that series though and lost in 5.
Son please, prime Harden was cooking entire teams and it wasn’t because they were concerned about fouls. He was very visibly cooking those fools, had em dancing like a marionette.
They were absolutely concerned about fouls, what the fuck are you talking about? Josh Hart famously guarded him one time with his hands behind his back because he so often hooked defenders’ arms on his drives to draw fouls.
The fouls were probably a big part of it, but wasn’t his step back also one of the most efficient isolation plays at a time (points per possession). Now that might’ve been because he did get some four-point plays and calls, at a notable clip compared to everyone else at the time if im remembering correctly.
Would love to do the math but id need a repository of 8 year old harden play by play stats, to program it, and recalculate the numbers without messing up.
Yeah that hands behind the back thing was to avoid Harden foul baiting. This hilarious shit Rubio was doing was because Jazz was scared to death of his step back 3.
I guess I must made up the whole defenders pinning their hands behind their back so they couldn’t get called for a foul thing
No you didn’t, when San Antonio knocked out Houston in 2017 that was their game plan
Dawg. He was cooking them and they were absolutely concerned about fouls.
All just to get blocked by Ginobili :(
It was about the fouls. The better narrative is the step back 3 tho.
It’s literally by definition both
The thing about Harden, he’s too deadly to defend close because he can drive past you. Giving him enough space to get a shot off or even counter into a step back is the disadvantage.
I mean the top 10-15 players in the league play with a disadvantage. Even if you try to contain them, they are still unguardable
the please just throw open lobs or take open layups coverage
The please refs don’t give him 20 phantom calls tonight coverage
Look if you’re going to cry (incorrectly) about how harden was officiated, then you better cry about SGA too
I wonder what he thinks about the Lakers’ ft differential
That shit was dumb af lol.
Harden walked so SGA could run
Harden was taking 12 freethrows a game.
You said it pal
*could flop
Podziemski’s gravity.
Harden will never get the respect he deserves because the best team ever was born right at his peak. If they win Game 7 vs GSW they would have clapped the Cavs in the Finals and everyone would agree Harden is top 15 all time at minimum. That one single game is the difference in his whole legacy
It’s not just that team, he played in the West at the hardest era ever vs some of the best teams ever
Like i said in my other comment, people need to look at the teams he lost to
60 win OKC KD+Westbrook, 54 Portland with LMA+Batum+Lillard, 67 win Golden State, 73 win Golden State, 61 win Spurs, KD Warriors twice, Bubble Lakers
I’ve looked and i don’t think you can find a harder run ever and he never really had the team that was favored over them and then his best team he’s ever had runs into KD Warriors the greatest team ever
I’ll never forget Ricky Rubio literally guarding Harden from behind in the playoffs
Then you’ll love the clip the OP posted.
Man we getting into the revisionist era of Harden eh?
People fucking HATED Harden and his entire bag of tricks. Dude had an incredible step back, but everything else about Harden was extremely grating to watch as a fan.
Makes sense why I don’t really watch OKC right now either.
Speak for yourself, plenty of people loved to watch Harden.
To each their own, but I also agree with the guy above. I found his brand of foul-baiting bullshit unwatchable.
Like even look at the clip of Rubio guarding him. He still flops to the ground somehow 😂
never before or since have i ever seen someone guarded from behind. shit is still crazy
Hes not lying. We haven’t seen someone guarded that way ever since tbh.
The real threat was fouls and the proof is Harden’s decline in the playoffs
Players that rely on fouls have a decline in playoffs when the whistle stops coming. Harden, DeRozan types
Players that make shots period raise their game in the playoffs. Kawhi, Kyrie types
Jimmy Butler
Ricky Rubio on prime James Harden, now that’s some next level defensive scheming lmao
Why does the tone of his voice raise at the end of every sentence as if he’s asking a question? Socal valley girl accent
He’s infected with a disease called the Toronto Accent
Oh god, I had no idea I do this until now
It’s really funny how so many countries have a version of this, Canada had Toronto, the US has Valley Girl and even the UK has the Essex accent (Listener discretion advised). I’m sure more other countries have their own versions of this too
Apparently I just read Australia is even more pervasive
Wait.. You guys talk like 80’s Valley Girls?
Meanwhile Valley Girls now do the opposite where they talk like the Kardashians (vocal fry) and go low to finish a sentence.
Canadian
Nah
That’s the Toronto Canada accent
And I know exactly what you mean, they sound funny lol
Hes just Canadian bro
Watching a playoff game vs Utah??
And ricky Rubio was guarding him??
That’s never been done before??
dunno why we’re asking Shai about stepbacks.
You can just say you don’t watch Shai, it’s ok bro
Shai doesn’t really step back much? He mostly does a side step
It’s all the same though haha
Foul baiting clown likes other foul baiting clown.
Woah friendly fire
Lakers always shoot wayyyyy more free throws then anyone and that was before the foul bait king Luka came
Brother, we have Luka.
Glass houses and all that lol