Comments on: 2025 Clippers Exit Interviews: James Harden

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 29 May 2025 04:59:07 +0000

Congrats to the OKC Thunder. I’m not rooting for them but give them credit for running over the Wolves. 3/5th of their starting 5 came from the Clippers: SGA, the pick that became Jalen Williams, Hartenstein. It’s a bitter pill for LAC fans to swallow and it highlights a deficiency in our FO’s and coaching staff’s approach to building teams that can compete for a championship. Hopefully, the lesson of SGA will instruct Ballmer to modify the approach.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 29 May 2025 04:57:00 +0000

Harden had one of the best seasons in Clipper history. I think we might’ve won no more than 20 games without him. In addition to great offense and clutch play, this arguably might have been one of his better defensive seasons in his career. He was bought in to what Van Gundy was selling.

I also think he played well enough in 4 of the 7 games vs Denver for us to win. Kawhi had a mid game when he had a great Game 1. He was very good to great in Games 2/3 & 6 (all wins).

My issue is with Ty Lue, not James. He overplayed Harden all through the regular season and sapped him in Game 6 where he played over 45 mins (no legs for Game 7).

I get that Lue felt we needed James on the court to get those regular season wins with Kawhi out, but we had a deep roster at the beginning of the year, with a guard rotation that included KPJ/T-Mann/Dunn, and we also had a lot of forwards on the roster to give the team a different look, including vets like Batum and younger players with size like Kobe Brown. We need to be able to put younger guys into the rotation and preserve our stars. We do that with Kawhi. We needed to also do it with James.

If you look at the teams that have made the NBA’s final four over the past several years, they all have young players who feature in the rotation. We need to integrate younger folks into the rotation. We also need to preserve our stars for the postseason and not grind them down. I think Harden can be very productive over the next 2 seasons, but we need to use him in a more intelligent manner.

By: Robert Flom

Robert Flom — Thu, 29 May 2025 00:12:38 +0000

I would not mind a LaMelo swing, would just depend on cost

By: Robert Flom

Robert Flom — Thu, 29 May 2025 00:12:21 +0000

Yeah I just wouldn’t have higher expectations at this point in his career. It’s insane he was even a fringe All-NBA level guy

By: JCplusULTRA

JCplusULTRA — Tue, 27 May 2025 18:59:15 +0000

All the Harden hate is unwarranted. He lead the team and played his ass off on both ends. He ran the whole offense and played some of the best defense of his career.

Ty Lue failed to create an offense without him and didn’t properly stagger his minutes. It was amazing he lasted and played as well as he did with Ty burning him to the ground and throwing him under the bus to cover his own ass.

I really hope Ty gets fired and CP3 comes back on a team-friendly deal to give Harden some much needed relief. This team is better than the writers here think and could go deep with a decent coach and offense. We all know the defense is there. It’s time to unlock the other half.

By: JCplusULTRA

JCplusULTRA — Tue, 27 May 2025 18:51:43 +0000

Demanding heavy minutes? He wants to win and he knows Ty Lue is inept at creating an offense. He wants to win, so he has to play and Ty has to play him. All that nonsense about him wanting to play heavy minutes is bullshit by Ty to cover his own ass.

By: chogokin

chogokin — Tue, 27 May 2025 18:37:39 +0000

I get having expectations for him given his resume, but he’s way past his prime at this point. Hell, even prime Harden was, at best, inconsistent in the playoffs. I wasn’t happy w/ his stinkers (e.g. Game 7) in the postseason this year, but he also legit carried the team in a few games (e.g. games 1 and 6) – arguably moreso than Kawhi outside of Game 2. And considering he isn’t on a Paul George max contract, I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask for any more than what he’s already given.

Realistically speaking what we saw from him last season is probably as good as he’s ever gonna be.

By: Thretch

Thretch — Tue, 27 May 2025 16:29:48 +0000

My issue with Harden is that my expectations are higher. Maybe that’s my problem. But if he’s a former MVP and “the system”, I expect him to do more for the team.

Of the 15 players who made the All-NBA team, only four did not lead their team to some playoff success (the others: Giannis, Lebron and Cunningham though no one would expect Detroit to advance). So I’m left with the disappointing feeling of “what has he done for this team? Nothing that other stars couldn’t have done”. So I just feel that he’s nothing special after all. Sure he’s very good, but not more than that.

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Tue, 27 May 2025 05:43:02 +0000

I think James had an outstanding season relatively speaking but he’s his own worst enemy by demanding to play heavy minutes at his age. Hopefully he’s learned his lesson. The other problem with “the system” is that he’s the ultimate head of the snake, and the deeper the playoffs go he’s not only tired but teams focus on blitzing him and he just falls apart. I don’t think this means he’s washed or can never win, but it’s essential that he play alongside another scoring facilitator. His most successful run was with CP3 and they might have beaten the Hampton Warriors had CP not gotten injured.

For this reason and many others, the LaMelo thing really makes a ton of sense. All of his injuries are quirky things like rolled ankles or hand fractures, not horrible things like achilles or ACL etc.

He’s only 23 so that’s probably a ten year window that would take us well past 2030/2031 which to me makes those picks (trade or swap) worth acquiring him. If we could move Norm to a 3rd team for another 1st and include that in the deal it might be helpful too.

Having said all this, the greatest thing about LaMelo as a Clipper would be landing a 6’7″ savant point guard and scorer who perhaps has even more talent than Shai—which might bring the franchise full circle on that blunder.

There is a LOT of smoke regarding this and I’m on board if it happens.