How James Harden Failed To Win a Championship with the Houston Rockets 

in summary: 1. James Harden failed big in a few crucial games 2. The Warriors

As a rockets fan it was disappointing never winning a ring with the Beard but would definitely not James Harden's time in H-Town a dissapointment by any means. With Harden we never truly had to worry about missing the playoffs and almost always got to watch a 50 win squad throughout his entire tenure. Yes the playoffs were a disappointment but there were great battles and it was usually exciting regardless.

Harden wasn’t a disappointment. He was a bench player in OKC who got traded and single-handedly took a franchise from mediocrity to championship contention.

I’ve never seen a team challenge the KD Warriors the way that the Harden/CP3 Rockets did. I remember watching the game when they went up 3-2 and it was amazing seeing the level of basketball that team played to get to that position. Say what you want about the Harden Rockets era but that team fought harder than any other team in the West at that time.

In summary: 2012-13: 8th seed and got knocked out by OKC (a surprise tho) 2013-14: Got beaten by an iconic Lillard 3 in Game 6 during the First Round 2014-15: Reached the WCF as a 2nd seed only to be knocked out by the Warriors 2015-16: Big turmoil and got McHale fired. Harden and Howard couldn't be on the same page and was knocked out by the Warriors 2016-17: D'Antoni basically made the offense a Harden show and made Harden himself point guard. Finished as a 3rd seed but got knocked out by the 2nd seeded Spurs 2017-18: Got CP3 and finished with 65 wins for the best record in the league. Reached the WCF but CP3 got injured and missed 27 threes consecutively to lose to the Warriors in 7. Harden won MVP 2018-19: CP3's performance declined and the Anthony experiment didn't help. Harden went nuclear to carry this team to a 4th seed. Lost to the Warriors in 6 even after they lost KD in Game 5. 2019-20: Traded CP3 for Westbrook which prompted the team to go completely small. Only reached the semis as the 4th seed and got eliminated by the Lakers. 2020-21: D'Antoni left, Westbrook got traded, and Harden would eventually follow suit, ending an 8 year stint with the team.

I still feel bad for cp3 man. 2018 was supposed to be the year but bad luck struck again. Hope he still gets another chance at a ring before he retires

As a rockets fan, the harden years were absolutely not a disappointment at all. They were consistently championship contenders throughout his whole time here, fun to watch, and would have 1 ring at the absolute least if they didn’t happen to run into the greatest team ever constructed. (Also, the refs didn’t help in game 7, but thats a story for another day.) Overall, I’m happy i got to watch my favorite team play as good as they did for the last decade. A ring looks good on a Wikipedia page but the experiences are what really count.

I've been a Rockets fan since 2004. I'm not mad at Harden for leaving nor was I ever disappointed by what he did. I can confidently say that while Harden was here I was never concerned about missing the playoffs and I knew there was a realistic chance of winning it all every year no matter how small that chance was. Harden lost to the Warriors 4 out of 5 years and there's no shame in that. The Warriors were an all time great before KD and they became legendary with KD and even then the Harden led Rockets were the only team to push the post KD Warriors past 5 games until the Clippers lost to GSW in a Game 6. GSW was simply just a better team with more good players than Houston. I hate that we never won but Harden's time in Houston was no "failure" to me.

Can you do the rise and the fall of victor oladipo I think that would be an amazing video

The tale of James Harden and the Houston Rockets can be summarized with "27 consecutive missed 3's".

Any “championship” team from 2015-2019 basically stalled if they even made it to the finals because of the warriors. Like the NBA paused for a few years.

As a rockets fan ...this hurts but looking forward to our future with our new youngsters.

Obviously the Thunder were dumb to trade harden, but people are sleep to the fact that Kevin Martin was really good for them for a couple years. The trade wasn't just for Jeremy Lamb and picks, that is a massive understatement because the purpose of the trade was to get Martin, a young wing in Lamb, and picks, one of which was Steven Adams.

The Dwight Howard rockets were the most fun recent rockets, similar to how Embiid's first playing season was when the Sixers were the most fun (what I call the Stauskas era), and the 2018 hospital Celtics were the most fun. Tons of energy, boundless potential, but not actually threatening yet lol

Despite his shortcomings in the playoffs.. Huston Harden was fun as hell to watch.. especially playing with him on 2k 15-2k18 dude was unstoppable and the teams were fun as well to play with.

The Warriors finished game 6 of the 2018 WCF on a 93-47 run over the last 3 quarters and held Houston to 25 in the second HALF.

Video series suggestion: a Year in Review for every NBA season over the last 10 yrs. Each year gets its own review. So, it would cover the big moments (& some of the small ones) in each season, kinda like how a TV show gives recaps before the start of a new season.

James Harden certainly did not play poor against the warriors in 2019, he played even better than the 2018 series. Him and Durant led the league in scoring in the post season of 2019

For me, it all comes down to THAT WCF game against GSW where the Rockets missed 27 threes _IN A ROW_ with Harden on the floor. The Rockets lost that game by 9 points, so they could have still missed _23_ consecutive threes and won by a point. 💀 (Edit: corrected 12pts to 9pts and 21 shots to 23 shots; which technically makes things even worse)

Oof. As a Houston Fan and native. This is going to be hard to watch. Injuries, drama, and the warriors 😭

I love your videos, always instant classics, you're gonna get far fr

It was sad as a CP3 fan when he got injured and the Rockets had a lead in game 7 then they missed 27 threes straight

Shhhhesh, this video was so legit. Its rare i watch a full 30 minute video ads and all start to finish. Superb job my man

As a rockets fan this brings tears of joy and sadness

These videos are so good bro Keep on doing them 🙏🙏

This is a great new channel. Keep it up Dylan!

man your channel is so cool i mean the way u put every story is sum diffrent keep it up

ur videos are top tier keep it up always happy to see u upload a new story

I love these videos Dylan is such a good storyteller 🙂

I will always have love for Harden as a Houston fan, despite his less than ceremonious exit. I hope he wins a ring with the Nets for all he did for us

love your videos man, keep up the good work

not really into NBA but love ur vids man, they're always interesting to watch

For Rockets fans it still hurts to this day. That 2017-18 season I’m convinced we woulda won it all had CP3 stayed healthy. The local sports radio was depressing after the loss

It's really hard to build a team around him. With the ball in hand he is a phenomenal player and capable of winning any game. But that ain't worth a thing if everyone double teams you in the playoffs and you never get a chance to win games because you're always down 20 in the 4th. It was really difficult to get good performances out of his teammates in the system D'Antoni ran. Even CP3 looked fairly average alongside James and you saw how good he looked when he left. He's an all time piece playing in a system that doesn't work in today's NBA. He has shown in Brooklyn that he can be a much less ball dominant player in the right system, why didn't Houston do that? People blame Harden but I think it had more to do with the coach tbh.

Bro these are bangers keep em coming 💯

Love your videos man. Keep it up!

At Huston Harden was coached by Mike D’Antoni. Coach D’Antoni has failed to win a championship or even get to the finals in a long NBA coaching career. Why? 1. He never calls set plays or even tells players specifics about what to do. In the playoffs opposing coaches can key on stopping D’Antoni teams & Mike can’t adjust to that. 2. D’Antoni has never been a good defensive coach. 3. D’Antoni uses short rotations & by the playoffs he often burns out players. Kobe’s Achilles injury being a big example. 4. D’Antoni is terrible at coaching bigs which is why he ended up not using them. ** D’Antoni has been influential. Coaches like Steve Kerr have taken ideas from D’Antoni but Kerr is a lot more flexible. Kerr will tell his players what to do. He calls plays & uses structured systems (like the triangle). He uses longer rotations. He focuses on defense. He uses bigs effectively. Same thing with Greg Popovich. No surprise that Kerr & Popovich repeatedly beat D’Antoni teams in the playoffs.

As a die-hard Thunder fan, yes even now, I can attest that his time with us is the most disappointing. How a prime Westbrook, Harden, and Durant do not win a championship is baffling.

Keep up the amazing work!

Your narrations on point not to much words but not to little gives enough info that even without watching just by listening can understand and imagine everything I’ve been using your vids to get through the work day I’m almost done😢

The person I feel for as well in this story is Mike D'Antoni. He coached an offensive juggernaut that arguably was the greatest team he ever assembled. No disrespect to the 05' suns though. D'Antoni time and time again has made deep playoff runs as a coach but come up short. He was on the doorstep of finally breaking though as a coach, only to end in the same tough fate it always has for him.

How he failed: ran into the greatest team ever assembled multiple times in the playoffs. If the 2015-2019 Rockets are playing against teams in any other time they probably win 2 titles.

I love ur vids man keep up the amazing work 🤟

What a fun time in my life. Thanks for all the memories. Good and bad.

That 2018 collapse had me so frustrated and I wasn’t even a rockets fan I was just mad for both Harden and CP3

Love your content mate. Great in-depth overview over a long timeline. Love from Denmark🇩🇰

My guy amazing video. Super valid points and arguments.

Ur videos are on another level bro

The goat back

We should really mention that Harden is naturally a point guard. Yet the rockets have never surrounded him with *any* wing talent and his only notable big man was slightly past-prime Dwight/young Capela. There was always eventually going to be conflict in play styles with 2 ball dominant guards/playmakers and they threw in CP3 & Russ.

These are so good man thanx

Love these I know they take a lot of effort and time to make

Hardens years with Houston was nothing but enjoyment as a rockets fan, every night you would see him do something incredible. We were a top 4 team in the west and a 50+ win team every year with alone. Obviously we had some tough years in the playoffs but one man cannot beat a flawless super team like the warriors alone and that was his only obstacle. I’m rooting for him in Brooklyn, he’s my favorite player ever and I hope he wins his ring, shuts up all his haters which he has a lot of and maybe return to Houston one day where he can end his legendary career.

Quality content yet again bro

This guy in my top 5 basketball you tubers all time already and I only been watching for a few months

I just found your channel, and I like these videos that are structured in a way where they’re almost like, the lore of NBA Basketball history. Also, I realized what James Harden has done wrong his whole career, he’s always try do things his way, which of course, shouldn’t mean he’s not going to win a chip, but he’s not active enough, it’s like he thinks it’s his job. I don’t know if this is correct, obviously, but let’s have a discussion.

I've always felt that Harden is one of the most disrespected superstars of all time. I mean, I get that people don't like him shooting so many free throws but what this man has done is historical. Sixth man of the year and MVP (he should have at least 2 more) 3x scoring leader. 1x assist leader. Only player to record a 60 point triple double. Only player to record a 40 point triple double while playing less than 30 minutes. Only player to score over 30 points against every team in one season. One of two players to be responsible for 90+ points in a game (the other being Wilt). One of two players to have at least 2 games of 50 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in a single season. Only player in NBA history to record at least 2,000 points, 900 assists and 600 rebounds in a single season. Oh.... and most wins against the KD-era Warriors.

Loving the content man

well done, i enjoyed it very much

There have been a lot of great players on terrible teams. And when terrible things happen, its never the terrible players who get the blame.

Going to multiple deep playoff runs against the super team warriors when even LeBron couldn't even beat them is a big accomplishment to Harden. No one in the media even thought they make 5 games

Excellent video!

Another great video

These dynasties make other teams in the league feel hopeless. When Magic's lakers and Bird's Celtics were trading championships no other teams had anything going. Then Jordan's Bulls took over for 6 rings and all the other teams ...hopeless. The Shaq and kobe lakers went on a 3 peat before that fell apart but kobe got 2 more and Shaq got 1 with DADE. In recent memory it's been LeBron and then steph came on the scene. (Kd was like hey let me join you steph lol) people forget steph beat both kd and LeBron and was 1 possession away from beating LeBron in 2016.

To be fair to him, he has always been losing to a superteam no one could beat. The 2020 lakers were also no joke.

Your videos are really well made, I think on this vid specifically your title could be better, more like your Boston video, I think a more concise title for future vids would do you better. You deserve subs brah

this channel is massively underrated

How the Rockets failed to win a championship: Golden State Warriors exist

It’s crazy how this team changed their fans. I remember my cousin always being a lifelong Rockets fan through all our struggles. But something about getting so close and realistically being the favorite had we made the finals really turned him away. Now he’s all “We won’t sniff another championship for years” as if that wasn’t the case before and acts like they betrayed him. It’s so weird to me. He acts like us forcing Harden to stay and play where doesn’t want to would’ve been better than rebuilding. Harden was never going to win a ring here after CP3 left so I say let’s start the path towards our next contender. 🤷🏽‍♂️

How the hell does dylan have ove 1 million views and only 40k subs get this man to 100k by next December I swear to God man. Unseen potential in this man's content

These are some great videos

The fact that content like this is on a free viewing platform is insane

I really hope James Harden shakes this reputation one day. He is too skilled to let his legacy boil down to choking in big games.

Underrated channel

i think calling him playing in houston a "Failure" is a bad take Almost every year he had to deal with Co-Stars being injured and Facing teams better than his, Could he have done better? obv but im not angry at a guy Losing against KD Curry/ Lebron AD when his co star is injured, 50 wins almost every year and a loot of deep playoffs runs not a Failure imo

I really hate that you called Dwight Howard lazy especially since in that offseason where he sign with the Lakers he had disc surgery in his back I hate that people call him lazy when he played with the Lakers and the rockets he just wasn't mobile enough coming off of the back surgery

Speaking as a Clevelander, I sure would've loved to play the Rockets in The Finals a time or two from '15-18.

Great channel

He didnt want to move or play off ball enough. It was also D'antoni's system tbf.

“Harden is going to go down in history as one of the greatest chockers who ever lived “ had me dying bruh 😂😂😂

the narrating big captivating 😂 glued like I ain't know none of this

Great vid !!!

As a rockets fan it would never stop hurting how cp3 went down in 2018 when we truly had a chance

As a die hard rockets fan for 20 plus years I have watches harden choke in huge moments more times then I can count on my fingers. Harden amazing during the regular seasons and even in the playoffs to an extent but boy I tell you that man would fold in make or break moments and it was tough to watch.

I am actually quite curious about this topic as well. Thanks for your analysis. I have never been a big fan of him

You put a lot of work in this video, I hope I gets the views it deserves. Great work

Also calling Dwight “lazy” in LA is a shit take, he had a bad back, I’d love to see you go out there and try to do the same with a bad back that requires surgery.

As a houston fan its unfair to call his run disappointment. Houston never miss playoff since he got there

nice video well commentated

Injuries and the warriors lololol. Nice vid!

5:03 the fact that every playoff team in the west basically won 50 games in 2014 still blows my mind

The most damning thing to me is that the one huge comeback the rockets made in the playoffs during his tenure happened entirely with him on the bench cause he'd already mentally checked out of the game. James Harden will never be able to erase needing to be carried by a miraculous game 6 second half from Josh Smith and Corey Brewer of all people against the Clips in '15

UR THE BEST NBA RU-vidR IDC

There's a famous saying that fits this perfectly "the quicker you get there the quicker you go" those Houston Rockets became championship contenders overnight therefore they window was gone like Cinderella!

I don't bat an eye when I hear this discussion, I even catch myself sometimes thinking "Well yeah, what did you expect?" A few reasons can justify this. First, the West in 2010's was loaded with a capital LOADED. You also have to take into account that D'Antoni isn't a Championship calibur coach. He came off multiple seasons of coaching the Pheonix Suns without a title to their name and they had what was considered one of the best rosters in the 2000's. You can consider the multiple injuries and bad luck riddling the roster but that's another story for a different day. But taking D'Antoni into account, they ran an offense that focused on ball movement and scoring quickly. The one thing that hampered the Rockets offense was their inefficiency. Yes, yes, I can hear all the complaints, "they were actually an efficient team, they only took layups or open 3's", and as true as that is, the more shots you take, the more likely you are to miss shots, the more likely those possessions are wasted. Instead of the shots, it was the playbook, the system itself RIGHT DOWN TO THE CORE, that was inefficient. Just taking efficient shots isn't efficient enough. Player conditioning is never taken into account, when harden takes 25-30 shots a game WHILE running the offense and trying to space the floor for the other shooters. He's wearing down, by the time you get to the playoffs, not only is Harden trying to carry his team, the team have to carry themselves onto the floor. Theory, the system is amazing, in practice, you're working your guys extra hard to run the floor trying to start and finish plays in a matter of seconds, repeating that an extra 10, sometimes 15 times more than any other team in the league at the time. You have a playbook, a system, that makes players play more possessions, and you're trying to talk about efficiency. If a team only needs to run back to play defense, compared to a team that has to run off screens and run around screens and to take an extra 10-15 shots a game. The team running that system will ALWAYS be more tired at the end of the game. The most efficient system is a system that limits the shots you take, while making them count. Defense is also the biggest efficiency outlier in the game right now. D'Antoni never had more than one or two defensive players at a time, while also not having any defensive tactics or schemes outside teams in the playoff, where at that point players are at their most worn out from playing 82 x 15 more possessions in the regular season. Like it or not, that system doesn't help anyone unless you're blowing teams out. And with a player like James Harden who was entirely capable of running a normal flowing offense with good efficiency, it just seems like a waste to run a system where just shoot whenever you can, the sooner the better.

Honestly man I can’t hate on harden, no matter how many 2-11 games he’s had he still one of the greatest of all time, he took us to 2 conference finals and was unlucky because of a warriors dynasty, we thought we’d never get anything better than McGrady and ming and we were blown away, I still remember when we got him from okc I knew we had something great

i'll never forget those two games that my Spurs won with the Ginobili block followed by the absolute collapse of Harden against the Spurs' second stringers

ur so underrated bro

Harden put all his energy into the regular season but couldn’t do the same in the playoffs

As a diehard Warriros fan, I still have trouble seeing replays of games 4 and 5 from this series even though we won. The Rockets would of beat us if Chris Paul did not get hurt.