Trust the PROCESS...of ELIMINATION: The Joel Embiid Story 

Correct. And while Embiid very well might "deserve" this one this season, he certainly didn't deserve that one last year...

@@skap_attack tbh they probably regret giving Embiid's and probably there wont be enough voters that will be convinced on the same mistake twice. There will be quite a few morons but hopefully not enough to win

@@skap_attack he doesnt deserve anything. we are toooooooo soon into this season. oh btw this season too Jokic leads the league in win shares, box plus minus and VORP

And Jokic dominantly led a team to a ring

@@bnsz8704 EXACTLY

You are SO right. This bullshit with the vote started YEARS ago. And it basically started the MOMENT the players lost the vote to the know-nothing bum media.

nba is a socialist organization

Did Garnett ever Win an MVP? Cuz every time he played he looked like the best or one the best players in the NBA! And he was a Beast of defense. Def one the greatest players to ever play the game to me. I used to put him above Duncan, even tho Duncan had all the decorations and trophy’s to go along with. But if KG himself said he was a better player than him, than I have to respect what he said, and give him that slot. It’s sucks KG played for a bad Org basically his whole career. Never gave a good team of Coach for a chance to compete… the NBA was open, especially in the East once Jordan retired and the Bulls were no longer Dominating the East and the Whole League! 😂

2004 with minn@@siner2442

​@@siner2442 KG got one in the early 2000s. KG, Kobe, TDx2, Nashx2, Dirk, Shaq and LBJ are the MVPs of that decade.

He fits their favorite profile. Being a spoiled bitch pays in the NBA.

Yup just like Lebum last year getting talked about even tho the nuggets won the championship

The nba media a joke tbh

EXACTLY 💯

Doubt that would ever happen.

@@Alalpog also, 💯

@@Alalpog true

Im not an embiid fan myself and def prever jokic over embiid, its a regular season mvp award. So, regular season is all that matters.

Just one of the MANY cogs in the present day NBA machine of mentally soft chumps...

Hey Skap, have you ever done any videos on Luka Doncic? I feel like he is cut from the same cloth that MJ and Kobe were from. He wants the big moment like nobody else in the league, he always shows up most against all the other superstars, and he already has multiple iconic and clutch playoffs moments @@skap_attack

DING DING DING 💯

Absolutely. It would be a blood bath...

@@skap_attack Would be fun tho 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Embiid would give up on life after the first elbow from Shaq.

LeChina wouldn’t have more than one and Kobe would have 4. But they wouldn’t give it to Jocic because they’re really racist these days. That’s also why white Americans haven’t been developing.. Foreigners don’t have to deal with it until they get to the league and by then they don’t bow to their BS

Embiid would've had two. Jokic got an mvp when his team was 6 in the conference and when Embiid team was number 1 in his conference.

Kobe would have been MVP for the last 5 years:

YOU KNOW THIS! 🙏

The SkapGoat

@@kaybigg 🙏❤️💪🔥👊

My absolute pleasure. And MANY THANKS to YOU for tuning in and supporting the channel. I really appreciate you 🙏❤♥

Skap the only one with journalistic integrity to accurately report Embid’s “robust dumps” 🙌 😂

?

Pathetic smh

@@skap_attack 💯

​@@skap_attack Does Perkins know it's both sides of the ball that makes a NBA player MVP ? He actually played in the league he should know better Nash definitely deserved an MVP he singlehandedly made the suns a 60 win team every year he was there

@@thepubknight6144 All 3 of the players are extremely deserving of having an award.

All I can do is keep putting out the best videos I can produce as quickly as I can produce them. While the channel may be growing slightly on the slower side, I am absolutely blown away by all of you guys and the base of followers I have built in the last 6-7 months or so. Looking forward to going full throttle into the New Years. Thank you SO MUCH for the kind words and the continued support. I really appreciate you 🙏❤♥

@@skap_attack Thing about you is your videos consistently outperform your sub count. There's a lot of NBA youtubers with 100k or 200k subs and new videos will get like 15k views consistently, you're the opposite way around. That's the sign you're still on the come up. Trouble is you might have already used your best content on the Last Excuse and Jordan vs. Lebron videos 😂😂😂😂😂

It's called shadowbanning Skap, has already been false DMCA'd twice for two LeBlowJ videos.

He probably is going to warrant the MVP this season, but he didn't last year.

At this point, I'd pity him if he faces Jokic in the finals. He's gonna lose and prolly suck even more after that. Giannis would make a much better competitor than Embiid at the finals. Win or lose, Giannis has the mentality of a champion. Embiid has Perkins mentality.

"Wizards- Pistons man" is putting those numbers against far inferior teams. As soon as stronger teams come, he chokes. Or just doesnt play at all. Giving that kind of a man an MVP, is an embarassment for the league. Then again, NBA did have NBA Cup and gave MVP to a guy who was 3rd scorer on his team in Finals and who had a teammate doing 40 points and 20 rebounds.

So did Harden when he was with the Rockets. I had League pass at that time, I started watching Rocket games just to see him put on a show! Putting up crazy numbers on a nightly basis. Looked like he was dropping 40-50pts every other game! Sure it was impressive and was fun watching him play… but ur main Goal should still be to Win. But it didn’t transition to making them better team or a threat in the Playoffs!? Ur supposed to add to the team, not neutralized it as a Star player like Harden and Embiid.

33/11/4 doesn’t deserve MVP? FOH!!

You’re wish is my command…

About to hit 30 here in 2 short months...

He looks 40 😂 I mean, he’s a giant scary mofo for real 💯

Yeah Joel’s been around.

Me too!

Harden at least drop 40 2x vs Celtics. Embiid (mvp) couldn’t crack 30.

@@66wb38 He cracked 30 in games 3, 4, and 5. Neared 30 in game 6 while being the best rim protector in the playoffs besides Anthony Davis. All of this was on an injury that can end whole seasons.

You can certainly make a compelling case for BOTH of them, AND they were on the SAME damn team!!

@@skap_attack yup lol

@@skap_attack He got clowned on for calling himself one of the most unselfish players ever. But Beardman's been sacrificing his talents his whole career with very little pouting. In OKC, Scott Brooks played him as 6th man for 3 years in, despite being one of the most talented players on the team. In Houston, Tim Fertitta refused to go over the luxury tax and surround him with better players, despite being one game away from an NBA finals in 2018. (The next year he averaged 36ppg 7rpg 8apg) In Brooklyn, Kyrie Irving played less games then Harden, despite Harden being injured. In Philadelphia, he took a pay cut so the Doc Rivers could sign more depth, despite being owed $15million more. Generational talent that's been adapting and being unselfish since he entered the league when the 2019 rockets are down 0-2 and he averages 40/10/5 the next 2 games to tie it up, it doesn't count. when he puts up 35/8/5 and has more points/rebounds/assists/steals than steph in game 6, he sucked and steph was legendary to win without KD. in the bubble he put up 30 ppg on 67 TS% against an elite lakers defense that was just doubling him near halfcourt and leaving russ wide open. but he sucked. he also tends to have his best games end in near losses, which unless he has a time machine, i'm not sure what he can do about. putting up 39/10/9 on 62% shooting (field goal, not TS%) against the #1 defense 2015 warriors and being +12 in 41 minutes, only for the rockets to be -13 in his 7 minutes off so he loses by 1 gets forgotten. still a great game. he goes up 3-2 on the most talented team ever but cp3 gets injured so no credit for harden. he's had some disappointing playoff moments, but people way overplay it. I mean Harden does have 9 playoff games where he scored 40+ points, including 3 in the 2018 playoff run alone. Curry has 7 such games in his career. Butler has 6. Melo had 4. Harden certainly deserves plenty of criticism. But this idea that he’s never gone off in the playoffs is ridiculous. He generally had just kind of ok supporting casts and regularly made some decent playoff runs. His Rockets were also the only team to really give a healthy KD Warriors any real trouble. Cavs got swept and lost in 5. I think if you take "Most Valuable Player" literally, Harden should have won. Take Steph Curry off of that Warriors team, and that's still a good team. Take James Harden off of that Rockets team (keep in mind that Dwight was also missing for most of the season), and that team is very close to the very bottom of the West. Steph Curry had a phenomenal season, but I'm tired of team performance being taken into account so heavily in individual accolades. Harden 2014-15. With out Harden the Rockets probably dont make the playoffs. With out Curry the Warriors still make the playoffs, just not as the first seed. I feel like considering that Dwight was injured most of the season and Harden fucking went ham to keep his team a float, that the MVP should have gone to him. The only knock on Harden was his percentages, but Harden still averaged 27.4 points, 7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals for the season. Dem be MVP numbuhs. James Harden is an underrated defender and I will argue that to the grave The only reason mainstream media views harden as a bad defensive player is because of lowlight tapes where harden doesn’t sprint across the court to guard a speedy fast break but when Lebron sags on defense it’s considered conserving energy. Efficiency wise if a player is a huge plus on offense it makes sense to have them expend the majority of their energy getting points instead of making high energy cost/low return defensive plays. Especially when that player is by far the most effective offensive player on the team. Lebrons famous 48 minute playoff games utilize this strategy and Harden is the highest usage player in league history so it’s less about defensive skill as opposed to a strategic decision. This is why Harden prefers to guard bigs in the post where his style is more about stealing low rather than jumping to block. And when looking at his defensive efficiency in the post it’s up there with the best in the league. Defense isn’t necessarily about the flashy blocks of a Giannis or the scrappy pestering of a Pat Beverly. It’s about not letting the other team score the ball and Harden does a good not great job at that. I rest my case. At their peaks, Harden IS a better offensive player than Jordan (and Kobe) by every imaginable metric. Harden is a better offensive player at his peak than Jordan. Some of this is going to sound repetitive but follow along. Kobe averaged 5 rebounds and 4 assists in his 35.1ppg season. He did that on 27 FGAs, and a 56% TS Jordan averaged 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in his 37ppg season. He did that on 28 FGAs, and a 56% TS. Harden averaged 7 rebounds and 8 assists in his 36.1ppg season. He's doing that on 24 FGAs and a 61% TS. Yeah well Harden shoots too many free throws. Harden: 11 FTA (88%) Jordan: 11.9 FTA (85.7%) Kobe: 10.2 FTA (85%) Yeah well Harden shoots too many threes that's why his TS is high. Harden: 54.1 eFG%, 52.9% from 2, 36.8% from 3 Kobe: 49.1 eFG%, 48.2% from 2, 34.7% from 3 MJ: 48.4 eFG%, 49.1% from 2, 18.2% from 3 (only on 0.8 attempts though) Yeah well the game was much slower back then. Per 100 Possessions: Harden: 48.2 PPG (highest of all time) MJ: 46.4 PPG Kobe: 45.6 PPG Yeah well compared to their league, Jordan stood out more. Then let's compare to the league average. Harden: 54.1 eFG% and 61.7 TS%, League Average: 52.4 eFG% and 55.7 TS% Kobe: 49.1 eFG% and 55.9 TS%, League Average: 49 eFG% and 53.5 TS% MJ: 48.4 eFG% and 56.2 TS%, League Average: 48.8 eFG% and 53.8 TS% This isn't even factoring in seasons Harden has averaged 10+ assists, and he's done that many times. Harden is a very capable defender when he tries. For majority of the game Harden plays defense but allows blowbys to avoid risking picking up fouls. Due to his heavy minutes, especially when he was in Houston, harden lacked in defense to avoid getting fouls, which is why he is known as a bad defender. However, in late game situations, especially in the playoffs, he locks in and is one of the better perimeter defensive players in the league. As for his post defense, he has been number one in the league statistically since 2019, and has even been second in the league in perimeter isolation points allowed per possession in 2020. In addition to all of that, he is an extremely smart player defensively. He knows when to help, where other players need to stand and is known for his defensive communication. His Houston rockets had the number one defense in the playoffs and in the bubble of 2020. Statistically James has been top 5 in steals for many seasons, number one in deflections for a few years, and has the most blocks by any guard since joining Houston. He has crucial defensive saves in important games including against Giannis, Porzingis, in game 7 of okc thunder, and even against embiid in the 2020 rockets 76ers matchup, where embiid got in a little skirmish with him after harden stopped him on back to back possessions. He may not play it the whole game, but when he tries harden is a top defender in almost every aspect, and a beneficial one to have on the court due to his intelligence. And people talking bout his defense are idiots, hes locked up and then shit on Kawhi/PG/Beverly in a 1v3 lmaoooo he has the most points on every team too plus like 3 years of 10+ assists and the others are 8-9 assists on top of 30-36.6 points. He's the only one who even challenged the KD Era warriors and lost because of blatant ref fixing and Ariza going 0-12 on wide open threes generated by Harden along with his second best player CP3 going down and Capela getting sonned by a rookie Looney. Harden was literally dunking on draymond all day and dray got pissed and shoved him like 30 seconds into a game because he got scored on twice fast. That's not even mentioning all that happened while facing the KD warriors who had 5 star players, 2 of which were the number one and number two best shooters in the history of the league, Dpoy draymond, a top 2-3 scorer in Durant, Iggy dpoy. Then waiving off 12 of Hardens points but not making the same call if he missed the 3...blatant lmao Harden has been a top 3 hardest working player for the past 10 years. Just because he likes strip clubs and partying doesn't mean he disregards practice and conditioning. This sub is just going with assuming narratives instead of taking 5 minutes to find out that Harden's workouts have been Kobe-levels insane for many seasons, doing HIT lifting after having played 40 minutes in an NBA game with historic usage and scoring rate for entire seasons because the durability demanded from Harden forced him to be insanely well conditioned. There are countless stories as well as statements by his staff and teammates about it, it's just easier to shit on a player for partying instead. Literally everybody who's ever played with Harden attests to his one-of-a-kind work ethic. The reason Harden has been struggling are injuries and playing through them as well as the miles on his body but it's 10000% not because he's lazy. He ONCE forced Houstons hand for 3 weeks because they wouldn't trade him despite his demands many months before the situation escalated. Other than that he's been more than textbook when it comes to work ethic, you don't become such a legendary offensive Superstar without working your ass off every day for many years. And yes Harden can come back, he's one of the most skilled players ever and he works out like a madman

Couldn't possibly agree anymore. And THANK YOU for watching 🙏

That’s what lefraud taught them cry nd change teams when sht gets rough

Very well said and a great comparison here...

Retarded take, kd has two finals mvps

I'm sure Jokic would of Won a title with Ben Simmons and Dic Rivers as his coach. Denver has had the same coach and same nucleus for yrs now. Philly has had alot of turn around yr after yr after.. Jokic plays in Denver also,the Philly media and pressure is WAY different over here. And Joel has had some fucked up injuries in the playoffs. It's hard to miss time like that and try and ramp back up and jump right into a series,especially conditioning wise. If he has no injuries and his conditioning is there this yr and with a competent coach like Nick Nurse they are gonna get out the second round. We get it your a Jokic fan and Embiid hater but u left alot of shit out of the video..

@@skap_attackkd is a bad playoff performer? I guess kobe is too because kd is better in the playoffs than kobe 😂😂

No. The worst flopper award should go to Leflop Drama Queen James.

Facts. He's not even subtle about it either. He'll get up and showboat after getting a whistle from a flop.

It’s unfortunate his flopping greatness will always be overshadowed by LeChina 😢

Lefzggot is the biggest flop tho tbh

Hes completely shameless about being 7 foot 280 and flopping around like a ragdoll. I cant stand watching him because of that. Yeah you could say the referees reward flopping, but you should still have some personal pride out there as the biggest/strongest person on the court. He's just as bad as leflop

I still don’t understand how tf did they gave Embiid the MVP, I know it’s regular season award but damn MVP who always get eliminated in the 2nd rounds? it’s just pathetic

As of now, Giannis has more total points than Embiid and Tatum had more points than him last year. Scoring AVG needs to be 2nd behind total points scored.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the kind words AND for CONTINUING to support both me and the channel. I appreciate you so much! 🙏❤♥

@@skap_attackhahaaha you don’t know basketball

I completely agree with you. Joel SHOULD get the MVP this year. BUT he DEFINITELY should NOT have last year. Since they gave him one last year, does that mean he doesn't get it this year? That would be fair. Since that isn't going to happen, I felt compelled to make this video.

@@skap_attack Joel should if he continues to play like this, but Luka is certainly on his way, I would even say that Luka's numbers are more impressive, but Luka's problem is that his numbers don't lead to as many victories as Joel's numbers at the moment.

​​@@skap_attack It's pretty impressive how easily him, Jokic, Hakeem and many other foreign players didn't play basketball until college and ended up being elite on both sides of the ball Especially Hakeem who only started playing consistently when he got to the Houston University And he's inspired every foreign player since 2000 like Dirk and Joel

@@thepubknight6144Hakeem is the 2nd greatest player after MJ. He was just that good.

@@kovy689 fully agree my top three NBA favorite player

Me too.

🙏

Lol yeaaaah, the Celtics OWN him like few teams own any player…. MANY THANKS for continuing to tune in and support the channel. I greatly appreciate you and hope you have a great NEW YEARS EVE and year to follow 🙏❤️

@@skap_attackEXACTLY! lol I appreciate that man. You're an absolute GEM amongst all nba creators that I watch 🍻Keep up the exceptionally great work👏✌

Don’t listen he is a delusional casual who thinks he knows what he is talking about

You know this 🙏

THANK YOU! And as always, MANY THANKS for tuning in and supporting the channel. I appreciate you!!

Christmas goes to Jan 5

My pleasure! And THANK YOU for watching. I appreciate you!! And I agree with you, another doo doo coming from Joel in playoff time...

I died 🤣, trust the process huh💀

😉

😏😉🤣

That certain "it" factor for Giannis is psychotic ambition. When Kyrie and the Nets were eliminating the Bucks, Giannis decided to put Kyrie on the injury-list, so that the Bucks would advance. Embiid isn't quite as obsessed about advancing, that he would start physically wounding people. He doesn't have "it".

Agree! Yet he is LIKELY going to get ANOTHER MVP this year smh.

Haha truth be told, I am actually NOT that high on Curry. Love Giannis. And I am also a BIG Jokic guy. Those are basically the only two players currently that I am a fan of.

@@skap_attack oh come on skap attack you know that curry is the greatest point guard of his era

🙏

Under-performing in the playoffs, doesn't take away from being great? What then does? Losing in the IST? Of course bad playoff performance takes away from the greatness. And Embiid's story in the NBA takes away from his story of how he got there.

@@penkima4923 There's levels of greatness. His lack of playoff success prevents him from being a top 50 player (unless he starts winning), but he'll still get into the Hall of Fame, which makes him a great player. Also, I really hope IST doesn't stand for in season tournament. Nobody takes that crap seriously.

His team was deepest. Gianni's didn't deserve it at all

EXACTLY!! THAT is my problem with this all. Couldn't agree more about this year. BUT he shouldn't have it last year. Soooo, what? Just don't give it to him this year? Would the voters do it?

They’ll probably give it to him unless they give it to Luka

BUH SKIN COLUHS 😭

Freethrow meta is equivalent to sitting through unskippable cutscenes to pad out game hours 😐

The 7 ft James Harden is an AMAZING way to describe Embiid. It is WILD that these two were on the same team LOL... Thank you SO much for the kind words and your continued support of me and the channel. I appreciate you so much, and I hope you also had a great holiday and have a very happy new year 🙏❤♥

@@skap_attack He got clowned on for calling himself one of the most unselfish players ever. But Beardman's been sacrificing his talents his whole career with very little pouting. In OKC, Scott Brooks played him as 6th man for 3 years in, despite being one of the most talented players on the team. In Houston, Tim Fertitta refused to go over the luxury tax and surround him with better players, despite being one game away from an NBA finals in 2018. (The next year he averaged 36ppg 7rpg 8apg) In Brooklyn, Kyrie Irving played less games then Harden, despite Harden being injured. In Philadelphia, he took a pay cut so the Doc Rivers could sign more depth, despite being owed $15million more. Generational talent that's been adapting and being unselfish since he entered the league when the 2019 rockets are down 0-2 and he averages 40/10/5 the next 2 games to tie it up, it doesn't count. when he puts up 35/8/5 and has more points/rebounds/assists/steals than steph in game 6, he sucked and steph was legendary to win without KD. in the bubble he put up 30 ppg on 67 TS% against an elite lakers defense that was just doubling him near halfcourt and leaving russ wide open. but he sucked. he also tends to have his best games end in near losses, which unless he has a time machine, i'm not sure what he can do about. putting up 39/10/9 on 62% shooting (field goal, not TS%) against the #1 defense 2015 warriors and being +12 in 41 minutes, only for the rockets to be -13 in his 7 minutes off so he loses by 1 gets forgotten. still a great game. he goes up 3-2 on the most talented team ever but cp3 gets injured so no credit for harden. he's had some disappointing playoff moments, but people way overplay it. I mean Harden does have 9 playoff games where he scored 40+ points, including 3 in the 2018 playoff run alone. Curry has 7 such games in his career. Butler has 6. Melo had 4. Harden certainly deserves plenty of criticism. But this idea that he’s never gone off in the playoffs is ridiculous. He generally had just kind of ok supporting casts and regularly made some decent playoff runs. His Rockets were also the only team to really give a healthy KD Warriors any real trouble. Cavs got swept and lost in 5. I think if you take "Most Valuable Player" literally, Harden should have won. Take Steph Curry off of that Warriors team, and that's still a good team. Take James Harden off of that Rockets team (keep in mind that Dwight was also missing for most of the season), and that team is very close to the very bottom of the West. Steph Curry had a phenomenal season, but I'm tired of team performance being taken into account so heavily in individual accolades. Harden 2014-15. With out Harden the Rockets probably dont make the playoffs. With out Curry the Warriors still make the playoffs, just not as the first seed. I feel like considering that Dwight was injured most of the season and Harden fucking went ham to keep his team a float, that the MVP should have gone to him. The only knock on Harden was his percentages, but Harden still averaged 27.4 points, 7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals for the season. Dem be MVP numbuhs. James Harden is an underrated defender and I will argue that to the grave The only reason mainstream media views harden as a bad defensive player is because of lowlight tapes where harden doesn’t sprint across the court to guard a speedy fast break but when Lebron sags on defense it’s considered conserving energy. Efficiency wise if a player is a huge plus on offense it makes sense to have them expend the majority of their energy getting points instead of making high energy cost/low return defensive plays. Especially when that player is by far the most effective offensive player on the team. Lebrons famous 48 minute playoff games utilize this strategy and Harden is the highest usage player in league history so it’s less about defensive skill as opposed to a strategic decision. This is why Harden prefers to guard bigs in the post where his style is more about stealing low rather than jumping to block. And when looking at his defensive efficiency in the post it’s up there with the best in the league. Defense isn’t necessarily about the flashy blocks of a Giannis or the scrappy pestering of a Pat Beverly. It’s about not letting the other team score the ball and Harden does a good not great job at that. I rest my case. At their peaks, Harden IS a better offensive player than Jordan (and Kobe) by every imaginable metric. Harden is a better offensive player at his peak than Jordan. Some of this is going to sound repetitive but follow along. Kobe averaged 5 rebounds and 4 assists in his 35.1ppg season. He did that on 27 FGAs, and a 56% TS Jordan averaged 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in his 37ppg season. He did that on 28 FGAs, and a 56% TS. Harden averaged 7 rebounds and 8 assists in his 36.1ppg season. He's doing that on 24 FGAs and a 61% TS. Yeah well Harden shoots too many free throws. Harden: 11 FTA (88%) Jordan: 11.9 FTA (85.7%) Kobe: 10.2 FTA (85%) Yeah well Harden shoots too many threes that's why his TS is high. Harden: 54.1 eFG%, 52.9% from 2, 36.8% from 3 Kobe: 49.1 eFG%, 48.2% from 2, 34.7% from 3 MJ: 48.4 eFG%, 49.1% from 2, 18.2% from 3 (only on 0.8 attempts though) Yeah well the game was much slower back then. Per 100 Possessions: Harden: 48.2 PPG (highest of all time) MJ: 46.4 PPG Kobe: 45.6 PPG Yeah well compared to their league, Jordan stood out more. Then let's compare to the league average. Harden: 54.1 eFG% and 61.7 TS%, League Average: 52.4 eFG% and 55.7 TS% Kobe: 49.1 eFG% and 55.9 TS%, League Average: 49 eFG% and 53.5 TS% MJ: 48.4 eFG% and 56.2 TS%, League Average: 48.8 eFG% and 53.8 TS% This isn't even factoring in seasons Harden has averaged 10+ assists, and he's done that many times. Harden is a very capable defender when he tries. For majority of the game Harden plays defense but allows blowbys to avoid risking picking up fouls. Due to his heavy minutes, especially when he was in Houston, harden lacked in defense to avoid getting fouls, which is why he is known as a bad defender. However, in late game situations, especially in the playoffs, he locks in and is one of the better perimeter defensive players in the league. As for his post defense, he has been number one in the league statistically since 2019, and has even been second in the league in perimeter isolation points allowed per possession in 2020. In addition to all of that, he is an extremely smart player defensively. He knows when to help, where other players need to stand and is known for his defensive communication. His Houston rockets had the number one defense in the playoffs and in the bubble of 2020. Statistically James has been top 5 in steals for many seasons, number one in deflections for a few years, and has the most blocks by any guard since joining Houston. He has crucial defensive saves in important games including against Giannis, Porzingis, in game 7 of okc thunder, and even against embiid in the 2020 rockets 76ers matchup, where embiid got in a little skirmish with him after harden stopped him on back to back possessions. He may not play it the whole game, but when he tries harden is a top defender in almost every aspect, and a beneficial one to have on the court due to his intelligence. And people talking bout his defense are idiots, hes locked up and then shit on Kawhi/PG/Beverly in a 1v3 lmaoooo he has the most points on every team too plus like 3 years of 10+ assists and the others are 8-9 assists on top of 30-36.6 points. He's the only one who even challenged the KD Era warriors and lost because of blatant ref fixing and Ariza going 0-12 on wide open threes generated by Harden along with his second best player CP3 going down and Capela getting sonned by a rookie Looney. Harden was literally dunking on draymond all day and dray got pissed and shoved him like 30 seconds into a game because he got scored on twice fast. That's not even mentioning all that happened while facing the KD warriors who had 5 star players, 2 of which were the number one and number two best shooters in the history of the league, Dpoy draymond, a top 2-3 scorer in Durant, Iggy dpoy. Then waiving off 12 of Hardens points but not making the same call if he missed the 3...blatant lmao Harden has been a top 3 hardest working player for the past 10 years. Just because he likes strip clubs and partying doesn't mean he disregards practice and conditioning. This sub is just going with assuming narratives instead of taking 5 minutes to find out that Harden's workouts have been Kobe-levels insane for many seasons, doing HIT lifting after having played 40 minutes in an NBA game with historic usage and scoring rate for entire seasons because the durability demanded from Harden forced him to be insanely well conditioned. There are countless stories as well as statements by his staff and teammates about it, it's just easier to shit on a player for partying instead. Literally everybody who's ever played with Harden attests to his one-of-a-kind work ethic. The reason Harden has been struggling are injuries and playing through them as well as the miles on his body but it's 10000% not because he's lazy. He ONCE forced Houstons hand for 3 weeks because they wouldn't trade him despite his demands many months before the situation escalated. Other than that he's been more than textbook when it comes to work ethic, you don't become such a legendary offensive Superstar without working your ass off every day for many years. And yes Harden can come back, he's one of the most skilled players ever and he works out like a madman