No debate: Paul superior to Harden
Chris Paul is still the best pure point guard in the NBA, almost won it all last season, and has Phoenix two wins away from another Western Conference finals. James Harden?
I’m not going to knock Harden right now, mainly because you can’t flip on ESPN without seeing someone furiously screaming about the former face of the Rockets franchise.
Factually, though, it’s fair to point out that Philadelphia is down 2-0 to Miami without the 76ers’ best player in the Eastern Conference semifinals, while a worndown Harden clearly hasn’t been enough in back-to-back defeats.
Time always tells, right?
The story keeps changing and evolving, but in the end, the final story is written, right?
My, my, how things have changed for CP3 and The Beard since the end of their final shared 201819 season in Houston. Those Rockets went 53-29 — that record looks great now, but back then it was disappointing — and were humbled (again) by Golden State in the Western Conference semifinals.
“This one is going to hurt,” then-Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said May 10, 2019.
The second-best era in franchise history was never the same, and it was soon over for Paul and Harden together in Houston.
The three years that have passed since feel like a decade. For the Rockets. For the sports world. For Paul and especially for Harden, who is currently a shell of his best Rockets self and has obviously lost a step (or two) in the past couple years. Not to mention that he forced his way off Kevin Durant’s Brooklyn Nets after insisting that he was too good for the Rockets, who once gave him everything he wanted.
Harden used to be a threat to drop 50 points every time he took the court for Houston’s NBA team. He shot 11-of-28 from the floor and 3-of-12 on 3-pointers, totaling just 36 points, in Philadelphia’s initial two defeats to the Heat without an injured Joel Embiid.
I’ve written a ton about Harden, Paul and the 2015-20 Rockets, so I’m not going to look back again this time.
D’Antoni’s name has been in the news again, though. And as I wrote last year, he deserves another head coaching job.
At this moment, the reality is that Paul, who turns 37 today, is a better player and leader than the 32-year-old Harden. And if these playoffs stick to the current story, Paul will soon be four wins away from a second consecutive NBA Finals, while Harden could face a career crossroads this offseason.
Does The Beard have one more hero run left in him in 2022?
Will Paul be able to finally finish what he almost finished last year before Giannis Antetokounmpo’s brilliance turned 2-0 Phoenix into 4-2 Milwaukee on basketball’s biggest stage? Time will tell.
But this used to be an easy debate, and it wasn’t close: Who was the Rockets’ best player, Harden or Paul?
Three years after it coldly ended in Houston between Nos. 13 and 3, Paul is winning big for the second consecutive season. Harden must suddenly rediscover his game, or he’ll be knocked out of the playoffs yet again.