How else does Harden need to prove himself?

Original/Oxygen is a subway

Harden's cooperation with the Clippers has entered a turning point, but Harden may still stay in the team, but he still needs to provide more ideal performance. This season's playoffs, Harden lost himself again in the best chance to prove his proof. Whether it is a life-and-death battle, 2 or 7 points in 8 tiebreaks, or no interview after the game, he has encountered more severe challenges in his image, which has already fallen to the lowest value, and has infinitely expanded the near-cause effect at the public opinion level. The complete poorness of this game, whether it fulfills the value in the regular season and the sixth battle that just ended before, the accumulated materials that fans should have, have disappeared. So a clear cognition was once again placed in front of Harden and Harden's universe: How else does Harden need to prove himself?

The most direct answer is of course only one: Harden is in a life-and-death battle. But this is the dilemma that Harden has been facing since his debut. The outside world cannot understand that Harden, who can create famous scenes in both the ordinary playoffs and the regular season, dare not even take action in a life-and-death battle, so it can only be explained as a lack of the mentality that a super giant should have. In theory, Harden, who is slums and single-parent families even have paper legends, should not be so conservative. Rich second-generations like Simmons who have had no worries about food and clothing since childhood will treat basketball as a joke. However, Jordan and Kobe, who were rich before playing basketball, do not lack spiritual attributes. So it can only be explained that Harden's personality and mentality have flaws.

Regarding Harden's life-and-death performance, Celtic legend Pierce, who is relatively inadequate in level but has also played high-end games, commented on the show "SPEAK" after Harden was eliminated. He said that Harden has been to the All-Star this season, but he has never seen this type of All-Star. Harden has been able to score points in the past 15 years, but when the team needs him to score, Harden can't score points.

Pearce's words can be said to have a more superficial but comprehensive summary of Harden's career. On the one hand, he really can't score in high-end games, but on the other hand, Harden is known for his ability to score throughout his career. This is also Volkswagen's positioning of Harden, which can but not completely score.

At the stage when it is almost time to discuss retirement, it is difficult to provide Harden with too many famous scenes and masterpieces that subvert traditional cognition, but it is likely to be his status this season. Harden undoubtedly did not prove himself, so how else does Harden need to prove himself?

Harden in the regular season does not need to prove that even if he can no longer continue to make high-intensity fouls, his condition will also deteriorate. He has to work very hard to become an All-Star substitute. However, it can be seen from the fact that the Clippers, who did not have Leonard in the early stage, could finally lock in the playoffs. Harden is now enough to play in the regular season. But the stage that Harden needs to prove the most is never the regular season, or even the playoffs in a broad sense, but the high-end game in the playoffs, especially the life-and-death battle between Tianwangshan and the tiebreaker.

So Harden's first subverted cognition is to increase the presence of life and death battles, such as double the number of shots. Although Kobe's words "will rather make a 30 shot and hit 0 of 9 shots" are not in line with basic basketball logic, they are Harden's answer. For example, Jokic made a three-pointer in the Western Conference semifinal with more than double-digit three-point shots and still didn't score one, but he still seized the chance to win. Although he was criticized for being a bad guy, he was a choice that the super giant should have. If Harden wants to get rid of the narrow life-and-death war curse at this stage of even about to retire, he must increase his shots. Harden only made 8 shots in the final playoffs and scored 7 points in the first round tiebreak.

However, the outside world cannot determine whether Harden can still rectify his mentality at this age. The best way is to reduce salary and strengthen it. He may still need to leave the Clippers, just like what Westbrook is trying to do. But Harden's embarrassment is that he still has the strength to match the contract in the regular season, and he has told him that he would stay in the Clippers until he retired, so Harden is still likely to renew his contract next season. Shortly after Harden's life-and-death battle was sluggish, the Clippers' reporter Law Murray pointed out in a podcast that Harden is likely to refuse to execute the $36.5 million player option, jump out of the contract, and raise his salary to renew the contract with the Clippers. This Clippers also wrote a column on the famous media The Athletic, and concluded that Harden in the playoffs is the most real, "invisible both inside and outside the court is definitely not the leader."