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Originally Posted by okcchief
I'm telling you. I watched pretty much every minute he played for 3 years. I'm not saying he's not capable, but he does not bring it on D it a vast majority of the time.
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I'm aware of this as well. The next step for him after this year is becoming a better two-way player and that means giving more effort defensively. It's not that easy to do and takes a lot out of a player, but if he want to be considered one of the top 5 players in the game, that's what it will take.
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Durant closed 2 of those games when pretty much no one but he or Westbrook touched the ball. Your theory would hold more weight if Brooks would have put more on Harden in clutch situations. They still do the same shit now with Martin. The only exception was game 4 in Dallas when they let him go and he did single handedly win that game. I always wanted to see more of that. This is why the Harden trade isn't as big as people make it. His talents would never be fully utilized in the Thunders offense(not that they really have one) in fact, Martin may fit what they need better being a better spot up shooter than Harden. Both have the same meh defense. Both Westbrook and Durant have become better play makers out of need. Really, it all falls on Scott Brooks. It's not all energy and execution. Sometimes you have to tweak what's doesn't work against aome(mainly one) team(s)
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Perhaps you are right and it won't matter when the games start to have meaning. OKC should clearly at least be able to get into the 2nd round without much problem. From that point on, I'll be interested to see if a lack of Harden hurts them against teams like the Spurs/Clippers/Grizzlies.