Why Rockets’ James Harden is more valuable than Steph Curry

Houston Rockets star James Harden has proven time and time again to be more valuable than Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.

James Harden is proving to be more valuable to the Houston Rockets than Stephen Curry is to the Golden State Warriors so far this season. This is not debating who is the more talented player, but who is the better franchise player.

Harden and Curry have similar parallels in their successful careers, both were first-round draft picks in 2009 and evolved into the face of their respective franchises in the 2010s. During the decade Curry experienced championship success building a dynasty in Golden State with Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant by his side.

And in Houston, Harden always got close but never quite conquered the Warriors in the Western Conference. This may be the reason why in a lot of basketball fan’s minds it is a no-brainer to have Curry over Harden.

Another stigma that stuck to Harden was the label of a bad teammate, despite elevating the lesser Rockets teams he was provided in his early years prior to the arrival of Chris Paul in 2017. Meanwhile not a single question regarding Curry’s ability to lift a team by himself.

The reason Curry’s ability has not been called into question is the fact that his teams have been accompanied by All-Stars.

This all came to a quick halt in the 2019-20′ season where the Warriors were faced with an injured Klay Thompson and a departed Kevin Durant. The Warriors still acquired D’Angelo Russell coming off the best season of his career to join Curry.

Despite only a small sample size of playing time that season due to injury in the five games Curry started, the Warriors were 1-5. Golden State ended the season with the second overall pick in the draft lottery after finishing 15-50.

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