Why Rockets’ James Harden is more valuable than Steph Curry

Current state of affairs for Houston Rockets and Warriors

Now it is a new season and Klay Thompson remains out due to injury, but now the Warriors have acquired Kelly Oubre Jr., Andrew Wiggins, and second overall draft pick James Wisemen. Also in the Warriors lineup is 2019-20′ All-Rookie First Team starter, Eric Paschall.

And in the two games played this season against the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks the Warriors have lost by a margin of 65 points, with Steph only having 39 points combined in those two games.

On the flip side, we have James Harden lead a Rockets team that has been ravaged by the league’s safety protocol, a team that on short notice was going to be making a road trip to Portland without DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Eric Gordon, and Mason Jones.

Harden took a team that consisted of Christian Wood, P.J. Tucker, Danuel House, David Nwaba, Jae’Sean Tate, Sterling Brown, Brodric Thomas, and Bruno Caboclo to overtime against a healthy Portland Trail Blazers roster. A team that many analysts see as a playoff guarantee and the Rockets only lost to them by two points, which is a testament to how impactful James Harden is.

And that does not mean that Wood, Tucker, and House are lesser than players because they were the starters before Wall, Cousins, and Gordon were ruled out. Wood lived up to the offseason hype playing for over 43 minutes with Harden and dropping 31 points and 13 rebounds.

But it is who played behind those guys, in Nwaba, Tate, Brown, Thomas, and Caboclo that is the most impressive. Players that are either rookies or received little or no playing time last season.

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