It’s Officially Time to “Fear the Beard”

When the Oklahoma City Thunder completed the trade to send James Harden along with others to the Houston Rockets, a lot of people, including myself thought it was a fair trade for both sides. Kevin Martin is no scrub and neither is Jeremy Lamb. Not to mention the Rockets gave away some valuable picks to the Thunder that helps their future but James Harden is playing out of his mind. Daryl Morey is an advanced stats kind-of-guy and it sometimes leads to bad decisions, but this time Morey can trot the bases because he hit it out of the park with this trade. It was a desperation move by the Thunder to get rid of Harden before they lost him for nothing in free agency but a great decision for Daryl Morey to reach out to Oklahoma City and inquire about a possible trade for Harden. Now onto the basketball court. The Rockets started off the season at the Palace of Auburn Hills against the Detroit Pistons. It was the first game for both Jeremy Lin and Harden in Rockets red and boy did they put on a clinic. Harden exploded for a 37 point explosion but impressively, also recorded 12 assists. The Harden showing, of course, started the discussion if Harden can have a follow-up to his impressive debut. Now we move on to Friday night. The Rockets were set to face the Atlanta Hawks in the Hawks’ season debut and the stage was set for Harden to prove people that it was more then a “one night” performance and that he’s here to stay and man did he answer the bell in a BIG way. Harden went off on the Hawks and put up 45 points on an astonishing 19 shot attempts. It’s very hard to find a more efficient night than what Harden was able to pull off today. Not only is Harden proving that he can be “the man” but he’s also making his teammates better. Despite only recording two assists Friday night, he was definitely taken a lot of pressure off Lin and that’s a good sign for Rockets fans as he was a question mark to whether he could be “the man” but I think that search is all but over in Houston. James Harden through two games is averaging 41.0 points per game to go along with seven rebounds and six assists a game, respectively while shooting 64 percent from the field. The league knew that James Harden was a talented player because of his Thunder days but I don’t anybody saw an explosion this big coming so quickly. The NBA is aware of his talents now as the go-to-guy and it’s officially time to, “Fear The Beard”. The post It’s Officially Time to “Fear the Beard” appeared first on FootBasket.