Philly Front Office

This week, we saw James Harden lose another Game 7. He didn’t just lose this Game 7 either, the Clippers got their junk kicked in. Back with the Sixers 3 years ago, the Sixers were absolutely destroyed in Game 7 against the Celtics. He has put up gaudy stats his entire career and is genuinely a savant with the basketball, but when his team truly needs him, he just doesn’t show up. People focus a lot on his poor shooting and turnovers in big games, but the most telling statistic is simply the final score. Check out the final scores to end each of his last 11 seasons:

• 2025 Game 7 v Denver: 120-101 (30-point game with 5 minutes to go)
• 2024 Game 6 v. Dallas: 114-101 (24-point game with 5 minutes to go)
  • Game 5: 123-93
• 2023 Game 7 v. Boston: 112-88
• 2022 Game 6 v. Miami: 99-90 (18-point game with 4 minutes to go)
  • Game 5: 120-85
• 2021 Game 7 v. Milwaukee: 115-111 in OT
  • Game 6: 104-89 (21-point game with 4 minutes to go)
• 2020 Game 5 v. LA Lakers: 119-96
• 2019 Game 6 v. Golden State: 118-113
• 2018 Game 7 v. Golden State: 101-92
  • Game 6: 115-86
• 2017 Game 6 v. San Antonio: 114-75
• 2016 Game 5 v. Golden State: 114-81
• 2015 Game 5 v. Golden State: 104-90

Look at all those blow outs. Hell, you are lucky if you even get a somewhat watchable game out of him. Only 2 of these were even close and Harden was pretty bad in both of them. Despite this, teams keep trading for him.

• The Clippers paid a first round pick, a pick swap, and two seconds
• The Sixers paid two first round picks and Ben Simmons (not a total nothing at the time, but getting there)
• The Nets traded three first round picks, four pick swaps, Jarrett Allen, and Caris Lavert

All 3 of these trades happened in the last 4 years, after we all knew he was a loser. What in the world are we doing??? It is one thing to be overmatched in a series, but when the same player routinely gives you NO CHANCE to win you should take note. He is not going to lead you to a big playoff win. Fans have known this for years about Harden, but teams keep convincing themselves.

The playoffs are hard, much harder than the regular season. The competition is better, the margin for error is lower, and the pressure is at its highest. No one is demanding that a star player always ascend to another level in the playoffs, but you have to show that you aren’t going to wilt every time either. Just play. Despite the evidence, teams kept convincing themselves that James Harden was their answer to playoff success. At the same time, Philly fans keep having to defend Jalen Hurts.

Jalen Hurts has a career record of 46-20, 45-17 in his 4 years as the full-time starter. In the playoffs he’s 6-3 with 2 Super Bowl appearances and 1 title. Unlike the NBA, all NFL playoff games are elimination games. Of his 3 losses, yes, 2 were blowouts. The other was an MVP level performance in the Super Bowl. In his 6 wins, the only one that was even close was the game against the Rams this year, and that one looked like a runaway until it wasn’t. Jalen Hurts is undisputably a winner. Yes, his teams were good, but that hasn’t stopped other big-name QBs from choking away games.

Jalen gets criticized for his stats and running game. Individual statistics ignore a lot, especially for a QB. Is your team regularly losing? That means you are going to abandon the running game and try to throw your way back in to contention. Are those passing stats better than Jalen Hurts being up by a score and running out the 4th quarter of a game getting first downs? The Tush Push is regularly criticized as not a football play. If your team could get an automatic first down, would you not do it? The Chiefs don’t even sneak with Mahomes because they are too worried he’ll get hurt. You are telling me Jalen Hurts being uniquely physically qualified to do something others are afraid to even try is a bad thing? Jalen Hurts does what his team needs to win games. And people want to penalize him for this?

Let’s get back to James Harden. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest regular season players ever. He has 3 scoring titles, 2 assist titles, and 5 Top-3 MVPs including 1 win. His playoff record though is 90-83, including 2-4 in Game 7 as a starter. He has never made it to the NBA Finals as a starter. Again, I don’t want to kill him for that on its face because he faced some tough teams. But he can only beat the teams he is supposed to beat, then completely no shows in the games when it counts.

Hurts has a runner-up MVP in a season in which he was the front runner until getting hurt. He will likely never lead the league in passing TDs, yards, or QB rating, but he has finished top 5 the last 3 years in total TDs. The only QB with a better playoff record than him is Patrick Mahomes. That’s it (Burrow is 5-2 but missing a championship). Still, the Ringer ended last season ranking Jalen Hurts as the 15th best QB in the league, behind charlatans like Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, Geno Smith, Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray, Trevor Lawrence, and Aaron Rodgers. Do you trust any of those guys to win you a playoff game? Even keep it close?

Let me put this into context, at any point in their careers, would you have rather had James Harden over Jimmy Butler in the playoffs? In the regular season, sure, but the playoffs? Butler has ZERO top 10 MVP finishes in his career. He is 3-2 all time in Game 7, but those 2 losses were by 6 total points. He has made 2 inexplicable runs to the Finals on very underqualified teams. The Warriors traded for him this season specifically for this particular intangible skill set. Jimmy has his own issues, but the playoffs ain’t one of them.

So how about Jalen? Do you want Dak Prescott and his 2-5 playoff record trying to lead you to a championship? He has managed to turn three 12 win teams into 5 picks and 1 playoff win. How about 0-2 Justin Herbert? In his two playoff games he blew a 27-0 lead in one and threw 4 picks in the other. Then there’s Aaron Rodgers and his 4 MVPs. Since winning the SB in his 4th season as a starter, he hasn’t been back. Ok, understandable, it’s hard. Except, he’s had the best record in the conference 4 times since then, been blown out 4 times, and lost the NFC Championship 3 times.¹

Why do we as fans simply ignore the ability to win? Stats are easy to hold on to but, but wins are even easier. Plus, stats are incredibly flawed. Specifically, wins are literally the only things that matter. The great Dom Toretto once said, “it don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning.” Who gives you a better chance to win, the James Hardens of the sports world or Jalen Hurts?

1. I’ll write it up some time, but I think Aaron Rodgers is living his Darkest NFL Timeline. He’s maybe the most talented QB ever and to have only 1 Super Bowl appearance seems like his worst possible outcome. He should have been so much better than this. ↩︎