Former First-Round Pick Makes Bold Statement About James Harden

The Golden State Warriors stopped a lot of great teams from winning NBA Championships. Some of them include the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, Derrick Favors believes if it wasn't for the Warriors, James Harden would already be a two-time champion by now.

In an interview with Michael Scotto of Hoopshype, Favors gave a very bold claim about Harden's Houston Rockets teams.

"Houston had James Harden at the time, winning 65 games," Favors said. "I think some of it was matchups, going against two historically great offensive teams. We couldn’t match up with them, but who could in the league? If it wasn’t for Golden State, Houston probably would’ve won championships. If it wasn’t for those two teams, we could’ve won a championship."

The first year of James Harden and Chris Paul on the Houston Rockets was a truly tremendous team. If it wasn't for a Chris Paul injury, the Rockets had a legitimate chance to defeat the Golden State Warriors and advance to the NBA Finals. By the second year, it seemed very clear the Warriors were just the better team. Still, if it weren't for the Kevin Durant Warriors, that Rockets team would clearly be the best team in the league.

The NBA can be a sad game of "what-ifs". What if Chris Paul and Blake Griffin didn't get hurt every year? What if Kevin Durant never joined the Warriors after blowing a 3-1 lead? Sadly, James Harden's Houston Rockets join that what-if.

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