Daryl Morey says Harden may be the best ISO player EVER... True or false?

Jalen and Fiz make great points with the switches. Although good, not the greatest. vlaurelio incoming, to defend everything imaginable about Harden.

 

Not unreasonable.

You would have to look at the numbers, but certainly is possible.

 

"IMA GO DENVAH"

 

It's believable. He does a lot of iso 3s and is good at them which is a boost to the PPP. I think historically most guys who shoot a bunch of 3s do a lot of catch and shoot.

 

The answer is no in my mind from a capability standpoint. Harden benefits a lot from modern analytics and the value of 3s along with rules that benefit perimeter players. He also has wide open lanes to work with because the Rockets put out so many shooters on the floor.

Look at what Harden works with and what Hakeem worked with for most of his career. As well as how he operated when the Rockets gave him Horry/Elie/Drexler/Smith spacing back in 95. There are a lot of players in previous eras who just lacked the spacing and understanding of efficiency to really match todays players

 

No he isn't and probably not even top 5 or top 10.

 

That's he's a gifted and willing passer puts him in the conversation. Just 1v1, no obviously not.

 

Who are your top 5 or top 10?

I don't want a random opinion. I want a rational opinion backed up by quantitative data such as PPP per ISO

Leggo

 

He's the best iso player in modern era. I think that argument can be made. He's pulled away from both Durant and Irving recently.

Best ever is still to come. So to be continued.

 

He has a good case if you're looking at it purely in terms of points per possessions (PPP). Harden is just so good at drawing fouls and hitting those step back 3s.

However, sometimes maximizing PPP isn't what you care about. What you care about is just putting some points on the board. In those cases, someone who excels at creating and hitting shots from midrange may be preferable because (a) you're not relying on the refs blowing a whistle, and (b) you're not relying on hitting a tough 3 which has a higher luck factor. That's why having both Chris Paul and James Harden on the floor to close games is such a huge advantage for us. We get the elite mid-range scoring, plus the elite foul-drawing and 3-point shooting.

 

He is definitely one of the 5-10 greatest isolation players of all time.

He is pretty firmly in the top 5.

 

Does this include playoffs?

 

No body in their right mind would put Craig Elo on James Harden. I grew up watching Jordan, and Jordan was a better player because of his incredible motor and drive but he was not as good in ISO.

 

Just here to say this looks like a perimeter ISO to me...

 

I wonder where AI and Kobe rank on this list, and how their perception rank differs from metrics-driven ranks. I'm guessing it might be vastly different and show that the general perception of ranking as an "isolation player" could be very different from metrics...and then it's up to people to decide if the metrics are telling the right story or not.

 

I guess not too many people saw this the first time from a couple of weeks ago:
https://stats.nba.com/players/isola... Season&CF=GP*GE*10:PossG*GE*2&sort=PPP&dir=1
Daryl must have some number(s) to back that up, right?

 

Everyone is getting it twisted. Morey wasn't make a statement of talent he was making a statement of fact. He is statistically the greatest ISO player ever.