James Harden at 28 is better than Michael Jordan at 28

I love how you just cherry-picked the season Jordan’s PER dipped under 28, after 4 straight seasons in which he had a PER over 31, and after which he was coming off his first championship.

FYI, in 91-92 Pippen was emerging as a second superstar on the team and Jordan didn’t have to do as much. Harden has a 36 usage so far this year vs Jordan’s 32 usage.

It’s also well established that the rules in the early 90s were skewed against perimeter players versus the rules today.

AND, why are we comparing 1/3 of a season vs a full season, like that’s meaningful for determining who the better player is?

 

Well, no.

Please note, you're just mentioning regular season averages. Harden's averages go down during the playoffs, Jordan's goes up.

I don't know what Harden does, but he doesn't always have a winning formula during the playoffs.

I take nothing away from Harden's greatness. I think he'll be considered one of the greatest to ever play by the time he's done, and he's already a HOFer.

But you're comparing Harden to the GOAT. You can't even compare him to Hakeem today, he's not yet even in the top-10 all-time.

 

You cannot cross compare different eras using offensivive and defensive numbers. It was a different game. Of course offenses are better, your aren't allowed to play defense. Harden is strong enough to have been able to handle the physicality of that era, so is LeBron, but guys like Curry would have had trouble even staying on a roster.

 

Jordan is in a universe by himself. As others have mentioned, the rules are much different. I don't like comparing any present player with the Hall of Famer's because the game has changed. Jordan was the ultimate clutch performer. This seems to be Harden's biggest weakness.

 

Per 36 Min stats are better offensively, Jordan slightly better defensively.

When your premise is flawed to begin with the conclusion will always be wrong. Jordan is one of the best defenders of all time. I love James and I'm glad the Rockets have him but make no mistake, James Harden is not good on defense. Can he be? Yes he can, but he will never even smell Jordan's jockstrap when it comes to defense. Jordan isn't slightly better on defense than Harden, they aren't even in the same category. Jordan, Hakeem, Chris Paul are people that you could say one is slightly better than one another, not Harden.

 

He got his 1st championship at 28 . . . so the season after 28 are irrelevent
It took getting another top 50 player a hall of fame coach and Horace grant - with Aging Bird and Magic - to get it.


Rocket River

 

*Cackle*
Looking at the similar threads. . . .this comes up: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/t-mac-better-that-harden.281908/
T-MAC BETTER THAT HARDEN

LMAO!

Equally as crazy

Harden is closer than to Jordan than Tmac is to Harden

Rocket River

 

this should be the post of the year, before harden starts showing up in important elimination games, stop putting harden alongside those all time greats, never mention the rings......

 

He was taller and had to use flops and leg kicks to get his shot off.

 

Houston Tmac was better than Houston Scottie so yeah.

If I had to compare SFs, player who play similar game, Pippen was way better than Tmac in terms of accomplishment.

Tmac IMO was a scoring Anfernee Hardaway. Harden is at another position.

Just because Tmac could play some SG in his career, does not mean he is a SG.

Harden isn't a pure PG or pure SG. They should not be compared.

Harden is the better overall player but he needs another player like Pippen, like Penny Hardaway, like Tmac to win it all.

Or like Klay.

 

I need to know @vlaurelio's opinion on this.

 

Rule changes have made it so that it is much easier to be a dominant perimeter player today. And I do mean MUCH. Rule changes plus philosophy changes. Perhaps its "on" Jordan for not realizing he should have been taking 7+ threes a game, but that just wasn't the way it was. Mind you, Jordan, when he put in the effort, was a very solid 3 point shooter.

For example, while you statement above about the NFL is true, people that watch and analyze the NFL also realize that the rule changes in the NFL, which also favor the offense, need to be considered when evaluating things like QB stats.

Oh, and points per shot is nice, but a bit of a misleading stat in that it isn't really points per shot that's important, but points per possession. When Harden gets FTs, for example, he's using a possession, but not a shot. Harden going 3-4 from the line and 1-2 from three uses 4 possession and 2 shots, for 6 points. 1.5 points per possession, but 3 points per shot. Curry going 2-4 from three uses 4 possessions and 4 shots, for 6 points. 1.5 points per possession, and 1.5 points per shot. Same efficiency, but Harden's points per shot would be double. What's my point?? I've got no idea.. just responding to your comment, lol.

Absolutely the overall level of play in the NBA is higher in terms of athleticism and skill than 20+ years ago. I mean you have KDs, Giannis', Curry (with 40%-45% 3 point shooting on volume), Russ types. Heck, you have Lebron, who in many ways athletically is a combination of Magic and MJ..

But Jordan would still fit in and dominant, even more. Much more. He'd have a solid three point shot. He has prototypical size. An outside-in and inside-out game. Great ball-handler. Etc, etc.

Plus he was and would be today light years ahead of Harden defensively.

 

I dunno has Jordan had a teammate as bad as Ryan Anderson?

seriously, unitl Harden has a championship team built around him it's unfair to compare him to jordan

 

because harden is so bad at defense the rockets are better defensively without him right?

 

LOL if harden replaced GSW's bet player in 15 and 17 they still be champs

you act like harden is holding back this championship rockets team from their full potential. it's the other way around!

 

I made a comment that Jordan was and would be light years better than Harden defensively.

Please stay away from my posts with your random responses.

Stick to your if Harden replaced so and so schtick and annoy someone else.