Does Harden have the potential to be better than T-Mac in his prime?

Prime TMAC is, no doubt, better than the young Harden in terms of skills. But I would pick Harden on my team over TMAC any day. The thing with Harden is...if he jump shots are not falling down, he would drive to the basket for high percentage shot, or find an open team mate. I couldn't say the same thing about TMAC though. I remember watching the Rockets in the playoffs in 07 or 08, dude failed at making many outside jump shots, putting his team in such a deep hole that they were unable to claw back.

Some players are good at putting up individual stats, but they don't have what it takes to make the players around them better, making their teams championship material.

 

I personally don't want Harden to be anything like that loser T-Mac.

 

lets keep it simple, Tmac's prime is MVP candidate.
Could Harden reach that? Possible but unlikely as Lebron and Durant will be in the forefront. Along the likes of CP3 and Dwight.

 

there ya go TD

 

no harden will not be anything like tmac in his prime. their games are totally different.

tmac, in his prime, is one of the greatest perimeter players of all time. even if harden gets that good, he'll be nothing like tmac.

and thats a good thing.

 

Players should develop their own identity. Agreed.

 

McGrady truly had the physique and athleticism to be the GOAT. In his prime, the guy made everything look so easy it was ridiculous.

Harden is athletic but not near the caliber of McGrady. Instead, he reads and reacts to the defense better, he knows how to rely on his teammates more on offense, and is much better at baiting the opponent to get the And-1s.

In other words, Harden plays smarter in a way McGrady never showed because he has to.

And time will tell if Harden has the will and determination to win that McGrady never proved he had.

 

Harden more like Kobe than TMac. What separates Harden from TMac is his FTs and FTs made. He has been going to the line at least 10 FTs a game, 13 times this season. In TMac's prime, probaly had 20 in a season and his FT percentage is not even close to Harden.

 

More like Ginobili, in my opinion.

 

Did you say TMac in his prime had 20ft attempts in a season

 

Yup that's exactly how stats work! ****ing idiot.

 

I am thoroughly ashamed and disgusted with the lack of basketball knowledge and lack of respect to Mcgrady on this board. Its insulting to read some of these posts to be honest.

1. Mcgrady never played defense. As a Raptor, he and Doug Christie were the best perimeter defenders on that team. As a Magic, he locked down Glenn Robinson in the 2001 playoffs and was by far their best perimeter defender, while also being their only credible offensive option. Against the Mavs, and I'm sure Rox fans should remember this, he was the main reason why Dirk was held below his scoring average in that series (Ryan Bowen helped too). When motivated and healthy, he was an All-NBA defender.

2. Mcgrady was never as good as Kobe. While Mcgrady was blessed with the physical tools, Kobe was given a much better gift early in his career: SHAQ. Having Shaq made a mountain of difference when comparing the two players. Kobe won championships, was exposed to the media much more, and was highly regarded as a winner. On the other hand, Mcgrady is an underperformer who never got past the 1st round. Mcgrady played with old, washed up big men like Ewing and Kemp. Kobe got to play with the most dominating center in the 2000s. Although Kobe has surpassed Mcgrady, he'll never have a legendary season like Mcgrady in 02-03.

3. Mcgrady's 2003 season is underappreciated. Without question, T-mac was the best perimeter player that year, and a true MVP candidate. Carrying a pathetic roster consisting of Armstrong, Vaughn, Kemp, and Garrity for most of the year, landing a playoff spot and going 3-1 against the Pistons was an outstanding achievement. Without Grant Hill, the Magic had no scoring threat besides Mcgrady. In game 2, he scored 46 out of the Magic's 77 points, shooting nearly 62% from the floor.

At 23 years old, to put up that statline was very Jordan-esque and only Lebron in this current era is comparable. He had the highest WS/48 with .262, his WARP was 23.5, and his PER was 30.3. As good a player Harden is right now, it is almost impossible for him to replicate those numbers. Harden is also playing in a much easier era, compared to the early 2000s that still had some perimeter defensive rules in place.

4. Mcgrady is a quitter. This is a popular myth around here in clutchfans which quickly spread like some sort of plague. Its true that he never took his teams past the first round, but to say that he quit is just false. His playoff numbers are much better than his regular season numbers. His performance in the playoffs would be the main reason why his teams weren't swept.

Its a travesty to look at the rosters Mcgrady (and Yao) had to play with in the playoffs. Mcgrady was without Hill in the playoffs in Orlando. Mcgrady and Yao had to play with Ryan Bowen as their starting PF in the 2005 series. That 2005 roster was ancient and weren't viable for a long playoff run or long term plans. In 2007, the Rockets had stiffs like Alston, Hayes, Head, Howard, etc. going against the Utah Jazz. None of those players were playoff proven players or starting caliber and the Rockets were essentially a 2 player team on offense. The 2008 playoff team was even worse. Mcgrady was playing with an injured shoulder and knee without Yao and managed to extend the series to 6 games. He had 40 pts in game 6 and literally had no help from his teammates besides Scola's 15 pts.

Its much easier to scapegoat one guy for a franchise's failures instead of blaming the whole team and its front office. If some of you can say that Mcgrady quit on the rockets, then I'll say that his team and management quit on him long before he did.

 

2nd best 2 in the game ill correct that for you... Lol. I think harden is more like wade with much better outside shooting. They both can get to the rim at will and have crazy body control to get shots up when it doesn't seem possible. Both harden and wade have mastered the euro step and allows them to change direction on a dime. I was very happy when we landed harden but now I'm starting to think we got the 3rd best player in the league behind the king and durant. Love Kobe my fave player of all time but he's old. Watch if the rockets continue this play and we approach close to 50 wins. He'll get serious top 5 player in the game consideration and MVP chatter.

 

what is T-mac?

 

It's like a Big Mac - only vegan.

 

I was about to post a thread, and couldn't find the search. Apparently I can't search.

I just realized, how similar their story is. Both were shadowed by players who got more attention, durant, and vince carter. When they got traded, they exploded.

As for the thread title.

No. TMAC Prime was insane. Did you see his stats? Did you see the Mcgrady scored 13 points 33 sec.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceLlz7dOOvY

O_O Did you watch the finals? Harden dissappeared. Other than one game, his scores total game in garbage time.

 

He may have disappeared in the finals, but no way the Thunder would have gotten there without his play in the series leading there.

 

Honestly, I still have no idea why people say this. Tracy's body cannot keep up with an 82 game season. His body started breaking down extremely fast. That has nothing to do with personality/heart. Tracy played pretty damn hard all the time. I think people mistaken how smooth and lazy eyed he is and misconstrue it as not trying.