In his sixth season, the 25-year-old shooting guard from Arizona State is leading the league in scoring, and is putting up numbers that only two players have reached in history. Folks, these two players are ... (drumroll pls) Michael Jordan and Lebron James. (I don't know how to copy their chart.) http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/2014/12...um/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
If you reduce the requirements to 25 pts 6 assists and 6 rebounds. Only Lebron, Bird, LBJ, and Clyde (once) has accomplished this. Harden is a having a MVP type season.
Because of his on air goofiness, I think Clyde has become criminally underrated around these parts. During his prime 6 seasons in Portland he averaged 24.3 PPG, 6.8 Reb and 6.2 Ast. And he did this on teams that went to the finals. At his peak the man was a superstar, not just flashy dunks and Dream's sidekick.
I think you're misconstruing the comments people have on here regarding Clyde Drexler, the commentator, and Clyde Drexler, the HOF. I doubt anyone who watched Clyde's career can say that he is "criminally underrated" because they know what kind of player he was. Whoever is downplaying Drexler as a basketball player either was too young or didn't follow basketball at that time.
Clyde for much of his early career was regarded as MJ's equal. Much like Durant to Lebron. It was MJ's dismantling of him in the finals(Like Hakeem vs Robinson) that changed the discussion. Clyde was amazing. He just wasn't as amazing as Jordan.
I've seen so many of these "on pace" articles regarding our players in the past. That in itself is a cool feat. I think i'll be more impressed when one of them actually accomplishes it by staying "on pace" for the entire season though. So far the only ones I can recall who have were Tracy McGrady. Something about his playoff numbers being in elite company. And Steve Francis' first 5 seasons being in the company of Jordan, Big "O", and like two other or something. I'd like Harden to be the first one in a while to actually stay the course and finish the season as he starts.
It seemed odd that Harden's Win Share stat is much lower than the Jordan & Lebron seasons. However, when you look at WS/48, the numbers are more uniform. And this makes sense because the main stat behind WS is points produced, so Harden's lower scoring average in less minutes per game is drawing his WS number down. This is one case in which WS does not reasonably represent the player's impact. Harden is definitely putting up a top MVP caliber season.
To be fair, you can make anyone look good with careful enough application of the "only these players have posted at least X, Y, and Z stats" arguments. I happily use it in NBA debates at times when I feel like deliberately being obtuse. Not here, of course. For example: "Lamar Odom should be in the Hall of Fame. He's one of only two players in NBA history to average 3.7 assists and 0.9 blocks while shooting 31% on three-pointers. This demonstrates he and the other such player - Tracy McGrady - were far more versatile than Lebron or Michael Jordan." (Obviously with P-R-A as your stats it's less gimmicky but same idea). That's not anything against Harden, whose MVP campaign I declared support for already - just a personal note about a minor thing that caught my eye.
I think you're reading it wrong. Win Shares is a cumulative stat, like total points. Harden has played only a quarter of the season so he has a quarter as many win shares. While minutes per game also effects WS, it doesn't account for that size gap, it would just make the difference of maybe +/- 10 percent. Multiply Harden's WS by 82/23 and you'll find him right in the range of the Jordan and Lebron seasons.
Yup, the latter part of my post was about the WS/48 (from basketball reference's calculation). WS is indeed cumulative so it would definitely be about 4 times less than the completed Lebron & Jordan seasons.
