[BBALLBREAKDOWN] Is James Harden Better Than Russell Westbrook?

There are a bunch of records in the NBA. Some of them are not that impressive, such as most 3's shot by a team in a season which seems to be broken every year. But some of them are crazy to think about. Three of the ones that I have always thought were absurd are:
1) Wilt averaged 50 points over the course of a season. And scoring 100 points in one game
2) Wilt averaging 25 rebounds over a season
3) Oscar Robertson averaging a triple double for an entire season in 61-62

Of course there is a ton of the season still to go. But the fact that Westbrook is averaging a triple double right now is crazy impressive and yes, it is damn close between him and Harden.

 

I'm just guessing here but I bet if you asked most coaches whose harder to gameplan for it would be Harden and to me that would be the deciding factor.

Russ is a great player but if by product of his team or in fact just his mindset, he uses way to many possessions on terrible shots and attacks to the rim when guys are open When he could making the easy play and save energy.

I don't think it's close on who has the better bbiq and who sees the game better.

Harden Lebron and cp3 see the game on a different level it's very impressive. (Draymond green is really good too)

I believe it was the year we lost to Portland in the playoffs that Steve Clifford te coach of the hornets said at the time that harden Lebron and Durant were the hardest players to gameplan for that's some very high praise from a defensive minded coach..... and harden is a lot better now, crazy.

 

I'd say the thing that has me most excited about Harden is that his old man game will translate in to his mid 30's.

Going to have a good one for a while but they need to limit his minutes to the 30-32 minute range moving forward.

 

I think the interesting comparison here is wrt Paul Pierce and Manu Ginobili, whose games share similar style as Harden's and both played very well into their mid-30s.

As for Westbrook? Look at what happened (or will happen) to Derrick Rose and Steve Francis after 30.

 

Derrick Rose is only 28. His game as an elite player didn't even make into his 30's.

 

Tonight showed actually one thing Westbrook has over Harden, even if he has a bad shooting game with a lot of shots, WB manages more often than not to impact the game, even win the game and or get a triple-double.