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

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

Did T-Mac have the potential to be better than Jordan in his prime?
Yes

Potential is a hell of a drug.

 

Is defense a factor here as well?

 

why would it be? neither plays any

 

I would say yes. Harden has the abilty to be an elite closer. 30+pts on 12fga is crazy good. He has the potential if paired with the right wingman, to be one of Houstons finest players.

 

yes, but not in the spactacular rim shaking fall away turn around jump shot.

When watching Harden, I keep coming back to a line that McHale mentioned saying about him from his TNT days. Repeatable.

Harden plays a very repeatable game that is extremely effective. He is a smart and willing passer and is really thriving in the offense.

My only concern is what will happen to his game when we actually get a low post presence. TMAC thought it would open up more lanes for him, but found that to be wrong.

 

What I haven't seen out of Harden yet is that ability to just be unconscious from the field. T-Mac would have those outburst where he could go for 50+ just raising up and shooting everytime down the court. I don't think we'll see Harden put up a 60 point game just yet but in pretty much every other aspect of his game he is his equal or better.

 

the reason i said tmac is better is that tmac offense requires or involves little effort.

 

It's easy to say Harden will have a better overall career most likely, barring chronic injury.

 

Alright, it's early on in Harden's career, and Tmac came straight out of high school and was a skinny bench guy in Toronto his first few years. But I think that if Harden stays healthy, he will have a more consistent long term career and and won't drop off nearly as much as Tmac. Tmac has averaged as much as 32 points and as little as 5, with a career average of around 20 ppg. Does Harden's peak scoring season need to approach 30+ to say he's at TMac's level?, or does he just need to average 26 points over seven or eight years? He's already at 25.4 this year and looks to be improving.

Tmac during his best seven years - '00-'07 - averaged 26.7 points, but never got out of the first round of the playoffs. Harden has already been a big piece of a team that's gone to the Finals. As mainly a shooting guard, Harden isn't going to be around the basket as much to get those defensive rebounds that Tmac was in a position to snap up - so don't expect Harden to have similar numbers in that area.

I'd say Harden is the epitome of a team player right now - a workhorse heavy workload player that the team knows it can rely on. TMac in his prime was more of a Star - the ego of a team.

Only time will tell how this all plays out.

 

This+ 1000

If Tracy had Kobe's work ethic , TG would have been a top 5 GOAT

 

i doubt it

 

tmac in his prime could score from anywhere on the court. jumpers, posting up, assisting like the best in the nba. when the game was on the line, he even defended well. its early in hardens career. we shall see.

 

the answer is no, but i'll take harden seven days a week and twice on sunday. as others have mentioned, t-mac in orlando was truly a special basketball player with the stats to back it up. but he is also the guy who talked about going to the second round when being up 3-1 against detroit, only to let his team blow it. not entirely on his head, but a lack of leadership still persists.

on a sidenote, i think mike miller in miami was a very valuable sidekick to lebron, and mike miller in orlando was a lot more valuable sidekick to t-mac than people realize. that being said, i hope parsons becaomes harden's mike miller. feel free to start a thread on the subject.

 

T-mac in his prime was better then anybody in the NBA this past decade. Only excluding Lebron and Kobe.

 

LOL

Shaq, Duncan, KG, Wade, Nash, Nowitzki, Kidd, current Durant

T-Mac was an overhyped loser who never got past the first round.

 

It's a damn shame that TMac's career ended the way it did! He never really got much of a chance to win a Championship with us. I don't think he deserves to be bagged the way he is. He works his ass off and at his best he was just as good as Kobe or LeBron. If TMac could have had teammates like Lebron or a healthy career like Kobe, there is no question that he would be talked about as one of the greats. Sure he may have had the "Diva", but the greats all do and it's nowhere near as bad as Kobe's.

 

i agree however lets not forget the drama filled tmac. my son played basketball with morey's son when the rockets finally had to ask tmac not to show up to practice in 09. and lets not forget his second year hear, did he show up for the all-star game after claiming to be injured? the guy was a drama queen.

 

No... but I'd take Harden over him. Tracy was my favorite player but he just wasn't a winner, not because he didn't want to but because injuries, lack of effort & bad luck were constant killers.

Harden hasn't had any of the above, Harden just looks like a winner.

 

Tmac has way too many tools on the offense end during his prime. He can dribble and finish with both hands, attach from both sides, play post-up and shoot from the parking lot.

Harden is getting close in terms of assists and rebounds while comparing to the prime Tmac. But he still has a long way to go if he wants to reach same height as the ultimate scoring machine that Tmac used to be.