Would Harden/Dwight/Smith be the best "Big 3" in the league?

One of these is not like the others.

 

Dwight > Bosh, Harden > Wade, Lebron > Universe...er Smith

At least put them against their relative matchup.

 

Come on, don't be ridic. Bosh, Wade, and the King will always be the best big 3 until they are de-throned.

 

They certainly would not be the best individually, but I think the way each of them play could put them in the conversation for best as a group.

 

LeBron counts as 2 super DUPER stars by himself, so no.

 

More like this

1. LeBron




















2. James Harden
3. Dwight Howard
4. DWade
5. JSmoove & Bosh (tied)

 

Thank you. My eyes bleed when ya'll keep comparing players out of position.

As some else said, having a dominant big man trumps. Only one player in NBA history has bucked that trend (Jordan ...and he never played Hakeem in the finals. )

5. Howard >> universe (today). However, Gasol is strong.
4. Montejunas << Bosh
3. Smith <<< LBJ
2. Harden > Wade
1. Lin = Chalmers

Normally, a dominant 5 trumps a dominant wing ...but LBJ might be THAT good. But LBJ beating Duncan at 38yo isn't that impressive to me.

As usual, the NBA comes down to matchups and rarely is cut and dry on paper. More talented teams lose all the time.

 

Harden, Howard, and Chandler would, which would leave us with plenty of money to put together an awesome bench by using Asik and Lin and bolster the 4 spot with lower cost options like Paul Milsap (great addition). Imagine a bench with Asik and Lin surrounded by shooters. Lin could go off for about 20 minutes a night... That's all we need.

 

In 09 Josh Smith quit shooting 3's, passed more and unsurprisingly the hawks had their best season. When he plays like a power forward and not a SG he is one hell of a player, not a superstar but pretty freaking good.

Unfortunately he hasn't shown the mental wherewithal to consistently play that way.

BTW the answer is no, LBJ give Miami the edge although Harden is better than Wade and Howard is better than Bosh. Parsons may give us the better big 4 if they all play the right way.

 

We would be pretty damn close.

Harden may not be on Durants and LeBrons level, but he is pretty damn close. He is our leader, an efficient scorer who shows up in clutch time.

Howard is the best center in the game, and the defensive ability he brings to the table is unmatched. He is much better then Bosh and Ibaka.

Josh Smith is a X factor. On one hand, he is fairly inconsistent offensively and is prone to bouts of shot jacking. On the other hand, he is an athletic freak who can defend multiple positions and has a array of offensive skills. He compares to Wade and Westbrook; you never know if Jekyll or Hyde will show up.

Parsons is on his way to being an allstar level talent. Neither team has that. And Lin is very solid. Just distribute the ball, drain the 3" and defend vigorously.

We need to worr about filling out our bench. We have our sixth man in Bev, but we need more to help him out.

 

Not the best, but honestly, might be one of the better fits in terms of talents. Miami has won two in a row due to how talented they are, but they started off rough together due to some conflicting pieces. Namely, Lebron and Wade both required the ball in their hand to be effective, and Bosh occupied similar real estate since he prefers to play face up.

A Harden, Howard, and Smith trifecta shouldn't have those issues. Harden is the only ball dominant player of the three, and Smith is less of a post player, more of a post crasher. He can easily space out away from Howard and still get his at the basket touches.

Like Joe Joe, I too am a huge fan of Asik's, but I prefer the Smith/Howard duo to Asik/Howard. While it is intriguing to just shut down the paint entirely, Smith is a more versatile piece and this has become a guard/wing dominated league. I'd prefer to have Howard's elite shot-blocking presence and Smith's versatility.

 

Josh Smith isn't anywhere near superstar level. The man is just above average.

 

If they can beat the Heat they will be. Got to get to the Finals first which is not easy.

 

Lebron was very close to being considered an underachiever.

Game Six: Popovich substitutes Duncan out twice, leading to two crucial offensive rebounds for the Miami Heat which allow them to come from a 4 point deficit to tie the game.

Kawhi Leonard split his free throws which would have all but shut out the Heat.

After carrying his team in the fourth, Lebron lost two crucial possessions as well as bricking his threes. Ray Allen converted from a 2nd chance opportunity to tie the game and take it to overtime.

Very, very close to having a 1-4 Finals record with Danny Green being the 2013 FMVP.

The fact is this, Lebron is the best player in the game, but he is mediocre in the Finals when facing a defense that forces him into jump-shots.

Dwight Howard and Josh Smith front-court?

That is definitely anti-Heat

 

This thread would play out differently if ray Allen misses that 3 or the spurs make one more free throw. Lebron is beatable with wade being a shell of his self and only getting older and bosh being bosh.

 

He'd be the Bosh in this scenario.

 

Lebron would be better than anyone on our team and significantly so, but whoever you wanted to call second between Dwight and Harden would be the next best player, and significantly so.

 

Which team plays in New Jersey?

 

The Giants and the Jets.

 

makes no sense to match their best vs our best. winning games comes down to matchups.

lebron vs. smith
in a game i think we'd see smith guarding lebron. while smith is an excellent defender, no one stops lebron on the attack. however, smith is a better post defender than lebron is a post player. taking away the post, and slowing some of his rebounding is as good a matchup as anyone has against him. plus, on the attack, he will be met by dwight in the paint. the advantage is lebron's of course, but it's still better than any other team in the league can do against him.

wade vs harden
very similar players with hopefully similar careers. the difference is wade is an excellent defender and harden an excellent shooter. rebounds, passing, attacking the rim, all equal. wades athleticism is declining, but he's still a great shot blocker for a guard but harden isn't looking to finish at the rim on a drive, he's looking for a foul. i don't think wade would be able to slow harden from scoring. offensively wade doesn't look to drive much (which is good considering harden's defense) so as long as you keep wade's jump shot contested you're doing well. if the heat bring help when harden gets by wade, harden is a great passer and will find the open shooter. advantage harden.

bosh vs dwight
one thing that makes the heat defense so good is bosh's ability to rotate for help as a center. having a legit post player forces the heat to do 1 of two things. either they have to stop bosh from rotating and instead play post defense, unless they still want bosh to close out on the corner 3 while battier dives in to the paint to cover bosh's man (dwight), or they put in a real center which hurts them on offense. i don't think they want dwight being guarded by anyone but a big guy, so no rotating out of the pain for bosh (this is important for when harden gets by wade and kicks to open shooters). secondly, i don't think bosh can guard him one on one for the whole game, which means they hurt their offense and bring in a big guy.

the heat's offense is based on the fact that all 5 guys can shoot from the outside. lebron drives, gets doubled, and kicks to a shooter, because everyone is a shooter. if you take out one shooter to bring in a big guy like birdman to guard dwight, that allows dwight to play defense in the paint against birdman. that means there will be less switching and rotating because when lebron beats smith off the dribble he's met by dwight. in turn that means the remaining shooters are still covered.

or they can ask bosh to front dwight and deny the post entry pass. as they did in game seven against duncan. this is very fatiguing and caused bosh to be scoreless through most of the game (or all of it?). that's the heat's best bet actually. because dwight and the rockets would have the advantage any other way. this way they are both nullified and we split the first two matchups. a series would then come down to coaching, bench, and closing ability and the heat beat us in all of those (for now).