Would you rather have Harden, or the 04-05 McGrady?

Tmac worked Dirk on d (yes, he was guarding him).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_2005_WC1.html#DAL-HOU

Still waiting for Harden to deliver even a respectable playoff series.

 

Ha - reminds me of this:

 

I think it is important. Before this year I thought about how I would rather have a healthy TMAC and Yao over Harden and Howard. But now Harden has surpassed TMAC at his greatest and the arrow is pointed up. ∴ this team can go further.

 

Who are his teammates?


Tmac did more with less.

 

Because of playoff performance alone, I will have to go T-Mac. While with the Rockets, Harden has not showed up in the playoffs.

 

Fixing to get flamed.

Post season success is big in my book.

Yes, McGrady hasn't advanced.


But with this current squad and him at that level. He would win a playoff series or two.

If Harden can play like he does during the regular season, than I will go with him.

 

T-Mac. His game translates better to the playoffs. This team would be head and shoulders above all of T-Macs teams in terms of talent and depth. 05 T-Mac with this team would be top 3 and favorites to win it all.
Harden is a regular season star. He will never get the calls he gets now in the playoffs. He relies too heavily on it. Without those fts, he's just not that good of a scorer. That is why i still worry about the playoffs and our possible continued failures there for the rest of Hardens career as a Rocket. Harden needs to add a post up game to his arsenal for when the whistle isn't being blown. He always just looks defeated when he can't get calls. Sam Cassell is the guy i want showing Harden how to play the midrange game and post up game.

 

You should be banned based off that unreasonably personal attack on a forum that prides itself on rather friendly, non-malicious banter and debate. We all have a common interest - the Houston Rockets. Keep the insults out of here

 

Harden clearly has an edge over Tracy. Tracy looked better than he was, thanks to his size and athleticism. Conversely, James is underrated due to not being a super athlete.

 

Really hard to say. I don't think any sane person can claim Harden is significantly better than McGrady was that season. It's clear anyone who thinks the answer to this is simple is simply bitter about McGrady's failures.

I think this is an incredibly difficult comparison. I'll say this, Tmac with Howard? Good. GOD! I love me some Yao, I really really do...but he was slow and unable to really go after lobs for the slam. We all know Tmac had incredible vision. Harden seems to have that vision too. I'd say Harden's shot is a little bit better than Tmac, and he is certainly more efficient. But Tmac had a lot more of the "wow factor." Harden can do some amazing things, but nothing like Tmac dunking over Shawn Bradley. I still get chills when I watch that dunk and hear Marv Albert shouting "Tracy McGRADY, just sucked the gravity RIGHT out of the building!" And then I nearly cried just a week or so later when we lost game 7.

Defensively, Tmac was never regarded as a poor defender like Harden has in years past. He got crap for not always playing hardest, but he didn't let guys abuse him like Harden had before.

I'm calling this a tie until Harden wins a playoff series. Remember, Tmac is one of the leading scorers in the playoffs of ALL TIME. I haven't seen the stats since he joined the Spurs, I am sure they took a significant hit from that. But when he was w/ Houston, I believe only MJ and Iverson were above him in the playoffs.

 

Tracy looked better than he was? He had absolutely ridiculous control of the game. While his athleticism allowed him to do the "wow" things, he had the intelligence to do a whole lot more. Had McGrady maybe been able to get over the whole "I am not a superstar anymore" thing when his athleticism broke down, he could have been a really good PF.

Look at Diaw. He was a 6'9" pg, put on a lot of weight when he went to SA and now plays PF. Diaw has very good vision, and that same size as Tmac. Tmac could have easily played PF and been effective, especially under Pop.

Listen to JVG talk about Tmac. When a coach who had issues with you is that glowing about your physical abilities, you obviously have something special.

Point being, his athleticism made him great. But he was a very good player without it. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do with a bad a back, and when the knees go, it's even tougher.

 

Can't tell for now. We need to see this new Harden play more to see how good he can be and how long it can last.

Putting aside their basketball abilities, Harden does look more sturdy than McGrady.

 

Completely agree. I think most everyone here is just forgetting how good McGrady was.

 

Harden! All the way!

 

Pure talent is Tmac. Hardens approach to his game and mentality combined with his health so far gives him the edge. Just imagine if Tmac had Hardens killer instinct, work ethic , and health he would be approaching a top 10-15 all time player, smh oh well. We got Harden now and im more then satisfied.

 

I mean Imagine if Harden all of sudden had no luck with injuries , became passive , and lost killer instinct. He would be OJ mayo tbh.....

 

harden hasn't been in the league as long as tmac, but he already has past the first round.

harden wins.

tmac wins in the delusional fan count, he's the kim jun un of the nba.

 

we'd be 24-0

 

only on your nba2k.

tmac also never played 82 games in a season

thank you daryl morey for trading tmac away!

 

do you need me to give you another history lesson, son? t-mac played in the nba finals.