The bigger culprit is the cosching. Harden rested for 2 minutes or less, the ball movement went up but just missed easy jumpshots and JB hits the panic button and immediately brings Harden. No faith, no confidence at all.
Tmac was a better leader and a better player. Tmac in his prime with Howard as he is now and the role players we have would be wrecking shop. Also, Tmac could actually hit shots instead of relying on the refs every night. And let's not forget that harden gives everyone he's a guarding a police escort straight to the rim.
lol..T-Mac would destroy James Harden. Since were probably talking about T-Mac as a Rocket, before his body fell apart, i think the 05 T-Mac would have this team at #3 seed. But, as far as leadership goes...probably not much of a difference.
<PRE> Rk Player From To G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% eFG% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1 James Harden 2010 2015 72 29 33.7 5.5 12.9 .427 1.8 5.2 .355 3.6 7.7 .475 .498 6.3 7.2 .869 0.6 4.5 5.2 4.6 1.5 0.4 2.8 3.0 19.1 2 Tracy McGrady 2000 2013 50 38 34.5 7.9 18.7 .426 1.1 3.9 .290 6.8 14.8 .461 .456 5.2 6.8 .757 1.3 4.5 5.7 5.0 1.1 0.9 2.7 1.9 22.2 </PRE> http://www.basketball-reference.com...m=1&p1=mcgratr01&p2=hardeja01&p3=&p4=&p5=&p6= Tmac was not a better shooter, free throw shooter, 3 point shooter, tmac averaged a few points more, that's it. Also notice how Harden already played 22 more playoff games in the playoffs than tmac did his entire career . These are facts.
Including his injury-riddled late years certainly makes sense when doing an honest comparison...not. Switch rosters and the playoff games played would also be changed. Maybe show their playoff game numbers and elimination game numbers for a better playoff comparison, including the stats the teammates had in the playoffs? Nah you won't do it, as it would destroy your nonexistent logic.
I don't play switch Rosters, that only happens on Video games . I play real life results. Tmac played 13 years in the NBA and when he was not happy with his 'teammates' he asked for a trade. The results are clear. Houston advanced without Tmac on the roster and just Yao and Ron Artest. There are plenty of lessons learned from getting McGrady: 1. Never make an injury prone player your primary superstar. 2. Never have your highest paid player be one with an unproved playoff reputation, ie winning series consistently
Its not like you cannot agree with mac about gis teammates....when he finally got a very legit group karma got his ass and he was the one on the outside
Ah you forget to mention 3. 3. Never make a lover of KhloeK your primary star (turns him into a douche)
Just Yao and Artest? Let's not downplay the importance of the role players on that rockets team. Individually, Lowry, Brooks, Scola, & Landry are all better players than ANY role player TMac played with in his series with Yao. Freaking Luther Head and Juwan Howard... Smh.
I think Harden's been the better ROCKET due to better health and roster,system, but i'd still take 04-05 T-Mac over Harden. Orlando T-Mac would murder Harden. Harden had an amazing season last season though. I won't take that away from him. I highly doubt he will ever reach that peak again like T-mac not reaching 03 peak ever again and I just sometimes wonder how much of Harden's #s are really just Morey's system that is perfectly suited for him. When you look at stats as a Rocket, Harden's 3 pt attempt rate and FT attempt rate smoke T-Macs rate. I wonder how T-mac could have done with a Morey get to the line and 3s system. T-Mac was at his best in ORL bc he got to the line. T-Mac's efficiency suffered greatly without any real offensive system, who here doesn't remember those deep..foot on the line 2pt jumpers? Other than efficiency, T-Mac was the better passer as a Rocket. From 04-08 31.2% AST%. Harden currently sitting at 29.9AST%. T-Mac was the better rebounder. 8.8 TRB% to Hardens 7.7TRB%. Same exact Blk%, Harden slightly better STL%. T-Mac the better defender. T-Mac also the slightly better all around playoff performer in his 20 games compared to Hardens 29 games. In the end the question was who was the better leader. Neither of them are leaders. I'm sure LES isn't taking much more of this mess and he will soon tire of Harden's constant lack of effort on Defense. It's that very reason why i personally take T-Mac as a Rocket over Harden as a Rocket and bc T-mac wasn't out there getting drunk and partying constantly. I could see Harden playing his final season as a Rocket next year before he becomes an expiring contract looking for super max money. I mean Leslie never missed any games when T-Mac was our leader. Les doesn't even want to watch games anymore with Harden as our man. He's freaking giving away his seats for charity lol. For the first time ever, he left a game this season bc he just can't watch. Even with JVG's inept offense and boring 80 pt game highs, TMac still made basketball exciting to watch and still equaled Hardens stats in an offense that was made to walk up the floor as slowly as possible for Yao to set up in the half court and complete micromanaging from JVG while Harden is out there free to do whatever he wants in basically streetball style ISO hero ball.
Kevin Garnett Won the MVP Also went to the western conference finals <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WZdXQIezguo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> And he never quit Don't think's me, Rockets fans booed him. I'm just a Rockets fan. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tuMm0a5amo0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z7qT-39KaGY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JkZPZ75bWW4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Lol c'mon man. T-mac had just come off some incredible individual seasons where he lost to a stacked Bucks team that was 1 game away from the NBA Finals, A deeper talent team in the Hornets, and had his no talent team up 3-1 on the Detroit Pistons who would eventually make the ECF and win a ring the next year. Losing that series took it's toll on him mentally. To go from that to a 21 win team? Obvious there were problems everywhere and Orlando management was incompetent. He wasn't going to wait for a HS player to develop. He demanded a trade bc he knew Orlando was never going to help build a roster he can get help from, not bc he didn't specifically want to play with Dwight Howard. Sadly for him, we didn't help him much either. Paying a bunch of old washed up former Knicks players for JVG and starting Ryan ****ing Bowen in the playoffs? Those Rockets teams were complete slow, unathletic garbage who couldn't shoot for ****. Thankfully they were fun years to reminisce on bc of T-mac and Yao and guys like Sura and Mike James had a lot of heart and fight.
Why do you guys play the Tmac was a victim of his environment crap, when it was tmac who left all those teams? Toronto - Left Orlando - wanted trade, wish granted Houston - wanted trade, wish granted You know the aftermath of that? Toronto - wins playoff series then faces Philly in a classic series Orlando - got Dwight, Dwight goes to the Finals Houston - Yao and Ron Ron win a series You guys think Tmac was Paul McCartney or John Lennon Dude was Yoko Ono
Here's a better answer, both are over rated chuckers. James Harden rode the Durant and West brook train and eventualluly the Dwight , Josh Smith, Brewer, Ariza, Terry train. Tracy Mcgrady rode on Yao and whatever else we provided. It's sad when those two have been our cornerstones, when we've had guys like Hakeem, Yao, Moses, Drexler, Kenny Smith, and even Dwight. Watching Harden sit out there like a lost r****d when someone else has the ball is the dumbest thing I have ever seen almost on par with his defence. At this point I'd still take Mcgrady over Harden. Harden will quit on this team eventually if JB grows a pair of nuts and sits him down. Then it'll be the toronto game all over again. We do not need players who have no idea where to position themselves if they do not have the ball. It is absolutely r****ded.
Gotta take McGrady over Harden based on the totality of what we've seen thus far. But the future remains to be seen. Harden is too young for this comparison to be made at the moment. I do miss Mac's versatility though
