Wow. I didn't realize what a turnover machine Moses was with the Rockets. Almost as bad as Harden and he was a big.
Nice post. Harden is an amazing player, and still growing his game, but he'll have to be a madman for the next several seasons, including equaling or surpassing Dream's two championships, to seriously be in the conversation for best Rocket ever, in my humble opinion. I think he'll make the conversation. With Morey's genius, the team going forward will continue to be fine tuned to take full advantage of Harden's gifts. Long time Rockets fans can only dream of what Dream's career regular season and playoff record would have been had the team possessed a Daryl Morey back in the day. In that sense, James has a major advantage. He can take this team to some championships. I'm convinced of it. We just need to be on Lady Luck's good side when it comes to the "i" word.
Horry is so bad at this.. 20 times better? Duncan's best regular season: 25.5 PPG, 12.7 RPG, 3.7 APG, 2.5 BPG, 57.6 TS%, 27.0 PER, .257 WS/48, Hakeem's best regular season: 26.1 PPG. 13.0 RPG, 3.5 APG, 4.2 BPG, 57.7 TS% 27.3 PER, .234 WS/48 Duncan's best playoffs run: 24.7 PPG, 15.4 RPG, 5.3 APG, 3.3 BPG, 57.7 TS%, 28.4 PER, .279 WS/48 Hakeem's best playoffs run: 28.9 PPG, 11.4 RPG, 4.3 APG, 4.0 BPG, 56.8 TS%, 27.7 PER, .208 WS/48 Note: Early 00's league average efficiency was significantly lower than it was 1993(52.0 league average TS% compared to 53.6 TS% in 92-93). Pace was also slower, Hakeem played more possessions per game than Duncan which is why his raw numbers look a bit better. And in impact numbers(RAPM) at their peak, Duncan has him beat, he was better screener, PnR defender etc. that made him more of an impactful player overall, despite Hakeem having better ability to score.
Hakeem is my favorite Rockets player, and one of my favorite players to ever play the game, but to say he's a top 5 player, is arguable, to where I'd say maybe but probably no. And for the record, I was not really old enough to remember Hakeem play. Most of my Hakeem knowledge just like anything in the 90s or before hand was from youtube. So you'll have to excuse my lack of first hand experience.
Hakeem stayed with the Rockets 98% of his career. He didn't leave Houston to go play with players he thought fit his skillset, they came to him. Lebron doesn't belong in that category
If you had no love for Clutch City, I wish you get permanently banned here Harden Only Fans, that goes for you too, you need to be deleted , get the Moses Malone Jr treatment
We don't have rapm for Hakeem years. Why make stuff up? And 52 vs 53.6 isn't significantly different. Hakeem is easily the better overall defender. On offense Duncan was the better passer but Hakeems the better scorer. Scored more points at higher efficiency. Hakeem was better in the playoffs. Also, Duncan's stats got worse against elite defenders. Haleems did not. Edge: Hakeem
Tim Duncan was a great player because he had the work ethic and the smarts, as well as a great coach and organization to support him since day one. He didn't have the most obvious athletic ability though, nothing like MJ or Lebron or Hakeem or Shaq. If Hakeem needed to beat Tim Duncan, he'd figure it out and nothing Tim could do to stop Hakeem.
My roomate in law school was from Chicago. Our first day in the dorm, he was hanging a Michael Jordan poster on the wall. I asked why he wanted to display a picture of the 2nd best basketball player in NBA history. He was not amused.
Hakeem played against a murderer's row of the best centers in the NBA. Duncan's career intersected but the role of the center and the league in general was watered down during his prime.
That's a silly argument, statistically it was harder to score In Duncan's era. llegal defense was eliminated completely in 2001, teams scored less points and were less efficient. You don't have to be a genius to understand that. And 90's were far less talented, it was watered down league due to team expansions in 1988, 1989 and later.
Duncan's stats dropped against good defenders like Garnett. Hakeem's got better in the playoffs and against better defenders. The Knicks were one of the best defenses in history and he destroyed them, averaging more than Duncan did against weaker competition.
I like to look at these in terms of trades in their prime. I don't think there is a player in his prime I would trade Hakeem for except maybe Wilt but I didn't see him play. I don't know if I trade MJ for anyone except maybe Hakeem. I would trade any of today's players for LeBron but I don't know if I trade Magic for LeBron or Kareem for LeBron. After there it starts getting more complicated because the list of names starts getting too large. Bird Russell Shaq Kobe I sure would have liked to see prime Sampson.... man what a talent.
If you are on Clutchfans, named after Clutch City, and you hate on Olajuwon you should be removed from Clutchfans forever
Olajuwon is better than Duncan in just about every way. Better on offense, better on defense, better rebounder. Saying "20 times better' is a bit excessive but IMO it's exaggeration for effect and not to be taken literally. Honestly it's just not a comparison that should ever happen unless you just want to look for a way to dump on Duncan because Duncan was amazing when compared to just about anyone else.
There's a hidden 'screw the media' message when Horry said that. It's a giant finger to them dissing the Rockets championships and Dream. This is why Clutchfans is so close of a community. Not a coincidence Clutch named himself Clutch.
The team that almost stopped the 5 hall of famers. If you're confused about how that happened, see the left most player seen in the photo. He's the greatest basketball player that ever stepped on the hardwood.
