No one expects Harden to shoot like Steph Curry. But how many players in the league shoot around 40% from the 3pt line? Is that an unreasonable expectation?
depends what kind of thres they are, if they are contested, if they are open, if they are off the dribble..........they are all different looks most of the players who are leaders in three point shooting are spot up shooters
Durant, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Reggie Jackson, Lavine, Hayward, Middleton, Fournier, Conley, Paul George, Julius Randle, Jamal Murray, Irving, McCollum, Leonard, Jaylen Brown, Lowry, CP3, Jrue Holiday, and Damian Lillard all shot over 39% from the 3pt line this past season. Is it really unreasonable to expect something similar from Harden?
Clearly it’s a sliding scale. If you are a guy who can’t do a damn thing but catch and shoot you better be damn good at it. Well over 40%. Because that ability to make means nothing in the scheme of things if you can only get a couple good shots off a game to maintain that percentage. It is why Harden at 36%, which is not great, was still extremely valuable to an elite offense. He could maintain that % at just about any volume and could get just about as many shots off as he wanted. Lillard and Curry truly are the outliers. Chuck up as many as they want from just about anywhere and still an elite %. There just aren’t many guys in the league taking the contested volume that the top guys are.
perfectly logical! btw I noticed, unlike harden, all these people above shoot all kind of shots... midrange is such a fundamental shot to heating up process and feeling things out... thats why hardens 3pt isnt any good....his shooting mechanism in the brain lacks calibration that comes from probing and feeling out different kinds of shots from entire spectrum of the range...its either layup or a long 3pt for him, its not a wonder hes cold so often...
dont forget when curry went down in 2016... he got run off the court by draymond freaking green who outscored harden from 3pt line also dont forget okc series in 2013 when westbrook got hurt.... 39 years old derek fisher prevented harden from advancing to the next round
2013 vs OKC 15 pt 4/12 10 TOs (saved by Parsons's heroic performance) 2015 vs LAC 23 pt 5/20 (that famous Games 6 when he was benched in the whole 4thQ) 2015 vs GSW 14 pt 2/11 12 TOs (eliminated) 2017 vs SAS 10 pt 2/11 (eliminated) 2019 vs GSW 35 pt 11/25 (eliminated)
It was beyond me why Harden didn't take what the defense gave him..... Morey wanted Pau Gasol, Melo, Bosh and CP3 (midrange masters), so it's not all Morey influencing Harden.
I think the whole team was coached like that. I saw them having plenty of wide open mid range jumpers after they drove past the defender. The logical next step is for the jumper. Nope, lets dribble it back outside and wait for the defense to set again and try to make a 3. Its a bunch of "if" on here with harden defenders. Giannis was hurt himself and I thought he was out for the remainder of the playoffs with that replay. Injuries happen and is part of the game so lets not try to put an asterisk due to injury. "If" the nets were healthy. "If" Jordan never retired the Rockets would never win those 2 championships. So are we going to put an asterisk to the only 2 championships the city of Houston had at the time? **** no the Rockets earned it and Hakeem played great just like the performance Giannis had in the close out game. I'm a basketball fan and a Rockets fan. I was a fan way before Harden even started playing for the Rockets. Its ok to say other players from other teams are better than him. Just because he played for us doesn't mean we defend him at all cost. The guy had weaknesses in his games. The main one was not being consistent in the playoffs. Who knows if he wins it later on next year or a few years after that. Time is not on Harden side. He never really had injuries while playing here but are having injuries now. Probably due to his diet and partying. I'm not hating on Harden at all. He played great for us in the regular season while here but in the end he didn't win it all. He had plenty of help from Howard, Cp3, Westbrook. Giannis teammates is not as good as them in my opinion. Middleton is inconsistent. Jrue Holiday is no where mentioned as being on CP3 or Westbrook league. Just enjoy the game of basketball and give credit where it is due.
Harden mid range % 12/13 : 33.5% 13/14 : 40.6% 14/15 : 37.3% 15/16 : 40.5% 16/17 : 41.1% 17/18 : 39.1% (CP3 53.9%) 18/19 : 42.0% (CP3 47.6%) The guys you want taking those shots are consistently 45%+. No matter how much people wanted him to be he was never that knockdown midrange guy.
Maybe not here because we are Rockets fans and thus biased... But if Giannis were to win like 3 more rings and FMVPs then yes, some people might put him over Hakeem. That's fine, not everyone is meant to be on top forever and as time passes guys lose influence over lists and such. Also though, if Hakeem never won he wouldn't be in the conversation when it comes to top 5 all-time centers. Winning matters in the end and is the entire point of the competition. I think a guy can be more dominant even if he's less skilled, if he does that one thing really well. I guess it depends on the question. I think most fans would agree Hakeem was the most skilled center to ever play...but is he the most accomplished? I guess that goes to Kareem and most will say Kareem because of recency bias, no one has seen Bill Russell play (I mean when we talk about things, people will even say they've never seen him play). But I think Hakeem will be the most skilled Center to play for some time...but I don't think he'd be in the conversation of best Center if he didn't have those Fmvps and rings. So if Giannis wins a few more big time accolades, I could see people putting him over Hakeem. Doesn't lessen Hakeem's legacy though. Even if Giannis has less skill and talent than other all-time bigs he's still doing a lot with what he has and that makes it special. I guess you can say the same abut Curry too. not that he's not skilled, but he excells so much at one thing (shooting) that it makes up for what he doesn't excell at. He's not a better all around player than CP3 is but you won't see people putting CP3 over him on their lists. I think for Harden to break into that all-time top 3 he's going to have to win a championship. Fair or not. I can't put him over Jordan or Kobe or Wade, no way no how, but you can make a very strong argument for him at 4 and that's still a helluva legacy. If he wins a championship as a core member of a team, maybe argue for putting him over Wade...maybe...if he wins a FMVP, yes...if he wins several championships, then yes definitely over Wade...I think it's too late for him to ever get put over Jordan or Kobe though.
Probably should have worked on the mid range /offensive variability then.....7 seasons and he just stuck with 3pt and layups. It's purely a matter of effort as Harden clearly worked on his craft but not the midrange. Being predictable was clearly an issue in the playoffs. He was a regular season beast and I know you Rocket's twitter crew got all the advanced stats, but he was too predictable when it mattered most.
I think the word "skilled" is being thrown around without any clear definition. There is really no metric to measure how skilled a player is because there are so many different skills in basketball. Are we talking about shooting? Are we talking about handling the ball? How about foot work? Foot speed? Body control? Jumping? Passing? Court vision? Decision making? etc., etc. Some people might say that Kareem was more skilled than Hakeem and I don't know if we could argue against that with facts. That's why the narrative that Giannis is "unskilled" is so void of meaning. The guy clearly has basketball skills or else he would not even be able to play in the NBA, let alone be a superstar.
what are jrue holiday percentages? he basically won the finals for the bucks with the midrange clinic in game 5 in phoenix rondo is not a great 3pt shooter but he still won various series for the lakers by shooting 3s yannis is not a great shooter and he won the game 5 and 6 by hitting a lot of midrange he even hit one 3 pointer, and in the end that 3 pointer made hell of a difference because thats exactly how much suns were behind bucks in the last minutes if its the last shot you need midrange because its just one shot which is easier to hit becuse its a shorter distance and you are tired but what you gonna do then when you didnt have an ingame practice the whole year because you thought all along you dont need it and you werent prepared for the moment?
cmon now percentages are overrated... harden is a better midrange shooter than yannis and jrue holiday.. and these 2 killed the suns with the midrange clinic in games 5 and 6
It's premature to worry about Giannis eclipsing or even approaching Hakeem on the ALL-TIME ranking. Yes, statistical accomplishments and awards are important,but they aren't everything. If they were, Hakeem's "mere" 2 titles wouldn't have him as a consensus top 10 player clearly ahead of more recent players like Kobe, Curry, KD, Kawhi, Wade, etc. What's important isn't just merely putting up numbers in the regular season or JUST titles, its that in conjunction with epic performance in the postseason. Hakeem's greatness is due to his two legendary postseason run and if Giannis doesn't accumulate at least another couple titles and great postseason performances he wont crack the top 10 list no matter how many more points or rebounds he accumulates in the regular season. Giannis is only 26, so while it isn't impossible for him to eventually reach Hakeem's level, it'll be exceedingly difficult.
