Lost in the first round to the Hawks... Remember what he did in 2007-2008, when his team was 15-67? Worst record in the NBA. Digging that many years in the past, however, is irrelevant to who is better now. Wade is not nearly the player he was 5-6 years ago, and Harden wasn't even in the league.
In 2-3 years that won't even be questioned! Harden is only 23yrs old and is going into his prime years as a player. Right now as the article suggests a case can be made for all three players as to whom is #1. I think that question will have a more concrete answer after the playoffs. During the playoffs the defenses tighten up, the refs stop blowing their whistles, the fouls get a little nastier and your playing against the top tier of the league. I'm not saying the better player will walk away with the championship trophy, but the better player will outshine the competition! ........... ........... ...........
You're kidding right? Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, Anthony Davis, Derrick Favors, Lamarcus Aldridge, etc. The league is overloaded with young talented PF's, specially in the west.
Harden does seem having one problem - he is not very communicative. He is very couchable and young, however, it is on McHale to develop Haren to his full potential and to an all round player and strong leader.
Way to miss my point Exactly, that's why I said it was the worst team in the NBA at the time and in 08/09 Wade carried them to the playoffs. Goes to show what a difference maker Wade is/was. If you didn't know, Wade was playing injured in the 07/08 season and had surgery that year, knee surgery. For kicks you can compare Wade's output this season or last season and Harden's last season when they both had a superstar team around them. What I'm trying to say is that we have no idea how good Wade actually is right now since he's on a stacked team, the same way we couldn't have known how good Harden was last year.
I accept your premiss, reject your conclusion. 1. As you said, Wade was hurt much of the season, which reflects on the team overall record, but he wasn't the only player on the team that missed significant time. Shaq only played 33 games that year. Haslem only 49. That Miami team was decimated by injuries, to imply that the sole reason for improvement from 1 year to the next was a healthy Wade is simply ignoring the overall health of the team. 2. Wade played in 51 games that year (his team was 10-41 in games that he played). Watching both Wade and Harden play, you can most certainly have an educated guess over who the better of the two players are.
Frankly, I don't understand what argument you are making. Are you saying that Harden is better than Wade at his peak? It just doesn't make sense to go and look at how Wade was performing right after the 2007 knee surgery. Unless maybe you didn't know about the surgery. In which case, nothing wrong with not knowing, all of us here don't know a bunch of stuff that happened before we started to follow the NBA, just why are you still discussing that particular year then. You'd be able to make a much stronger argument if you looked at their current performance and left Wade's prime aside, tbh.
I am saying Harden is better than Wade now. To quote myself 'Digging that many years in the past, however, is irrelevant to who is better now. Wade is not nearly the player he was 5-6 years ago, and Harden wasn't even in the league.' You are the one who brought up him 'carrying his team' to a first round exit in 2008.
Hard to say if Harden is better than Wade now, as their circumstances are completely different. Wade is the #2 option on his team, Harden is far and away the #1 option on the Rockets. Unless we see LBJ go down for an extended period of time, we won't see how productive Wade can be leading a team, even with an all-star like Bosh. I think having James as the primary scorer has probably slowed Wade's physical deterioration and he's not 'old' at 31, which is considered prime athletic age in the NBA. I would say that his experience trumps Harden at this point. Bryant, on the other hand... I think he's lost a small step. It might be psychological, it might be wear and tear. His premadonna attitude certainly doesn't help. Still, the NBA is fairly short on stellar SGs so he still gets the #3 spot. 1. Wade 1a. Harden 3. Bryant
