17.7/10 in 30 minutes. People who use raw stats without context are just.... He is the true best player of the Spurs. Higher PER than Tony Parker even though PER does a poor job of gauging defense. Plays only a few less minutes and around the same amount of games. His impact on D>>>Tony Parker's impact on offense. Its sickening how overrated Tony Parker has become and how underrated Duncan has become. Duncan is still putting up great numbers even though the Spurs system has been changed to revolve around Parker instead of Duncan.
Though I would generally agree Kobe isn't all star level on the Defensive side, nor Melo, but they both can, when they want, influence the game with their D. I witnessed some of the most atrocious D and lazy effort I have ever seen from a player on the defensive side with Harden in the Portland game. I watched him make zero effort to get back on D after he lost the ball, choosing to stand still under our basket as Portland ran off to their end. I also watched him kinda whine about a non call where he turned the ball over and stood behind while the play continued. I understand that Harden probably will never have the skillset to be an elite defender like Kobe in his day, Lebron, etc etc. I choose not to point out Hardens horrible defensive effort for the most part. But it pisses me off to all hell when he chooses to stand around at the other end when the opposition takes off the other way. Or when he gives the "Im going to fake run out here on my rotation and fake jump" Put at least a little effort into it.
Melo does this literally all the time. Refer to Patrick Patterson running right past him to dunk as he argues with a ref. And Harden does tend to play good defense when he puts in the effort like Kobe, he's defended Kobe well in the playoffs and I remember him d-ing up Lebron pretty well at the end of a game earlier this year.
He plays less minutes and he also averages 2.7 blocks. I dont know if he is top 10, but I wouldnt be surprised ESPN says he is
Here's how I think the top 10 will look: 1. Lebron 2. Durant 3. CP3 4. Parker <- People raving about his play this season and being a dark horse MVP candidate 5. Carmelo <- Big market and lighting it up in last 12 games 6. Wade 7. Bryant <- Big market and reputation 8. Westbrook 9. Howard <- Big market and reputation 10. Duncan 11. Harden
There's a reason why he plays less minutes. Knicks have had a ton of injuries to the over 35 crowd this year even though they played well early in the season. Last year, Duncan was fading slowly away, still productive but no longer a top 10. Plays great within Pop's "System". This year, he has been rejuvenated but still not top 10.
I swear CF is like the biggest anti-Kobe forum. Yes, Kobe can play defense and he's very good when he wants to be.
Geez, I'm on a Rockets site and they're anti-Kobe & anti-Lakers? I wonder why? Yes, James can play defense too and is very good when he wants to be.
I don't know...maybe because he's been voted to the NBA All-Defensive team 12 of the past 13 seasons.
Parsons(2012: #152) jumps, so does Asik (2012: #99). Lin moves up but I don't think it's a jump. He ranked #78.
And your point? You can't be counted a good defender if you don't do it game after game. That is why I don't count Harden as a good defender....but if you are gonna claim Harden can't be considered tops in the league because of his lack of defense you must also apply that metric to ALL players.....otherwise your opinion should be dismissed since it has an obvious bias. To my eyes..as someone who appreciates and studies the defensive side of the ball( the reason I love JVG as a coach), Harden has shown an ability to play good defense when he wants to.....just like Kobe. The problem is neither one does it consistently, so I don't consider either a good defender. This guy gets it.
Most consistent basketball player in history. Per 36 Minute numbers: <script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fplayers%2Fd%2Fduncati01.html&div=div_per_minute"></script>
Yes Melo, Kobe, Harden aren't great defenders but offensively Kobe and Melo are better than Harden. Especially Melo that guy is on fire right now. The debate is who is a better player and in my opinion Melo and Kobe are better offensively than Harden.
