Isiah on Harden and Lin: Could be the best backcourt in the NBA

Just to add
GSW backcourt both avg. over 36 min. per game
If lin played over 36 min. per game his Win/share would be 6.5

For the people that said Harden is the same as Ellis

Ellis has the 4th best Win/Share on his TEAM at 4.1

 

I seriously don't know how he's an athlete being 6'7 and 175 lbs.

 

Lin was ranked #9 and Curry #6 amongst point guards by Hollinger last year. The statement may not be as bold as you thought.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/position/pg/year/2012

 

If Lin had a 45% Mid range Game, his Fg% would be over 50%, so thats not going to happen

 

I think the thing that people are forgetting is that when LeBron and Wade got together in Miami that they were both further along in their development than either Harden or Lin.

BOTH of these players have massive potential to grow and improve, so to say that either player is incapable of doing this or that is too early, imo.

With Harden's defense, especially, I keep wondering if that's a matter of the heavy minutes he'd been asked to play; remember that, despite Harden's awesomeness this year, he's NEVER PLAYED this many minutes before, and likely was conditioned for only about 33min. Whereas he's actually hovering around 40min most games.

I think next year we'll see huge improvements from this backcourt, just based on health and conditioning improvements alone.

tl;dr, I'm really excited for the future guys. :grin:

 

just to piggyback on your statement

Thompson has a 12.8 PER, he's not jumping anybody

 

I wish people would stop propagating this myth that Isiah Thomas was a terrible talent evaluator. Was he the best GM? No of course not but people act like he doesn't have an eye for talent.

Working for Toronto he drafted Damon Stoudamire with their first their first ever pick, who went on to win Rookie of the Year. Also he drafted Tracy McGrady with the 9th pick in the 1997 Draft and the year after that got Marcus Camby with the 2nd pick.

At the Knicks, he found players like Trevor Ariza (43rd pick), David Lee who's now an all-star (30th pick), and Wilson Chandler (23rd pick).

Does he give out some bad contracts or make some pick bad picks? Of course but what GM hasn't. But people act like this guy is the worst GM in the history of sports.

 

I really think it is because of all the minutes he has to play. Does anyone remember last year when he was on OKC? He took on the best man when Thabo went out. There is a reason many were surprised by his defense. I do realize that the team defense makes everyone look better. But if you saw last year compared to this year, he was physically denying the ball whereas this year, it almost looks like he is trying to help rebound to start a break.

 

He is the worst GM in sports history, that much cannot be denied. Even McSuccess was not such an unmitigated disaster and he still managed to put Minnesota in 15 years+ of BBALL wilderness.

 

So these players that he found still means he can't evaluate basketball talent at all?

 

LMAO yeah right

 

Do you really want me to take out all the famous bad contracts Isiah Thomas gave out when he was the man calling the shots? Isiah Thomas a good talent evaluator...cruel joke on millions of knicks fans (not that I have any sympathy for them).

 

Oh, he knew talent alright. But he was totally s*ite at management and contracts. Textbook on how not to give out bad contracts or mismanage a team.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-thomasknicks110810

 

http://dimemag.com/2010/08/isiah-thomas-nba-draft-genius-one-of-the-leagues-biggest-myths/

 

Waiters and Irving is possibly the worst defensive backcourt in the NBA... with GS being the second worse.

I agree that Ginobili and Parker is exceptional.

 

Agreed.... but Harden has the potential to be an above average defender at a minimum, and we cannot say that about Martin.

Honestly though, backcourt defense is over rated in many cases.. especially in the new NBA.

 

What's the season series in head to head matches with GSW.

 

There are a ton of GMs that have given out terrible contracts, why is Isiah Thomas targeted so much for it. Even Morey has had decisions like Thabeet, Flynn, Royce White, Ariza. I'm not saying he was a good GM far from it, but he does have an eye for talent.

The Yahoo article you posted is just an attack on Isiah Thomas without much statistics or facts. As for the dime magazine article, it just lists Isiah Thomas's accomplishments as a talent evaluator and tries to discredit each and every one of them.

 

Layden was every bit as bad.