Well it certainly could happen, Harden is young and it's not like Kobe was Micheal Jordan or anything. Last year Harden took 17 shots per game and essentially scored 26 points per game, that's crazy efficiency that Kobe rarely even sniffed in his career. If Harden can fix his problem with turnovers there will absolutely be an argument that he's a better offensive player than Kobe ever was. Think about it, if Harden jacked up 27 shots per game, don't you think he could score 35 points per game?
I thought they thought it was a silly comment because of how vague and overbroad it was. It would be like if I said if Harden could make his defense much better and increase his PPG, he could be better than MJ ever was. I mean, I guess that is technically possible if Harden increased his PPG by 10 and got his defense to Lebron's level...but what a random and arbitrary comment.
That's fair, but I believe it's a lot more likely that Harden cuts down on turnovers and ends up as a better offensive player than Kobe ever was than it is that he drastically improves every part of his game in order to compare to Jordan or Lebron.
Yeah, that is probably very true. Kobe is a much more attainable goal, though Kobe is quite a beast unto himself. The Black Mamba is still one of the best players of all time, and certainly one of the top players of this current generation. If Harden can get to that level of fame (or notoriety haha), then I would be one happy cookie, assuming he does it in a Rockets jersey
Indeed...this is how I saw it. Let's let Harden put up more than 1 season of high productivity before we start saying he's as good as other all-time greats please.
No question about it. I was initially skeptical of Harden, but he really proved himself last year. If he keeps it up he should be pretty much unanimously considered the best SG in the league now that Wade is on the decline and Kobe's career is over.
Imo he's already not that far off, he doesn't need to average 10 points more. Even in Kobe's prime his TS% has never come close to the TS% Harden put up this season, but obviously alot of that has to do with the fact Kobe scored more (obviously more shots you take, the harder it is to be efficient). Lets say Harden becomes a 30ppg scorer, while cutting down his turnovers to 3 per game, and continuing to excel as a pick and roll operator (ranks 5th according to Synergy Sports) and continuing to hover around that 60% TS mark or higher--that would be enough for me to confidently say Harden is a better offensive player than Kobe ever was.
for me, volume scorer <> chunker. volumn scorer is the one who take lots of shots, use a lots possessions which is not a bad thing. a fouled shot attempts still a possessions that's why i think we should include it. for comparison Code: Name TS% FGA possession Melo 56.00% 22 25 Harden 60.01% 17 21 Kobe 57.02% 20 23
There really are only a few Rockets fans who actually believe Harden inefficient. However, it is still true that Harden's game is not complete. And that he can widen his offensive game to become less likely to be stymied by some defenders.
Would like to see him more try and finish strong rather than just attempt to draw the foul, but im really nitpicking here.
This is true only if you don't include LOFs. I suppose by specifying "Rockets fans" that you could be leaving them out, but not sure. The LOF/YOF type seem to disappear in the summer for some reason.
Harden is one of the most efficient shooter/scorers I have ever seen, reminds me of Andrew Toney. I would be curious if there were a stat that factors in turnovers, though. Both Harden and Toney (early in his career) had some turnover issues. Also, passing to a teammates with <5 seconds on the shotclock and/or holding the ball for more than 5 seconds should count as some kind of partial turnover. Have no idea if a stat manages to capture that.
No, but he scores almost half his points at the charity stripe. So if the refs turn a don't buy his "arm rake" ... it essentially becomes a turnover, and Harden ends up scoring < 20 pts for the game.
We can all cry about the sky is falling when it actually happens. As of now, he still has a TS% of 60%.
Yes, I'm excluding obvious trolls. Other than those with agendas, I do believe there are some fans who still care enough about traditional FG% to find Harden inefficient.
Harden was super efficient when he was with the Thunder. He was still super efficient when he was with us until about half to two-thirds into the season. His efficiency dropped who knows why. Some say it's fatigue. Some say it's injury. Some say it's the superstar thing has got into his head. Some say the refs stopped sending him to the FT line. Whatever it is, I am very confident that he will be super efficient again when next season starts. We'll see if he can sustain it through the whole season on heavy minutes.
