That doesn't mean he's a better offensive player than Harden. James Harden has more steals than George, it doesn't mean he's a better defender. There are a lot of games where Harden is just fine on defense and people will just go at him and blame him because of some gif they've seen of him.
George is shooting the best of his career, Harden is in an obvious 3pt shooting slump, and Harden is still more efficient (.587 TS vs Harden's .600). Even if George finally took a step up in his offensive game, he's still not as good at creating shots as James.
This is why George has a back to the basket game. Postup game that Harden doesn't have. You don't need to create shots when you can play with your back to the basket.
one is a two way player and one is not. I understand that may be oversimplifying it, but this is how I think of the the comparison every time i watch a pacers game, and then watch a rockets game. Harden does seem to struggle a bit towards the end of games too, where george seems to be pretty clutch.
You do know George shoots more than Harden don't you...? Harden doesn't shoot as much as George. And Indiana struggles to score as a team which means George doesn't elevate the play of his teammates offensively (ranked around 20th in the league and odds are against a team winning a championship with such a low ranked offense regardless of how good their defense is). George had to take 26 shots to score 35 points against NYC... Yikes (ball hog allert). And he went to the line 12 times as well so Harden isn't the only guy who gets to the free throw line. And LeBron averaged 29 ppg on 51% from the field during the playoffs against George so I don't know about that "ELITE" defender stuff... And this comparison should be between George and Parsons since they have the same body types and both play the same position and he's treated like a star around here.
Paul George has a good post up game, something that Harden has been practicing with Hakeem, but hasn't shown any of so far. A post up guard can do wonders in spreading the floor and getting high percentage shots for everyone. Kobe won multiple rings doing just that. Harden's ISO crossover moves aren't fooling anyone anymore.
Its not even close at the moment. Paul George is becoming an all round player that is a true leader for a team that plays team ball.
This is the thing that I want to see from George. I want to see how he plays against others at his positions and if he's going to go toe to toe with the Durants and Lebrons... Usually when he plays against a good SF he more like neutralizes them...The Knicks game was the moment I saw a superstar player because Melo was actually winning that matchup and then George just goes off to get his team the W. Because yeah, Lebron destroyed this dude numerous times. Nothing wrong with that but it is what it is. Meanwhile if you look at the games Harden had with a Key matchup he looked like clearly the better player. That's why he was ranked the best SG in the NBA. He went up against Kobe and Wade last year and he took it to those guys. I remember the game against the Heat he had a monster game and by the end of the game they had Lebron guarding Harden and Harden guarded Lebron. I just want people to understand that Harden is not playing well by his own standards, the standard he set last year...but he's still playing like a top NBA player averaging 24ppg, if he starts playing like he did last year it'll be scary what he can do on offense.
Paul George is clearly running away from it. I still think individually, James is the better offensive player but not nearly at the margin that Paul's defense is over James's D. I think Paul is the 2nd best perimeter defender in the league, and a top 5-8 offensive swingman.
The pacers are far worse, and the Rockets are much better off. Defensively, we go from average to top 5. Offensively, we go from top 1 or 2 to top 5. George can be that all-around playmaker; scorer and playmaker. Not quite as good as Harden, but he's close. Far closer than Harden is to George's rebounding, defense, and tenacity.
Paul George and it isn't even close. Just looking at offense they're around the same, but even then Harden doesn't seem to be as clutch as George is.
my opinion is that it's not too difficult to find a very good scorer at Harden's size and position. Yes, Harden is really good. but you can find someone almost as good very easily. Finding another George is probably a bit more difficult.
Is this a serious thread? Paul George is arguably the 2nd best player in the NBA behind Lebron. Yes I put George on the same level with Durant. George is the 2nd best 2 way player in the NBA, and he will only get better. Dude has Tmac type offensive potential but with way better defense and heart. Think about that for a moment... Tmac with defense and heart yes that is Paul George potential.
i don't think it's arguable that Paul George is the 2nd best player. The key thing about george right now is that he's young, and has potential. But for the year, is he the 2nd best player behind lebron? you really can't argue that and expect to win that argument.
I don't think so... The Pacers would still be a top ten defense with Harden. But they would become a top 5 offense moving up from #20. Plus Harden would have a better coach and Larry Bird to learn from... He would have a 7'2 center and a all star caliber power forward and a bunch of dogs around him on defense. They would definitely blow by Miami... George in Houston... And George likes to dominate the ball. With McHale as the coach _ competing for 7th-8th seed...
