Why do we have to be clueless when we will never know and it's everyone's opinion with a mountain of evidence to prove both sides points of view. I just prefer defenders over offensive players that chose to play D on occassion. I think George moves better without the ball and the ball doesn't stick when it hits his hands. A lineup with George, Parson, Beverely, TJ and Dwight. Bottom line, I enjoy Harden's game and just wish he would commit more to the defensive side and moving the ball.
Dwight helps Harden and vice versa. Same with Kobe-Gasol. Better offensive players, especially post players, equal shots that are more "open". More makeable. Paul's FG and 3PT% would increase. Also, Harden isn't passing to Dwight "mostly" on PnR's or any other time.
give the ball to pg and let him take us to the win in fourth quarter.......lol maybe you think parsons or jeremy can do this
Paul George is a very good #2 or #3 player on a team. He can cover a wide range of players, can lock down players when it is his focus and he is good enough offensively to require defensive attention. He would be great on the Rockets. However, his defense, while good, is very hard to quantify because so much of good defense is team related. There are too many switches now, and the fact that the Pacers defense is DESIGNED to force mid range jumpers helps George. I know Stan VanGundy believes that the ranking of Paul George in the metrics is too high. As for Harden, he is on the cusp of being a legit #1, which is a level I didnt think he could reach in college or in OKC. He is one of the 3-4 best offensive players in the NBA. His game is improving as well. You ride guys like Harden. Defensively, Harden has been substantially better since the feet and ankle issues have resolved. He still has lapses on the P&R and every few weeks has a flake game, but at this point he is not a liability on defense like he was early in the season and most of last year.
Link. I did the numbers few weeks ago. Rockets scored more and allowed slightly less. The game @PHI (overtime) helped Harden's case. Better is relative.. nowhere to go but up. Still loses he man minimum once/game. His transition d got worse. He used to at least run to the FT line, but now he barely gets passed half court. Half-assed jog.. lol.
That's just in theory, and I already said statistically Kobe' TS% did not change much when Lakers got Gasol, and that has a lot to do with the fact that his USG% remained around the same. Gasol's efficiency went up as a Laker, but his career USG% dropped by a noticeable margin. Yes, Kobe and Gasol helps each other like how Harden and Dwight help each other, but as long as you are the first option on a team, efficiency is unlikely to change much. Unless Paul George stops being first option on this team (in which case his PPG will drop), his efficiency is unlikely to change.
LOL. And Paul needs to justify his minutes by playing defense. What is your point? Harden is an elite offensive player from a scoring and playmaking stand point. Before his 31 point performance last night, and might I add, most of those in the 3rd quarter to get his team out of there funk, he had back to back double digit assist games. Something Paul George isn't good at. Playmaking. I think some of the posters get too hyped on players athletic ability then their ability to win basketball games. Put this years George on last years Rockets team and what happens? They don't make the playoffs.
Uh, yeah it would. He'd be up in the 90's like every single other rotation player on Indiania's team (including defensive stalwarts like Luis Scola - a 96 rating this year, just 1 point behind George, after having 107 last year in Phoenix. He'd go from average to around top 20 in the league like all of INdy's players, basically beocming a better defender, in terms of D-rating, than Dwight Howard - that is a ridiculous leap and obviously skewed heavily by what team you play on and the style they play. Even a well known "minus" defender can put up a good rating on a high-end defensive team - harden is no exception here. Even Indiana's "worst" defender by D-rating (LaVoy Allen, who has logged all of 7 minutes) puts up a better rating than every single other player on the Rockets team. Why do you assume this? This requires a major leap of logic and it isn't clear that it would happen at all. In fact there's many cases of it going the other way. Chris Bosh's efficiency went down when he went from slumming it with the Raptors to joining Wade and LeBron, for example as did Wade's and LeBron's. Kevin Durant played the very best basketball of his entire career when Russel Westbrook was out this year and has since fallen back to earth. Is the offensive skill set of the Rockets (less Harden) so drastically better than that of Indiana that it's going to result in a dramatic difference in terms of the shots that George gets, and a huge leap of efficiency? There really isn't any reason why playing next to Chandler Parsons (or Jeremy Lin, lol...) is going to "dramatically" improve George's 20 foot jumper. Nor is he a passer on harden's level - so he's not going to take over to point guard role that Harden plays. In short, there really isn't a compelling case to believe that Houston's offense has a dramatic effect on Harden's offensive efficiency in the same way that Indiana's defensive heavy, slow paced game distorts the D-rating of their entire roster. So it's inappropriate for you to try to compare the two - you hsould be kind of ashamed, really.
No, offensively he brings .562% TS .502% eFG Harden, on the other hand, had better shoot .600+ TS to justify minutes. And he'd better get 10+ assists if he's gonna pass to opponents then jog back slowly.
Not only should you be ashamed, your next post should be a letter of apology to the BBS. PM me when you have a draft ready so I can review it
I'm not trying to knock George's defensive ability, but the Pacer's defense is noticeably weaker without Hibbert on the floor. There's only so much one perimeter defender can do. Despite all his first team all-defense appearances, Kobe's defense the past ten years has been inconsistent at best and he's won two championships in that time. Offense is much easier to quantify and Harden is clearly a superstar in that regard. He's clutch, scores easily in iso situations, and can create for his teammates. Until George can do all that on a consistent basis I'm putting Harden over him and it's not even close.
I wouldn't say that Harden doesn't have lapses, but Harden's defense is far from bad. In fact, his Syngery defensive stats aren't far off of George's. While still not perfect, that's a far better metric than the laughable DRTG. George is no where near the scorer Harden is. He's just not.
A 90's rating would be top 5. Scola's isn't top 5 eligible. Anyone can see George is better than Harden defensively. Harden's def numbers would improve with Indy, but IND's total defense would fall. This isn't a farfetched assumption.... to the unbiased. 1) Scola is not eligible to be ahead of Dwight. 2) Dwight would be better rated if Harden didn't suck so hard. Slow jogs to mid court!! 3) Scola and all his teammates would be worse without George. It requires a major leap of logic (to you) because you're biased. It's actually VERY logical to assume players get more efficient with better offensive players around them. Does this mean it ALWAYS happens? No. But it mostly does and is a VERY logical assumption. Bosh struggled his first season in MIA and has since matched and surpassed his TOR production by far (eFG and TS%). Wade and LeBron's production went up immediately and have risen through the roof. What stats are looking at? When speaking of Paul potential offensive help, you fail to mention to main piece, Dwight. Honest overlook, huh? smh Stones. Glass houses.
People seem b to forget... PG is not stopping Durant or lebron... so his elite 1v1 defense does not mean much or more than the team. As someone mentioned... You always take Curry over Tony Allen... There's a reason for this. Because when curry gets hot you can't stop him. Yes defense does win rings... But that is TEAM defense. You still need a guy that will hit the big shots and lead the teams offense... The pacers do not have that in PG. He is young though but right now I can't see much of a argument to take him over beard... He reminds me of Arrest in his prime but way more athletic. Elite defender... But relies on a streaky shot.
Again, you do not look at context. You do know their USG% has gone down a lot right? Wade is having his most efficient season ever, but his USG% is the lowest since his rookie season. Chris Bosh's USG% is also nowhere near his USG% numbers in Toronto. When USG% goes down, efficiency tends to go up. James Harden as the third option in OKC had the highest TS% amongst any other guard in NBA history (who were eligible) and one of the highest TS% ever by any NBA player. If Paul George's USG% drops, then yes, his efficiency should go up. However, that also means his PPG goes down. There is reason why Harden is an elite scorer. He can score huge chunks of points whiles maintaining freakish efficiency.
Says the guy who "forgot" about Howard. Man this SN is funny Posters reduce themselves to comparing George's offense with Allen's. Do better Tony Allen fan? Fact is, George is far above average offensively. He's a number 2 option, forced into a #1. That alone justifies playing time.
