Hakeem never became the great player that you remember until he was 31. Before that, his team frequently missed playoffs or got eliminated in the 1st round. Hakeem in regular season was nothing exceptional, he was individually great, but his team didn't win that much. The fact that Harden has already led his team to the 3rd and 5th highest winning record (56, 54 wins) in the rockets franchise history proves Hakeem's team didn't have that much of success in the regular season.
Yes I was. I'm not that old, but was a NBA fan since very young, and remember how it was in the early 90s pretty clearly.
yes, but I also remember this TS% James Harden 60.5% Hakeem Olajuwon 55.3% Career Avg. Offensive Rating James Harden 117 Hakeem Olajuwon 108 Career High Offensive Rating James Harden 125 Hakeem Olajuwon 114 Career Avg. Offensive Box Plus Minus James Harden 5.4 Hakeem Olajuwon 1.1 Career High Offensive Box Plus Minus James Harden 7.4 Hakeem Olajuwon 3.0 Career Avg. Offensive Win Shares James Harden 8.2 Hakeem Olajuwon 3.8 Career High Offensive Win Shares James Harden 12.2 Hakeem Olajuwon 7.9
It gets old seeing Tinman act like any of you young guys that didn't witness the greatness of Dream act like you don't know anything. BUT With a statement like this I can get on board with him sometimes. If you thought Robinson was better than Dream during the regular season you never watched them play or you didn't understand what you were watching.
And what have those numbers achieved for the city of Houston? At the end of the day, Harden's success depends on a third party that he has no say in... the refs and their willingness to fall for Harden's flop antics. It has been shown time and time again that when the refs don't buy Harden's antics, he has games where he struggles quite horribly.
All he is saying is that Harden is bad-ass. THis isn't about dissing Hakeem. It's about defending Harden. Harden has great potential, he can put the numbers up. Now let's help him get the right pieces and coaching in place so he can get some MVP's - in the finals. You don't get to decide who is a fan or not. And it's shameful that you take a guy who is just trying to make a point about how good Harden is and turn it into blasphemy. Look bud, I get what you were trying to say - that Harden is a great player and he did everything he did, and if you look at his stats, he plays amazing and is on Hakeem level. You weren't trying to say he had a better year than Hakeem. But then you try to defend your point but actually by bringing in David Robinson and Hakeem being selfish in his career doesn't come across right. I am the biggest Hakeem fan there is, I became a Rockets fan because we got Hakeem. I am an HOF, and that predates Tinman being born. Here's my advice to you - dont' take this too far. Stick with your original point that you are making about Harden - which is a fair point around him having Hakeem like numbers.
Individually wise, those two were pretty toe-to-toe in the regular season. What give D-Rob an edge his his team record. San Antonio routinely kicked Houston's ass in the early to mid 90s during the regular season. That's why Hakeem's revenge in the playoffs was so great, but that doesn't mean Hakeem was a player better during the regular season.
Between the team winning 2 playoff series in the last decade and you telling everyone to move on because they're not your brand of fan, it's a wonder anyone bothers to show up to post here at all.
Hey pull up the stat on how many plays Har()en QUIT on defense on a turnover HE created vs how Dream had. Oh, I can give you the Dream # bc it's a solid 0!! Not sure I can count that high with Har()en.....
No it isn't because even if we acknowledge that Harden was every bit as good as an offensive anchor as Hakeem was, we are still comparing one of the worst defenders in the league to one of the the if not the greatest defender in NBA HISTORY. Hakeem is a couple of stratospheres ahead of Harden. This is a joke.
The original comparison was about regular season performance, maybe you should learn to read sometimes. Harden doesn't need FTs to be considered an elite scorer. If you take away 8.8 free throw points from the Harden's season average 29, it still leaves him with 20.2 That is STILL THE THIRD HIGHEST POINTS PER GAME behind Curry and Durant, if you take away the free throws points from all the other players in the league. But, what about the shooting efficiency tho, right? For that we should look at eFG% since the regular FG% does no justice to a player like Harden who attempts a lot of 3s in a game. For example, Ray Allen's regular FG% is nothing special at 45%, doesn't mean he was a mediocre shooter. That's what happens when take shoot a lot of 3s, since it's more difficult to make than 2s, obviously, but is still worth it because making 4 threes is same as making 6 twos, saving you two possessions while scoring just as much. Among the Top 10 scorers in the regular season, Harden's eFG% is 4th highest at 51.2%. That's better than AD, Westbrook, Lillard, Cousins, Paul George and DeRozan. Harden is more efficient shooter than, believe it or not, Kobe, Wade, T-Mac and Iverson.
I'm just trying to be objective. The moment someone compares Harden to MJ or even Kobe, I will be the first one to argue against Harden. I go by the facts, not emotions. I'm a huge fan of Hakeem too, but Hakeem had his fair share of drawbacks, and is not above comparison with Harden if we are talking about regular season performance.
Since when facts became joke? 93-94 Hakeem Olajuwon vs 14-15 James Harden PPG Harden > Hakeem RPG Hakeem > Harden APG Harden > Hakeem SPG Harden > Hakeem BPG Hakeem > Harden FG% Hakeem > Harden TS% Harden > Hakeem PER Hardern > Hakeem Ortg Harden > Hakeem Drtg Hakeem > Harden Net Rating Harden > Hakeem WS Harden > Hakeem WS/48 Harden > Hakeem BPM Harden > Hakeem VORP Harden > Hakeem
If the refs don't fall for Harden's antics of arm flailing to the line and his free throws get reduced to a non historic pace do you know what number will go up? His turnovers because on many of those plays where he gets the foul call, if the refs didn't call it, he has the ball stripped from him on many of those plays. He already broke a record for most turnovers in a season at 4.7. If the refs don't fall for Harden's antics for an entire season that number would go above 5. I love how you just flat out ignore his historic turnover pace and his horrible defense.
Absolutely wrong. Isn't a shot fake a form of deceiving someone? what about a crossover? Hakeem's Dream Shake was all about misdirection and pretending to go one way instead of the other. It's no different than what Harden does. Most of the Harden's FTs come from drawing legit contact by cajoling the defenders to reach in. Sometimes it get's a little bit fishy, for sure, but those are not the majority. If Harden is so good and skilled at deceiving the defender to reach and commit fouls against him, why should that be held against him? And if it was so easy, most of the players in the league would be doing it by now, since free throws are one of the most efficient ways to score. Dismissing it as dirty tricks just because it's aesthetically unpleasing to the ordinary fans is just foolish. By the way, Harden is an elite scorer even without the free throws. If you think Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Demarcus Cousins and Russell Westbrook are elite offensive players, you can't say Harden is nothing without the FTs, because Harden's effective FG% (which takes into account the value of 3 point shot) is just as good or even better than all of those guys, while averaging more points. The only guys that have Harden beat in terms of 'shooting efficiency' while scoring just as much are Curry, Durant and probably Lebron. So spare the hate, and give the guy some credit.
