excuses, excuses i thought kawhi was a ROBOT who bled oil isnt that what bspn was shouting hahahah harden shoved 43 up his ass
The offenses are just too different to meaningfully make comparisons like this, IMO. Harden has to do a lot more on offense, which relegates the other players to a supporting role. For the Spurs, they're all cogs in a machine.
The NBA is pushing Kawhi the same way they did Curry two years ago. He is not a better player than Harden, but for some reason it is apparent that the NBA does not, and will not ever see Harden as a great player and the face of the league. It is blatantly obvious they're backtracking from their Curry love-fest because it's become blatantly obvious he is nowhere near the best player in the league. On to the next one. Which will never be Harden.
i'll just say there is a reason why markelle fultz is the consesus number 1 pick in this upcoming nba draft and josh jackson is seen as top 3.. Harden is a unique talent, and a franchise game changer
Kawhi and Lebron have been the two best players in the playoffs. I'm still shocked by how good he is offensive. And it's freaking ISO ball offense too.
Per possession production in the playoffs: RkPlayerGMPFGAFG%3PA3P%2PA2P%FTAFT%ORBDRBASTSTLBLKTOVPFPTSORtgDRtg1James Harden829227.8.40613.5.27514.3.52916.0.9050.86.210.82.90.56.74.940.81141072Kawhi Leonard933724.6.5456.9.51217.7.55913.1.9511.68.67.02.60.53.22.642.8141107Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 5/6/2017. Kawhi has been really good.
I disagree with all of this. Wilt isn't just an athletic big. He's separated from the next athletic Center as LeBron is to Ariza. He's one of the greatest athletes of all time and he's not just a 7 footer. He'd be listed at 7'3 with today's in shoes measurements. Most 7 footers today are not even true 7 footers, they are given those 2 extra inches from shoes. Russell was another exceptional athlete who would be listed at 6'11 today. He was just under 6'10 barefoot. Not undersized for today's small ball at all. Both of these athletes would be better with today's training. They had many great Centers in the 60's. Don't tell me you're one of those "Wilt dominated a bunch of midget white guys" people.
What stands out to me is his assist number. I've been arguing that while he's not a great play maker, he's not bad either. Any perimeter player who dominates the ball will have fairly high assist number. The Spurs are having him dominate the ball much more than in the regular season.
Trying to project how a player from another era playing with different rules and with different offensive/defensive schemes would play in the modern era is a mostly fruitless exercise. If you watch old clips from the 60s when Wilt was at his most dominant, it doesn't look all that impressive to me honestly. There is also something to be said about the fact that he routinely shrunk in the playoffs. He was a remarkable physical specimen who would have been a great athlete today, especially with modern training. I'm not convinced he would be the best player in the game today, though. But if people want to say he's a top 3 greatest all time for his achievements against th competition he faced, I'd agree to that.
What stands out to me is the efficiency. An 141 offensive rating is just ridiculous. I don't know how much he's dominating the ballin the postseason compared to regular season, but his usage rate is a bit less. He's just been super efficient, which is atypical for a high usage player in the postseason.
I am not. I have been arguing against those people. But my reasoning is, if these guys come through a time tunnel to play in today's league AS THEY WERE, they wouldn't be able to dominate like they did. This is like if Jesse Owens raced with today's sprinters AS HE WAS, he wouldn't sniff their jocks. Sports evolve. If these guys got the same medical treatments, same training, same nutrition, same knowledge of the game, they'd be very good. So that's my argument. The past was inferior. The competition was much lower. But that shouldn't diminish their accomplishments because competition should be measured relative to their own era. So I don't romanticize the past like Bill Russell does. But I also appreciate what he and other basketball greats have done in their eras.
That too. But he's supposed to be efficient. That's his reputation. What's not his reputation is his play making.
Maybe what you're looking at is just the style. The dribbling of the basketball with palm down because the rules were strict on that. Maybe it's the odd shot mechanics? If it worked, it worked. But, to me, I see a physical specimen unlike any other that could average over 20 today simply on just athletic ability and playing with a decent PG that can get him the ball in the right places. If he gets deep position on anyone in any era, he's going to do that turnaround dipper he did and no one would be able to stop it. But, he wasn't all dunks and layups. He a had a post game as well. You could say the EXACT same thing about today's athletes. Throw LeBron James and Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry, etc into 1965 and they are thrown into a world they don't understand, they have to play for pennies with no tech, wearing flat footed shoes they are used to wearing for casual wear(you really think these guys would be going so fast and changing direction etc in chuck taylors? LeBron complains about sleeved compression jerseys..), and that's not even mentioning the rules. These guys would be called for turnovers every time they have the ball because they don't know how to play 1960's basketball. They'd be called for carrying violation every single time they dribbled a basketball(You really think they will be crossing anyone up if they are forced to dribble all dorky with palm down every time?). Give them the same advantage they have today and transport them to the 60's and their bodies will eventually lose muscle and lean out into runners bodies like everyone else because they won't have the access they once had to the training facilities and diets they had. But your argument for athletes evolving is one that is only through advanced training, diet and very, very likely PED's. Human evolution doesn't happen in a few decades. So my point is always that if you give all those natural athletes of the past the same access to what athletes today have and give them enough time, they will rise to the top all the same. The truly elite of any era rise to the top for a reason. I know it's hard for a lot of fans of today to look at some guy like Bob Petit who looks like some bald, hairy guy you'd see in a cheap suit selling microwaves, but give them access to everything today, and he'd evolve with the times. I mean, come on. Ryan Anderson is a starting PF making 18-20 million a year and we laugh at the idea of Petit, Cousey, West, Havlicek, etc even MAKING the NBA today. That's all bullshit and you know it. We act like there's Westbrooks and prime LeBron level athletes on every single position of every single roster. If you truly examine every roster of every era, you will find that there are only a few guys that are truly elite athletes and the rest are average to below average athletes. This goes for any era including today. Anyway, give Wilt Chamberlain access to todays diet and training and even PED's and the man would break the league IMO.
Other than L. James, only Durant has the similar impact on both ends of the floor. I'd say he is in top 3.
Stuff like this is why players today would be equally as horrible in the 60's and 70's ,etc as those players would be in today's game.
A piece I wrote on Pop/Kawhi trying to take pieces from MJ/Kobe. https://fteswl.com/2017/05/08/carry-the-torch-whi-not/
