Great random dog days topic I find myself daydreaming about this all the time We never really got to see it all together, but I still wonder how far the TMac Yao Artest core could have gone if healthy Now my new daily prayer is that we, the long-suffering Rockets fans, are justly rewarded by the universe for our loyalty with a perfectly healthy 2016 season, to finally see what the new Harden D12 Lawson core can really do I'm talking a PORT 2014 or GS 2015 run of GOOD luck health wise After the past 15 yrs of bad injury karma, we are due As for the debate ... individually I'd take Harden over TMac & Dwight over Yao, so as a pair it's the current duo in a landslide As aelliott pointed out, Harden is a better player right now than TMac ever was in Htown McGrady's 1 huge advantage over James is LENGTH This made him a better: - rebounder (able to rise above crowd inside) - more versatile defender (James could never lock down SS PF like 2006 Dirk) - post entry passer (height to see over front) - contested jump shooter (only Sheedy had a more unblockable jumper when he decided to just raise up and release from the top) Length is, of course, a huge advantage in basketball But it was what TMac lacked inside that makes me prefer James The guts and grit he showed in carrying this team last season is the opposite of TMac's well known leadership style Still not a coincidence that Yao's only taste of 2nd Rd happened when Tracy was out As for Dwight over Yao, his elite Def presence is more valuable to me than Yao's elite Off presence at C position To me, Dwight has no Def weaknesses, whereas Yao's dominance as a post scorer was tainted with a major, critical flaw ... Teams could front him w athletes, where his lack of foot speed and quickness made him an afterthought in crunch time Dwight has a similar crippling crunch time flaw - FTs To me, these 2 are a wash And despite Yao's superior Off skills, his overall career scoring avg is still very similar to Dwight's (the supposed clearly inferior Off player) All that skill only matters when it becomes points on the scoreboard, and for all his gifts, Yao wasn't THAT much better than Dwight ... it just looked much prettier The difference is on D, where Yao's slow feet also presented major issues on switches, P&Rs, and perimeter D overall Dwight has no such Def weaknesses, where his poor shooting touch and bad hands become irrelevant Health makes this a landslide for both
for what it's worth (and goes against what Tinman is saying) a famous pro rookie basketball player thinks that T-Mac could have been better then Kobe. And recent analysis of their two primes back those facts up.
Hardens season last year was better than any year Mac had in Houston thats not even debatable. Yao, yes he def had better years or should I say half years than DH so far. It's debatable that hardens season last year is better than tmacs 32ppg season in Orlando if you account that hardens efficiency was much better and avg slightly more assists. I really like tmac but man harden is actually a lot better offensivly than Mac every dreamed of being. I think us fans take it for granted what harden is doing at such a young age. Stat wise when coupled with his efficiency harden is at a top 10 level all time on the offensive side of the ball. He's very special on offense. Just to put things in perspective, through the first 8 games of the playoffs harden stats were tied with Larry bird and they were the only guys to even have that type of numbers in the playoffs. Not LeBron not kobe not MJ just harden and bird. Harden can be great like top 15-20 player all time if he can put it all together because he has flashes ofollowers play that nobody outside of lebron can even touch not even Kd can do some of the things harden can do.
Taking all players in their prime and healthy, definitely Yao and TMac...too bad they were never healthy together But at the same time not sure if Harden has peaked yet...
Not in their peaks fellas, just as a Rocket and for those who don't know, Yao and T-Mac were healthy in both 04-05 and 06-07 by the play-offs. Also, this is not as easy as some make it out to be. I've changed my stance quite a few times during this discussion and if you are open, I'd hope people would at least see it's not that easy to call.
If we are talking about their primes, it isn't close. Dwight reached the finals, won DPOY and should have been MVP in his most dominant season. Harden practically won the scoring title, finished 2nd in MVP voting in his best year, yet hasn't peaked yet. I love Yao and Tmac. They were physical freaks of nature and had some fantastic individual years, but their peaks simply don't measure. Having said that, if you only compare their tenure as Rockets, things get hazy.
In their peaks I still think it's very difficult because Dwight was better, but T-mac in his prime was crazy good as well. Harden is however arguably not even in his prime and already leading in a way that T-mac never could. Yao was not better than Dwight in his prime, but still 1-on-1, I could see myself taking Yao because of how he owned him: <script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fplay-index%2Fh2h_finder.cgi%3Frequest%3D1%26p1%3Dmingya01%26p2%3Dhowardw01&div=div_stats"></script>
True, head to head Yao always had Dwight's number and I believe Tmac would have done a solid job on Harden. But from my understanding, the question wasn't asking how they would fare vs each other.
Had we lost game 6 against LAC, everybody would be talking about Austin Rivers embarrassing James Harden. Harden had a great regular season but a overall mediocre postseason. Also his 13 turnovers still baffles me. Tmac didn't have as good roster but was a overall better player than James. The difference is health. Hardens more durable.
My choice was Yao & Tmac. Harden and Tmac are very close. I may even give the slight edge to Harden. But my goodness, Yao destroyed Dwight and was a far far superior player than Dwight. The only thing Dwight is better is athleticism. Not having even a decent post game and the inability to shoot FT's is a major detriment but I still love the guy.
I love the "had we" bs. Had Lillard not made that prayer we may have won the series and we may have gone even further that year. But guess what? He did make it so who freaking cares about the what if. We won game 6. Harden had an unreal regular season and a not as good but a very good postseason. Keep doubting Harden though, he has a way of making his doubters look foolish year after year.
If we're picking who I think would win in a 2 vs 2 matchup I'm taking Yao and Tmac, but who would I take to start a team to face the rest of the league? Gotta be H and H.
You do realize harden put up 20+ Points 14 straight games to start the playoffs and in the span only failed to register 6+ assists once? He had 4 double digit asisst games and three 9 assist games, two of those being one assist away from a triple double, while having a triple double in the Clippers series. It's a myth that harden had a poor playoffs it's just not factual. Yes he had two very bad games against GSW but outside of those two games he scored and assisted over 20+ and 6+ in 14/17 games and the one game he only assisted 3 times he still had over 20 points. Every player is going to struggle a few games when u play deep into the postseason. My and tmac never did because he never played more than 7 games in a single playoffs. Just facts bro
Straight out of clutchcity Crazy 99er named tinman From board called clutchfans When I'm called off i go off Tofs and lofs get hauled off You too if you mess with clutch city You better quit like mcgrady Jeremy lin bad pass, you better duck Cause 99ers like heyparter are crazy as chuck Barkley. As i leave, i show no pity Boy, 99ers come straight outta Clutch city
