Does Harden have the potential to be better than T-Mac in his prime?

Are you for serious? Look at tmacs stats at age 23 and look at harden'sunset at age 23. Tmac had court vision and playmaking abilities.

 

we got tmac prime, obviously his stats were different cause he had to play with yao and a different coach, jvg.
but we thought we were going to beat dallas after mcgrady dunked on shawn bradley.

in tmac's prime, whether you argue it was his stat filling seasons with orlando or his first two years as a rocket, his team playoff accomplishments were nothing.

harden has already seen the nba finals. we need a leader that's been there before.

 

Hopefully better health than Tmac

 

Oh god no. T-Mac was unconscious that year in Orlando. I cant see harden scoring 60 ever

 

Do people really hate T-Mac that much here?

How could T-Mac's dominating season be dismissed as a "fluke" when he was doing it, not for 1 or 10 games but a whole season? Harden has scored his 25+ ppg for what, 25 games?

And what, T-Mac had less of an all around skillset and playmaking than Harden? Are you sure you have ever watched T-Mac played?

 

I'd venture to say more young players who play at Harden's level at this stage in their careers go on to improve or at least maintain that level throughout their prime years. *That's* the norm: better play and increased comfort on the basketball court through practice and experience. Observable, quantifiable improvement over time. It's the Tyreke Evans / Tracy McGrady one-good-season players who are few and far between. This is my point, essentially. Why do we have any reason to believe James Harden will bomb out the way very few players have? Is it that Rockets fans saw this rare thing happen with McGrady and so are a little historically apprehensive when it comes to getting excited over high-scoring wing players? That I could at least understand.

 

And character. And work ethic. And adaptability.

 

No way. Young T-Mac was one of the most naturally gifted players, like ever. There was nothing Tracy couldn't do at an elite level; passer, playmaker, scorer, court vision, athleticism, hell he even played great defense when he felt like it.

 

T-mac in his prime all day every day... Get a time machine and grab the T-mac from Orlando and dump T-mac from China back to Orlando... T-mac/yao/Harden/Lin would win rings...

 

geez louis...TMAC never played with durant and westbrook...the thunder are doing just as well with kevin martin replacing harden....

this is like saying KG was never a leader before he got spreewelll and cassell or went to boston...

Basketball is a team game.

 

Tmac, is that you? How are you doing in China right now?

 

I am just kidding. Tmac had the best hardware, just his software sucks, it has all kinds of bugs.

 

he was a better playmaker than Kobe. these ppl are smoking crack

 

Well already at age 23, Harden is better than Tmac when he first arrived to Houston. Yes Tmac was an amazing player but I thin the difference between them is that Harden is more efficient and can get to the rim better while Tmac takes a lot of jump shots. The only thing that Tmac has an advantage over Harden is his length.

But Harden is able to play much longer and still be successful as he gets older because of the style he plays while Tmac relies too much on his athleticism and quickness. That's why when he had that surgery, his game fell off so quickly.

 

You guys must have never watched Tmac in his prime. Yes, Tmac did settle for a lot of jumpers, but that was because he of his injuries.

Go look at clips or games of Tmac when he was in Toronto and Orlando. He attacked the basket no less than Kobe/LBJ.

I love Harden, but he will never be a game changer like Tmac, Kobe, or LBJ. He is a tier below those guys, and there isnt anything wrong with that.

 

Using player ratings from here:

 

Ah, a T-Mac thread in the GARM.

I'll leave this in here.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oleKfixy-7A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

TMac was projected by some coming in the league to be a pg. He had great court vision and excellent size to see over defenders, excellent at taking it to the basket, and could shoot over top of anyone trying to guard him, and supreme athleticism. Harden will never have that athletisism to be able to go over anyone and shoot over anyone. Harden does have great ability to take it to the hole and excellent at drawing foul. I think harden can finish his career with better numbers than TMac (if he can stay healthy) but as far as being better than prime TMac I personally don't see it. Harden has a bright future and all but still needs to work on his shot IMO. Sure he can get hot and looks the part but if not his ability to get to the line we would be seeing considerably less points from him. In couple years he will be the best sg in the game IMO so I am not trying to knock him, I just feel Tmac in his prime was top 3 player in the game. If he can get a Kobe midrange game to add to his already great ability of taking it to the hole he will be unstoppable and certainly top 5 player

 

Yao Ming had the same record though. Oh wait, he did have that one year he reached 2nd round before he broke his foot, does that mean he's absolved of all sins while Tmac is this perennial loser? The problem with most of the NBA fans is they want to attribute team accomplishments to one person. MJ won all his rings by himself, Tmac couldn't do anything his entire career. This may be the popular opinion, but it doesn't make it right, especially when Deron Wiliams had Memhet Okur, Kirlenko and Boozer to help him while Tmac has an injured/recovering Yao Ming, Juwon Howard and Luther Head.

My personal opinion is that while Tmac had a ton of talent, he had two faults:
1. He never worked on his game
2. He never drove to the basket

So while he was more talented than Harden, I think the current Harden is so much better than even Prime Tmac because Harden is a master at making an impact even when his shot isn't falling. Tmac had awesome playmaking skills, but he never learned how to play off the ball and that limited his scoring oppportunities when his J isn't falling. He also didn't drive to the basket so when the defense clamped down, he couldn't "will" his way to a win like the rest of the true superstars. In the beginning of his career Tmac was a hellacious defender, but he was like that for only 1 season and then later on he became a negative defender so I don't really consider that.

 

tmac, its not an arguable topic