Harden has not had the best of starts...yet still averaging 25ppg and shooting over 50%. So if THIS is Harden playing bad, then him playing great would mean a MVP type season. Also it SEEMS Paul George works harder on his game because he had a lot more to work on coming into the league.
Probably talent wise Harden is better than George, but George works Hard so he has potential to be better than Harden.
Paul George also has an excellent coach and he has Bird in his ear. Those guys know how to work with young players. He also has a 7'2 shot blocking machine in Roy and a excellent PF in West playing behind him... That's a team full of defense. But I think it's on the coaching. Look at Parsons. Look at his defense. He doesn't have the same discipline he did as a rookie on the defensive end. And if McHale really cared about defense _ he would slow the ball down on offense _ work the clock and conserve energy for defense. I'm going to come back to this thread after the Rockets and Indy play each other... And discuss it then when they blow Indy out... Lol...
George is an elite defender with average offensive skills. Harden is an elite offensive player with terrible defensive skills. On that alone i'd pick George for my franchise. But the one thing I'd say is more important here is his effort, on-court demeanor and character. After watching George for a couple years now, this guy actually leaves it all on the floor, night in and night out, no excuses from him. You're also seeing him improve in alot of areas every season. If I was a player, id want to play with a guy who I know will have my back every night and would put as much effort as I would, superstar or not. As much as i'm a Rockets fan, i'm not a fan of Harden nor McHale. I mean, who is the leader on this team? I'm certainly not going to listen to the guy who picks and chooses when to play defense, nor am I going to listen to a guy who preaches this and that after post games, but doesn't get consistent results.
Well, the important thing is for the Rockets to be the best team, it doesn't really matter whether Harden is better than George or not. Rockets have an elite offensive potential as well as a very good defensive potential and I think they can eventually become a better championship contender than the Pacers who excel at defense, but aren't quite that good on the offensive end. Sidenote: an identical poll to this one on a neutral forum has 10% for Harden and 90% for George.
And I'm sure the Pacers would be just fine if they had Harden instead of George. Probably win a chip. And if the Rockets had George with McHale here. We would still be a playoff team.
Harden does not work hard? So I guess his rise to being a superstar just fell into his lap right? This reminds me of all that 'Yao is soft' criticism. A bunch of fans used to say this stuff that Yao was soft only because of his demeanor. Harden has a laid-back personality, so people just suspect that he doesn't care or doesn't work hard and that's just silly. If you have any evidence to support that he doesn't work hard then feel free, but otherwise it should not be included in any player argument. The basis of Paul George working hard seems to be that he got better. Well he had a lot more room to grow.
LOL...you can't make that argument after what we saw happen to Harden after the Clipper and Portland game. You saw what Paul George did vs Miami last year right? Obviously Harden is the better playmaker and but both sides of the ball, have to take George for now.
He certainly doesnt work hard on defense during games on a consistent basis. The evidence is all over YouTube.
Oops, the reputation of the German newspaper takes a hit!! :grin: Acronym-filled naming-calling is not good for mental health! OP: Right now George because he plays D and he took his team to the conference finals. They're gonna be good with Grainger back. The player with the higher ceiling is Harden. Hopefully he doesn't have to shoulder too much burden and proves that he can play with other good players.
Coaching has a lot to do with defense, and team defense is tons more important than individual defense. This is why a guy who is just a lock down defender on the perimeter isn't even a all-star player in the NBA. Those guys are just role players. Well we will see. The one thing that makes a superstar a superstar is these guys GOING up against superstars and winning those battles. George hasn't done that yet. Harden has. We've seen Harden embarrass other superstar players. We've seen him take it to the heat, frustrate the hell out of Kobe, style on the thunder, etc. George hasn't had those games yet, outside of the playoff match-up in Miami. Also I am not surprised a neutral from would vote like that. Laker fans hate Harden because Dwight chose him over Kobe, Heat fans hate Harden because they think Wade is still better, and Thunder fans are the same. Everyone else thinks he's a flopper, so he gets a lot of unecessary hate much like Chris Paul. Haters gonna hate.
Wait Harden played well in that Portland game. He didn't shoot the 3 well but he got 33 pts on 62% shooting.
Neither was Kobe. Yet he's dominated his position for what must be a decade now. I don't give a flip about it right now, just bring it when the team needs it. No one knows Harden's body better than Harden, who is playing the most minutes in the NBA...so sometimes he's going to look fatigued, sloppy, whatever during a 82 game season.
It's not about who is better it's about the line up that mchale would use, Paul Plays both sides of the floor, and is a parsons times 10 because not only is he a glue guy he can create his own shot, & can guard lebron, Durant, harden etc bev + George = no Lin + George = hell yes *howard, Lin, George, bev a PF* would guarantee a coming out the west*
The last time PG met Durant, Durant went off for 34 points shooting over 60% PG on the other hand did not fare so well. The great thing about players like Durant and Lebron is that there is no defense that can stop them...they just get cold for a moment. There is no PG on Durant, there is a Pacers on Durant. You need team defense to stop any true elite offensive player, not just one guy. Lebron pretty much dominated George. PG's team won but it wasn't because he was outplaying Lebron, it was more because the heat's bigs were being outplayed by Roy Hibbert.
He is not just going to just shut him down of course but he will do Bette than any of our permittee defenders, who in the hell would stop lebron on the rockets ?
George is nowhere near Harden on the offensive side. Not enough games to judge this year. When you have to carry a offense on your own like Harden last year its only so much you can give on each side. Harden should be able to expend more of his juice on the defensive side as more offense developes around him.
You know how I know your a LOH? Because you are the first to bring up LOFs in a Harden vs George thread.
Best way to stop a superstar player is have a player that can match his output and play great defense. If it was possible for perimeter defenders to completely stop elite offensive players guys like Tony Allen would make multiple all-star games instead of being relegated to just being really good role players.
