What is up with this poll?!!! I'm not reading 14 pages, so this post is hopefully redundant. With the poll so weirdly close, felt compelled to post. The comparison made has to just be on the offensive side. When you factor in the other 50% of the game, it's not close. Not only did Hakeem give you the rim protection like a Mutombo, but he could also lock down elite big men - C or PF - during the golden age of big men. Mutombo was an amazing rim protector, but I don't know if they put him on a PF like Kemp on the most important possessions. I distinctly remember the Rockets doing that with Hakeem frequently in the '93 7 game series against the Sonics - and OT was a good defender. On offense, both players had little help. Pretty much all Rockets offense during the championships started with Hakeem. The offense was designed for him to touch the ball every possession. Single coverage and he scores. Double coverage and he kicks it out for an open three pointer. The difference with him and Harden is that Hakeem of course didn't shoot threes and Hakeem did not get to the line as much as other elite players. That used to actually bother me back in the days - why did Hakeem not get as many FTA's as Robinson or Shaq? Well, it just happened that Hakeem's go-to moves were not great at drawing fouls - the Dream Shake was fading away from the basket. You usually draw fouls when going towards the basket. But......when you NEED a basket at the end of a game, the ref might not be giving you that call. And Dream's FG% was significantly better than Harden's. So, I am more confident dumping it into Hakeem rather than giving it to Harden if I NEED a basket. So, maybe 3P's and FT's make Harden's advanced states look better than Hakeem's, but they are definitely not taking into account defense. I am very confident that no championship team - or even contender - has been as reliant on one player as the '94 Rockets. Everybody needs to bow down..
Like I said before. If you swap Harden in for Hakeem on the 94 roster, you are swapping marginally better offense(again, arguable) and at best mediocre defense while removing one of the best defensive anchors of all time. No rational person would conclude that the 94 Rockets would experiencing similar success with that swap.
Maybe not a fair comparison because we had mad Max and Drexler and no c to replace Hakeem But yeah...that team wouldn't be as good
I don't even know why someone would be a Harden only fan. What part of his game is exiting enough to warrant being a fan of?
This is a stupid argument I'm sorry. Aren't you the same person that talked about common sense earlier? No you wouldn't swap them out it's a different era and they play two different positions. The overall point is while everyone is harping on how Harden needs to do this or do that, his stats are comparable to Hakeem's MVP season. So no one is saying he's better than Hakeem but just that Harden is a damn good player and had a damn good season despite what some of your posts would allude to this season. At the end of the day the Rockets problems aren't Harden who is already producing it's that they need other to produce as well.
At the end of the day Harden was quite literally half the player Hakeem was. Half the game is played on the defensive end. At best you can muster up an argument that they were equal offensively. There is no argument you can make to mask the oceanic gap between them defensively.
The perspective here is you are trying to make an argument that Harden contributes as much as Hakeem and that Harden just needs the role players that Hakeem had when you are completely ignoring the other side of the court. You swap Harden in you arguably get marginally better offense with unarguably much worse defense. No ifs ands or buts.
Voted Harden because it's a Tinman poll, that's it. He doesn't deserve any respect for the way he acts on this forum. He's the Donald Trump of ClutchFans.
It's probably the only reason why this poll is close. Posters see Tinman post, they just have to irk him because it's fun irking Tinman. Nothing to do with the merit of the question.
I don't have to muster anything you are still willfully missing the point. The fact that Harden's stats from what some are trying to deem as a horrible season from him even compare to Hakeem speaks volumes and are pretty much a smack to the face of the Harden haters on this site (Which is why you are arguing so intensely, lol). Is Harden better than Hakeem in his prime? No, but Harden's stats show that if you actually have a good team and add Harden you will be a contender.
The question is just blasphemy and the fact that 45% give the nod to Harden - just shows complete and utter ignorance of either Olajuwon or the game in general... When did statistics become a replacement for winning? This is what leads to the creation of stat padding prima donnas... rather than men that that do whatever it takes to reach the pinnacle of success... smh...
Big Booty Hoes, ballin' at da club, 200 mil shoe deal, WCF's appearance, runner up MVP, scores a bunch on cheesy assed plays, has a giant beardTM and a candy commercial. Score board Dreamers!!
The funny thing about this discussion is that Hakeem was a great defensive anchor and that's what we got Dwight for but yet people are trying to compare that with Harden. Harden isn't meant to be our defensive anchor. For what he's meant to be, he's doing historically great and even beats Hakeem in a few categories. I think what we learned from this post is that we need help in other areas. Like I said basketball is a team sport.
I don't think Harden's stats make that an automatic. We had a good team this year with the "added" Harden. But there's no way we were a contender. Contenders generally have (a) high character guys who (b) know how to play with each other and who trust each other. Just adding Harden doesn't guarantee the necessary high character players whose presence separates the also-ran teams from contenders. I take it this is one of the background issues here in comparing the Hakeem years with the Harden era.
Is anyone even reading what Im saying? lol. No we were not contenders this year. My point is that Morey needs to put together a solid team apart from having a superstar like Harden. Your team needs to be good without your star even involved in the conversation then when you add Harden you are a contender. Without Harden we are the Sixers.
So now your argument is that Harden + a all time great defensive anchor teammate = Hakeem. Point proven. Thank you.
