How good could Penny Hardaway have been?

I never got to watch him in his prime, but he seemed like a real good player. The only knock I could give him is he played with Shaq. Granted, it was a more inexperienced Shaq, but it was Shaq. Just like how Kobe gets that knock, Penny should get it too. It would be nice to see how good Kobe would be without Shaq on the same team, or the NBA. If he does better, Penny would have probably been a HOF, possibly.

But like I said, I never really got to watch him, so all of this is coming off my knowledge of basketball, a whole 3 years.

 

He could have been a great player.He was very versatile and athletic.Penny was a good clutch shooter, a fine passer with excellent ball handling skills with a good outside and inside game.I used to like his smooth finger rolls.He used to make the game look easy.
Penny never payed much attention to defense which could have prevented him from being a HOF but he was a really talented player.

 

Injuries or not, Penny is the epitome of a coattails player. He looks better than he is when paired with another good player, but when asked to lead the team on his own, he simply cannot do it. I think he's the basis for some of the "how well would Kobe be without Shaq?" arguments, to tell the truth.

Couple his inability to perform as the lead star/lone star of a team with his desire to whine and moan and disrupt the chemistry in a clubhouse and you have a player who would've ended up with all of his talent gone to waste, even without the knee problems.

Oh, he could've been good. But just because of who he is and was, he never would've reached his full potential.

As a Magic fan, it kinda pleases me to see him performing the same antics in Phoenix as he did here - especially since the Magic aren't paying him the max for many more years to come. The Suns knew what they were getting and made a bad decision to stick with it.

 

He inspired mostly contempt from his teamates & coaches. He never would have made the role players on his team any better. He had 3 coaches fired (including HOFers Daly & Ainge) & his outside shot was inconsistent. He was solved before the injury. Play him physical on defense & force him to beat you from the outside. Screw Penny.

 

Nickel = cancer


He makes Quitten look good.

 

he would have been a bigger, higher scoring jason kidd

 

Penny has nothing in common with Jason Kidd.

He would have been a SG version of Marbury. Put up good stats, while being a loser.

Healthy or not, his attitude sucks.

 

Penny may have a bad attitude but he was not a loser. He was awesome until he got injured. Young Penny was like McGrady with better handles and passing ability.

 

I agree with most of you guys in the thread that think he would have been awesome.

When he was in Orlando with Shaq I really enjoyed both players, but for some reason I can't stand either one of them now.

I think Penny started to lose touch with reality when he demanded to be the highest paid player on the Magic when they still had Shaq...

 

IMO I think Penny was a flashier, more exciting player and passer than Jason Kidd. Watching some of his old games I must say his passes were comparable to Magic Johnson.

Penny had some unfortunate circumstances come his way. Had Shaq stayed and Penny been healthy, whining or not, Penny would have a ring on his finger by now. I mean he and Shaq only played 3 seasons toghether, while neither had more than 4 years of experience in the league.

That combo could have been as good as Kobe-Shaq.

 

FORUM RULE #134: All Kobe fans must diss Penny because if he is suspect of being great because of shaq. . . then the same goes for Kobe. . . .

If Penny just sucks either way . . .they can preserve the ideal
that Kobe is great either way

Rocket River

 

What if! What if! There are dozens and dozens of players who could have been HOFers had their knees / legs not been blown out -- how about Ralph Sampson? Bernard King? LaPhonso Ellis? etc. etc.

 

LOL! So true.

 

So McGrady is a winner?

Fact is that T-Mac, as great as his, writes checks his ass can't cash.

Saying crap like how he's better than Baron Davis, who ends up getting triple doubles against Orl.

 

I never said that T-Mac wasn't better than Davis. My point (that I didn't say clearly) is that T-Mac should shut the f up before hyping himself up. He is too cocky for his own good. Yet, everyone complains about how Kobe is so cocky, when he has 10X's more reason to be arrogant than T-Mac.

T-Mac needs to put his money where his mouth is, if he's going to hype himself up.