Also, ib4 @roslolian drops in to tell us the team only had 11 turnovers so Hardens turnovers are not a problem because the team turnovers were low.
The only problem i have with James here is that he does too often those ugly ass full court passes -> especially to pass the ball to Ariza. Those have literally ZERO reason to exist. Even if Ariza catches the ball, what the **** is he supposed to do? He can't dribble past his man, can't make a good play...he can just force a quick (and guarded) 3 or wait for James to come over to get the ball again so...why pass him the ball in the first place there? There's literally nothing good that can come out of that decision, those passes just doesn't make any sense...
Defense!!!, FG%, 3pt%,Clutchness, and last but not least overall mentality and approach to the game. (In my opinion)
I won't necessarily go so far to say he is better, but I agree with this for the most part. Kawhi is extremely efficient, doesn't take plays off, and he can impact the game on both ends. He's not asked to do as much on offense as Harden, but he has a more complete game.
Seriously. The "bad" turnovers are just inexcusable. That full court pass is insufferable. Just stupid stupid stupid
There's a real argument to be made that Kawhi is the BEST basketball player alive right now, given LeBron's age. There's no shame in Harden coming up short relative to that guy. I still think Harden is a top 5 player overall.
I think Harden is the better offensive player - let's say Harden is a 10 on offense - and Kawhi a 7. On defense Kawhi is a 10, and Harden is a 3. That is it right there....there are two sides to the court, Kawhi is a complete player, Harden still has some work to do on D - and honestly most of that is just effort. DD
Stupid lazy passes. Followed by dribble across half court, pass to Anderson/Gordon/Williams immediately jack up a 3 from 4 feet behind the line. All they had to do was keep running PnR when they got into a half court set. Or run something. Anything.
Close. I'd put harden at a 9 on offense and kawhi at 7.5 to 8. Can't argue your defense numbers though. Might make a case for Harden even lower.
This is very subjective, but still fun. I'd rate Harden a 9 on offense, and a 3.5 on defense. I'd put Kawhi as a 7.5 on offense and a 7 on defense. Defense rating should tend toward the middle, just because defense is more team-oriented.
Individual players impact the offensive side of the ball much more than the defensive side. It's not like when you give an overall grade to a player, you assign 50% weight on offense and 50% weight on defense. That's not how it works, because that would mean players like Ben Wallace, Dikembe Mutombo and Tony Allen are just as good as Harden, Iverson and Nowitzki. One group of players (great offense & weak defense) are legitimate MVP candidates, the others (great defense & weak offense) are valuable role players at best. That being said, I do think Kawhi is better than Harden as of now. But I also think Kawhi is close to being the best basketball player in the world straight up given LeBron's age, so that's not saying anything bad about James.
I'm more like 7 offense 3 defense, but some people who value defense more could be in favor of 6:4 split. But it's pretty established fact that individual offense is just more important. The reason why I consider Kawhi to be better than Harden is their offensive gap has significantly shrunk this season, so Harden's edge on offense ain't that big anymore.
Good point. You could either skew the weight of offense more than defense, or you can rate defensive impact closer to the middle.
On offense: Harden 9.5 Kawhi 7 Defense: Harden 4.5 Kawhi 8 Harden is a far better offensive player. Period. Tonight was one of Kawhi's best offensive performances ever and was an outlier.
You might want to look at Kawhi's game log, it was a great night but he is having an amazing year. DD
