Best players Harden had: Chris Paul Dwight Howard Russell Westbrook Josh Smith Eric Gordon Trevor Ariza PJ Tucker Robert Covington Best players T-Mac had: Yao Ming Luis Scola Shane Battier Dikembe Mutombo Rafer Alston Chuck Hayes Juwan Howard Luther Head I think this is self explanatory..
He was an old dog in the twilight of his career, for one. For another, the Rockets didn't really start playing this current style until even a few years after Harden got here. I don't think Morey or anyone in Houston had quite figured out the value of eliminating the midrange shot in the 00s.
Not true - Morey got here in 2007, McGrady is 27 years old, and like I said above, in 2008 or 2009 (i forget the year), Morey had an intervention to try to get McGrady to stop taking long 2's - it didn't take.
when Harden had CP3 out and Capela and EG missing numerous games, he went on the unguardable tour and averaged 40 ppg over a sample size of 40 games... T-Mac is nowhere close to Harden’s level, plain and simple
Yes and no. Harden has far superior strength, balance, and durability, which are physical talents too.
Sorry... If I were to say your IQ was lower than Albert Einstein's, that's not saying you have a low IQ. You can still be brilliant and be lower than Einstein. In that analogy Harden = Einstein Mcgrady = "You"
27 with the body of a 35-year-old. But I wasn't aware of said intervention... do you have a link to an article or anything like that about it? If he really ignored that advice, that's disappointing. That said, I tend to believe that intervention might have worked a bit better if McGrady didn't already have some "superstar" seasons in his belt already. If he came in as a 23-year-old 6th man just entering the lime light for a proven GM, he might have been more willing (and able) to listen. In other words, if only Morey was Orlando's GM in the early 00s, heh.
Physically T-mac, whose skills like passing might have been underrated. Peek T-mac is Toronto / Orlando t-mac. Houston T-Mac was the beginning of the end. That said, going to go with Harden.
That doesn't really address the issue. My point is whether we're talking IQ or "cerebralness" and "brilliance", McGrady isn't necessarily far below Harden. Era, health, and other circumstances had a large role in their fates.
You put Harden on that 2008-2009 playoff roster and Houston would have beaten the Lakers. Surround Harden with Battier, Artest, Scola AND peak-Brooks? And James get 3 games from Yao before he went down?
Uh, have you checked T-Mac’s playoff numbers to Harden’s? I’ll give you the playoff record (even though Harden had better players), but I’m taking T-Mac in a do or die playoff game anyday of the week.
I remember watching Tracy before his knee and back problems with Orlando... One weekend, the Magic were playing at the Forum, and he was locking up Kobe on D and dominating on offense. Dude was amazing. Then the injuries came...ruined his j...his whole game changed... And along with it came major denial, which morphed out into the ugly ending....physically & psychologically. I'm not going to compare the two, but years removed from all the drama during his stint here, I thought it only right to remind/enlighten some folks.
This is not a debate. Peak Harden all the way. We were always in the conversation with James as the #1 guy (despite Dwight and CP3's poor health). Nothing but heartbreak, what-ifs, and a lack of durability with T-Mac (even though he was entertaining to watch).
https://www.landofbasketball.com/player_comparison/clint_capela_vs_yao_ming.htm Harden made Clint Capela comparable to Yao Ming!!! Did Harden have better players or did he make them better? Rocket River
T-Mac's teams always "died" in do or die playoff situations. He never made it out of the first round for chrissakes.
It's hard actually to find internet records of the exact interview I'm trying to recall from 14 years ago, maybe I'm wrong, but I remember this being noted by Feigen or a Morey 610 interview, Van Gundy and Adelman commented on it alot: Adelman: “Tracy was terrific, controlled the game the whole second half. One thing he has done and I still don’t think he’s been rewarded for it is attacking the basket. I don’t know how many free throws he shot (three), but he keeps going to the basket and makes the right plays. When he attacks, he shoots better and they don’t have anyone who can guard him.” and there's about a billion threads and comments about it:
Pains me to say Harden, he has shown to be durable and able to carry the team to the playoffs and past the first round. Unfortunately when it matters most neither are good candidates for showing up to lead the team to victory. Harden just hasn't figured out how to make shots when refs aren't calling the same foul shots in the playoffs, then its an endless cycle of complaining and trying to flop/initiate contact when he should have been taking better shots and making them. Not 1 time did he have a crazy offensive night when there was an elimination game, typically when the Rockets made it past a team on the brink of the last game it was typically his teammates that stepped up to fill the void. Against the Clippers we only dug ourselves out of the 1-3 hole because Corey Brewer and J.Smith made so many 3s. Then against the GSW (first series) we were carried by CP3. But when it comes down to the most important game Harden gets a pass.. Tracy's issue was that he was streaky but could catch fire at any moment, also his supporting cast was always sus. Then factor in the fact that he was often injured too was unfortunate. I don't miss those match ups with the Jazz when Okur/Boozer/Harp/AK would hack Yao and no one would call an actual foul. Terrible match ups when we were always 4th or 5th seed.
