last years draft, they take harden over evans. i wonder how this will be remembered down the line. what would their season have been like with evans instead of harden? what about their future? i really think this has the potential to be another sam bowie type of mistake. what could the thunder have achieved with durant and evans as teammates?
i dont really want the thread to be about that comparison. it's more of a "what could've been?" topic. what do you think evans and durant could've achieved as teammates? but to answer your question, its way too early to tell. of course, evans is only one of 4 players to ever average 20-5-5 as a rookie. the others were lebron, jordan, and oscar.
They have Westbrook, they wanted to draft a true SG like Harden. Harden isn't that bad from what i've seen, I think he's going to have one of those breakout years and turn into a good player.
Its pretty unreal to imagine a Westbrook/Evans/Durant Thunder; however, I don't think it will haunt the team much. As long as Durant is on that team, all the fingers will be pointed at the Trail Blazers for taking Oden 1st. (yes, different classes) Harden hasn't done poorly for a rookie- He just has not been historical. Regardless, Tyreke does not have nearly the beard Harden does and no fan can look past that.
i dont think tyreke can play with anyone but himself... rather have KD/westbrook taking those shots than Evans. harden isnt bad. thunder have chemistry. not so sure if they would with Reek.
This. They didn't need another point guard because of Westbrook. Harden is going to develop into a pretty good player, I bet he will contribute a lot more next season.
You have to remember, the primary scorer on the Kings was Evans. If Evans was drafted to play alongside Durant, Evans wouldn't have gotten the 20/5/5 that he did this year. It probably would have been more like 15/3/4. Plus, that whole thing with Westbrook. So yeah.
It's nowhere near as bad as it seems nor does it invoke any Sam Bowie or Darko type comparisons in my book. Bottom line: Harden can play. He won't get you those somewhat tainted monster stat-lines that Evans will get you, but at the same time he's a fundamentally sound, smart player that can shoot, score and create offense for others. He probably won't ever be a star but he'll have a long career of being an all-around very good basketball player. If anybody should be killed for passing on him and his 20-6-5 it should be the Grizzlies. Conley is a dud and Thabeet flat-out sucks. Plus, think of it this way: Conley to Evans would have been a MUCH bigger upgrade than Westbrook to Evans would have been.
Evans is a great talent. He's the next statistical Allen Iverson, a master of the stand around offense. That is to say, he is a master at controlling the ball for 18-20 seconds while his teammates spread out and stand around waiting for him to make his move and then he either takes the shot or he tries to find a spot up shooter who has no rhythm because he has been standing around waiting for Evans to make his move. Evans offense is predicated on everyone reacting to his move instead of him moving and reacting to everyone else's movement. That doesn't work for the winning percentages. It makes a great statistical player but a losing team.
a lot of you are making excellent points. i must say that i don't see evans as a PG as most of you do. he was only a PG next to martin. after martin went down he was a full time SG. i believe he will end up playing SG the rest of his career. remember that lebron played at PG some during his rookie year too. evans and westbrook may not mesh well as some of you have wisely pointed out. however, i do think that evans and durant would be great partners as evans likes to control the ball and durant is great at scoring off the ball.
evans would not work with Durant and Westbrook. Tyreke does not know how to play within a team, at least not yet. Harden will become a great compliment to Harden and Westbrook
Sam Bowie type of mistake? That's not really a fair comparison because Sam Bowie had creaky knees and played like injured Yao his entire career. The Blazers got screwed not just because they passed on MJ, they also drafted a broken down injured player who didn't contribute much on the team (seems familier? *looks at Oden*). Thunder may have missed on Tyreke, however I don't think its a big deal because the things Tyreke does are already done by the Durant/Westbrook combo. What they really need is a low post scorer and defender down low, not another elite playmaking swingman. IMHO although Harden looks like a bust for a top 3 lo
*lottery pick he fits their system perfectly because he has a decent shot and plays good D. That's really all they need from the SG position as they have Durant and WB.
Tyreke Evans doesn't fit the Thunder, who already have 2 guys who need the ball in their hands. Before it's all over, we'll see what happens between Jimbo Slice and 'Reke. Harden is a lot more talented than most people realize and he adapts better to being a role player than 'Reke. Shaud, 'Reke is a PG in the sense that the half-court offense starts and ends with him. He doesn't play well off the ball AT ALL. It's something he needs to learn to go to the next level.
