OK, I see where you are coming from now. Clearly some are, but I think this is just a guy who loves Harden, probably his favorite player....it's cool. DD
First of all, Thabeet was pure garbage. KPJ is already way more useful to an NBA team than Thabeet could have ever dreamed of. Second, Cleveland trading KPJ had nothing to do with his talent level and everything to do with his maturity and attitude. The kid's got talent. Will he put it all together and reach his potential? I have no clue. But we're not talking about Anthony Lamb here. If KPJ can pick up where he left of at the end of last season he's going to be a very, very valuable player
I couldn’t care less about dd or anyone specific (other then a few clowns i have muted). It just blows my mind how clueless some people can be. Look they scored 16 ppg! Nothing else exists besides ppg so they are the same! Just crazy to me.
If the Rockets put Scoot on the trading block right now there would absolutely be teams making offers. Anyway your point is nonsense because I never said KPJ was as good as Harden. At anything. You know players can have similarities and not be identical, right? If not you should probably argue with Gerald Green instead because I was quoting him
I never said that at all, just said they were comparable - and was looking for discussion - you are the one that leaped to name calling and over zealous reactionary posting. Not everyone has to agree on everything and you don't get to control what other people want to talk about. Just chillax. DD
The idea of Battier the “No stats all star” was that you look at his box score and are very unimpressed, but then you look at an advanced stat like win shares and you realize he was much more impactful than the box score would lead you to believe. For example his first year in Houston, Battier averaged a whopping 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. But he was 23rd in the entire league in winshares. Hence the name no stats all star. Pretty pedestrian box score, big impact. KPJ at the moment is kinda the opposite. Some decent box score numbers, low level impact. Harden, 22, year 3. Some decent box score numbers, but had no doubt about it all star level impact stats.
Point blank, there's no reason for the team to offer him a deal greater than his cap hold until they spend their cap space next offseason. It's a waste of assets / opportunity when they can wait, use the cap space and exceed the cap to retain him if the price is greater than that cap hold of $9.65m Now if he were willing to sign for less than that $9.65m figure ..... it could happen sooner than later, assuming the team wants to retain him which I have to question because while he has had some great moments, there's no consistency as the advanced stats show.
This "Hate" angle you and @DaDakota keep trying to play up is just silly. "You guys are being mean to KPJ!!!" Not a single person on this forum "Hates" KPJ ..... Hate is a terribly strong and misused word these days ..... Criticism over basketball falls well short of the definition of hate. Pointing out stats that aren't necessarily flattering to the player .... isn't hate. Those stats are historical fact. Not a single person here is saying "he can't improve" .... but we sure don't expect him to suddenly improve from the bottom 18% in isolation to James Harden in isolation top 1% .... that's a huge jump to make. We're not being mean, we just want to see our franchise be successful and don't want them to piss away cap space.
Thabeet was just an extreme case to make the point. Predraft evaluations are crap shoot. We all know how wrong they could be, and that's fine. Evaluation of a guy with 3 seasons of data is totally different. If Cleveland really thought KPJ was Harden-like, do you think they would give up on him because he had attitude problem? Would the Rockets give up on Harden when he had attitude problem. Not until he absolutely forced their hands. And they wouldn't just trade him for a couple of 2nd round picks. Did the Nets give up on Kyrie because he had massive attitude problem? No. These players are real talents. KPJ wouldn't be traded for a bag of chips because of some food throwing if he had Harden's talent.
they’re still trying to justify comparing KPJ and Harden in year 3… beyond embarrassing KPJ stans trying to discuss numbers is like a toddler trying to explain calculus
Well I trust the Silas, Rafael, the entire organization more than you guys. They seem to believe in him, which is why he’s still on the team and was handed the keys. He will get extended before or after the season, you can take that to the bank
I'm sure Cleveland thought he had a ton of potential. That's why they took a chance on him when every other team passed. Basically they did what the Rox did. Grabbed a troubled kid on the cheap (in Cle case the 30th pick) and hoped he would mature into the player they envisioned based on that potential. They probably hated giving him up but he gave them no choice. After taking a chance on him he repaid them by continuing with his cancerous lifestyle leading to allegedly punching a female, flipping his car driving high, with pot and a loaded gun in the car. After that they benched him and started looking for any team that would take him. Wasn't until after he had been indefinitely benched and they gave his locker away that he nearly came to blows with the coach. So he tied they're hands. Wasn't that he had no talent. Only reason they took the chance was because they saw the talent and the potential he had. I'll take the documented comparisons to Harden with a grain of salt, but he has always had a ton of potential. His issues IMO have been between the ears both on and off the court. The Rockets took the same chance that they did for the same reason. Hopefully they will be more successful at guiding him, helping him reach his potential. This year is huge for him. Only 2 days til camp. Can't wait to see the progress on the court.
Jae Crowder and Alec Burks are better players than him right now. THT is an interesting comparison because that is someone who got paid based on potential. Once he got that contract and the team expected him to produce, he cratered and became a liability. Some people are wanting to pay him based on his production so far. Others are wanting to pay him based on his potential. Up to this point, KPJ has produced at a replacement player level.
What does that have to do with James Harden having a 66 TS% to a league average of 53 TS%, and KPJ having a 53 TS% to a league average of TS 57%? The fact that you brought up Shane Battier is a clear indication that you don't understand what "no stats all-star" means. Battier was called that specifically because his advanced stats (which TS% is an example of) is significantly better than what you would expect for a player of his box score stats. For example, he was frequently top 3 for the Rockets in VORP, BPM, and WS, something that Harden also stood out in when he was in OKC. You are comparing box score stats and saying KPJ and Harden both averaged 16ppg, therefore they are equally good in their 3rd year, which is practically the most surface level analysis you can make.
Nothing, I already said Harden was much better on shooting, and KPJ better on Defense - the point was to compare a young Harden to a young KPJ. DD
You can’t be serious. You absolutely can’t be! Ima pretend like you’re just hungover from last night, so I’ll just excuse that ridiculous statement. Burks averaged 11 ppg on 39% from the field lol
A lot of the most ridiculous rhetoric is just player only fans that feel threatened by KPJ, it's like when Lin fans would lash out against Harden. You just have to realize what they are doing and laugh them off.
But he shot 40% from 3pt and 82% from the line. His overall percentage is dragged down by his abysmal 2pt percentage, so what did he do? He shot fewer 2s than 3s. KPJ also turns the ball over far more than twice the rate Burks does. Burks has an offensive rating of 117 and defensive rating of 110, a +7 differential, while KPJ's differential is -14. His Value Over Replacement Player is 1.7 compared to KPJ's 0.2. I'm not a fan of Alec Burks, but to say that KPJ is better than him is flat-out wrong. KPJ has more potential than him. Potential that has so far gone unrealized.
