He put up 37 points against Kawhi and PG on high efficiency. This isn't a case where he's padding stats against garbage competition and struggling against elite defenders. He even was playing D last night. If people say they don't like him, fair enough. But to go so far as to say he's not a good player... ridiculous. And he's better than good offensively... come on now... he's been at elite efficiency for years now.
Who said he isn’t a good player? He can be a good player and a hack at the same time. You’re arguing points that nobody has made.
So to be clear... okay for Kobe and MJ to cheat... not okay for Harden to cheat. If you jump higher and play defense, all is forgiven... if you are less athletic and find away to overcome you are a disgusting player. You really want to make this discussion about splitting hairs over semantics and my characterizing the summation of your collective comments of his play as equivalent to calling him a hack? Hack, cheater, disgusting... whatever you want to call him... all I said is that he's a good player and I wouldn't mind him on the team to take over for LBJ. I'd rather have Doncic but I can't imagine billionaire shark Cuban ever letting him go. I wish we could get BI back. I only mention Harden because he's from LA and I think we could get him one day if he can't win with Russ.
All I can assume is you aren’t old enough to have watched Jordan and Kobe and the physicality that was allowed against those guys. To even try and compare Harden’s antics to those 2 is a non-starter.
The year MJ averaged 37 the Blazers led the league in scoring averaging 118 PPG The year Harden averaged 36 the Bucks led the league scoring 118 PPG Even with the pace and shortened clock... the emphasis on 3 point shooting... the difference isn't as drastic as one might think. And I already conceded that MJ and Kobe were more skilled players.
how many fts did harden have? how many should he have had? how many would other players have had in the same circumstance? i heard doris burke was calling him out on the broadcast and rockets fans were PISSED. preach, doris. there's a reason why--despite his historic production, pretty much nobody gives a s*** and the press has to shove him down the fans' collective throats. the fact that every superlative article about him begins with a "hey, we know it's gross, but..." should mean something to the league office, btw.
The Stoudamire Knicks averaged 31.5 FTA when Kobe was second in the league in FTA. (We averaged 26.5) We averaged 27.1 FTA when Kobe was first in the league in FTA The Harden Rockets averaged 24.4 FTA last year His FTA are a function of usage not some perversion in the game. They used to give more fouls back then.
While I generally agree with this sentiment, Harden was amazing against the Clippers. A lot of those fouls on his three pointers were legit fouls for once. Harden scored an efficient 37 against the best perimeter defense in the league. I hate him and his game, but last night he was fantastic.
I hate the Clippers but they're the one team I am concerned about. I think PG can be bottled up but Kawhi/Lou are a serious threat against us.
He's the 12th most efficient scorer in NBA history including some centers who did nothing but tap ins and dunks https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ts_pct_career.html
I don’t think anyone could argue the fact that he doesn’t put up ungodly numbers. You need to focus your argument on how he’s able to put up those numbers. Most feel he’s able to put up those numbers by getting a high frequency of questionable calls. If you can show they’re legitimate or irrelevant to his greatness, you’ll have a solid argument. IMO, he’s a very good player without the calls, just nowhere near top 15 offensive efficiency.
Exactly. If Harden played even 10 years ago, he wouldn't get most of his calls. His efficiency is by tricking the refs into calling fouls. If this guy was on the playgrounds, he would be banned from playing.
