Who gives a crap, I mean really? Why are some of you so obsessed over his likability or lack thereof? Likability doesn't translate to wins, good leadership, or better supporting cast. We are lucky to have both Morey (also one of the must unlikable GMs in the NBA) and Harden.
Really? Because for the foreseeable future, I don't see this team being anything more than a mediocre fringe playoff team who will continue to get their asses handed to them in the playoffs by the GSWs. What a bright future
I'm neutral on this subject and I do realize that Harden has better numbers, but there is one glaring stat in these playoffs that favors Lillard. Turnovers per game: Harden - 5.2 Lillard - 2.8 Almost double. Turnovers should not be overlooked because if your star player has too many of them, it can hurt the entire team's morale and chemistry. Again, there are many other stats that favor Harden in this comparison, but just wanted to point that out.
He's right about one thing. "Likeability" definitely shapes people's perceptions of certain players, even if that perception isn't reality.
I do mostly blame Morey for this season's failure. Never was fan of his taste in players, and especially the fact that he completely deluded himself into thinking that we were as good as our final achievement last year, when team based metrics and analytics didn't support that at all. He went away from his conventional self and stuck with his gut feelings against all objective evidence, like re-signing Corey Brewer when we know he's wildly inconsistent so playing half a season decently shouldn't mean that much. And yes, playing well is part of the leadership, unless your want to be the mere cheerleader for the team.
Wait, I thought the GARM analytical gurus who have mathematics degrees suggested that Lillard holds on to the ball longer than Harden?
It's hilarious how CJ McCollum would instantly be the 2nd best player on the Rockets. How does that not matter to some? People want to hold Harden to Curry/Lebron/Kawhi standards but actively choose not to recognize the difference in supporting casts/coaching. Then when Harden falls short, "LEADERSHIP!!" is the first thing people say. And that's not even to say Harden's as good as them, just that the context is so warped in some of these situations.
Harden is well liked by players around the league, that's why he was voted as the player's MVP last year. I've never heard one single former teammate of his talk sh** about him. And that's all that matter. Who gives a fu** about some random ignorant NBA follower like fchowd0311 doesn't like the fact that Harden gets to the line too much, although Harden is still 4th in points per game when you take away all of his free throws, and there are many other players who have much higher PPG/FGM ratio than Harden, including guys like Butler, Westbrook, and DeRozan. But these are just facts, so shouldn't really matter.
He probably does, he's not much of a facilitator. Harden is. Harden is actually a better point guard than Lillard and he's relied upon to pass the ball more, which is probably why those numbers say that Lillard holds the ball more.
I meant to say lower ratio, not higher. It means the % of points that come from free throws are higher.
Also when you hear about how harshly players talk about Dwight when they aren't on his team you have to wonder how much of a negative impact he has to team chemistry. I guess we are about to find out.
I don't think it's even a question. Harden is better than Lillard. Lillard can turn into that every once in a while crazy scorer, and people get jazzed about that, but Harden obviously did that plenty, too. Lillard also happens to be as bad if not worse than James defensively, and as bad if not worse a pound-the-rock, iso, shoot a bad shot player. Some of those shots last night by Lillard were crazy bad. To me, it goes like this, for guards. Tier One: Curry Tier Two: Harden, Thomson, CP3, Westbrook Tier Three: Lillard, Irving I know people like Lowry a lot, some guys like Derozan, and other really good guards bring a lot of stuff. Isiah Thomas, Reggie Jackson, etc. Maybe put one of those guys in tier three. I would have said Lowry but for his horrific playoffs.
YOu need a math degree to calculate how long somebody holds the ball? LOL, it's not that hard. You just count - it goes in order. 1,2,3 etc. I know some good instructional videos for this - I have young kids so I know quite a bit about it.
I thought a sign of being a better pg is being able to take care of the ball. How many all time great pgs hold the record for most turnovers in a season? Lillard can take care of the ball much better than Harden can and is one of the advantages Lillard has over Harden.
No way. Lillard can be shut down by bigger players. Harden is the kind of talent that stops himself. He can always rely on the post up to score against 1, 2 ,3s and 4s.
I thought there was a stat showing Harden was tops in the nba in iso plays above melo and the entire Golden State Warriors team.
Harden doesn't need to be better a PG than Lillard, that's out of his purview and the fact that we are even talking about this is a testament to Harden's versatility as a player. And just looking at the sheer number of TOVs are meaningless because Harden has so many possessions compared to other players due to playing dual role as the main facilitator and #1 scoring option. If you actually look at TOV% which is turnovers per possession, Harden doesn't look nearly as bad and Magic Johnson, Nash, Kidd and this year's Westbrook all had higher TOV% than Harden this season.
