[ESPN] Harden tied 4th for NBA Player of the Decade

do you know the exact answer? no. why? bc its purely hypothetical. you have 0 clue what the rockets would be with kawhi. nobody does

does kawhi miss 22 games with hou? nobody has any idea, so it doesn't matter. your hypothetical scenarios are nonsense

 

It's great that a cumulative all decade list adjusts for Kashi's load management.

You go boys. You go.

 

Kawhi for 22 games = 16.667 actual games.

 

So averaging 26 ppg and shooting over 45% is being put on clamps.

LOL.

 

Random is Random.

 

He took the ball out of Lebron's hands. There are stories about it

https://www.espn.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/91407/kawhi-leonard-wreaking-havoc-on-lebron

 

So what he shot 45% and scored 26 mpg in one series and 57% with 27 mpg in another.

In what world is that putting the clamps on?

Stop with the slurping.

 

It’s not slurping. You’re gonna tell me Kawhi didn’t impact that finals? Are you nuts?

 

Did I say he did not impact the finals?

Stop moving the goalposts.

You said he put the clamps on him which is categorically false.

 

Lebron couldn’t affect the game the way he needed to help his team win. You can’t shutdown a player like Lebron but you can limit him and that’s why kawhi did. Enough that Lebron was noticeably emotional about it. Why does that say about Kawhi’s defense?

 

His team did win.

Ok so we agree he did not put the clamps on him he limited him.

Works for me.

 

Harden hasnt had the ridiculous help Kawhi has had. People ALWAYS overlook that part.

 

Mavs did a pretty good job of shutting him down in the finals.

 

Kawhi has certainly had better moments but Harden has been a legit top 3 MVP candidate for half the decade and merely an all NBA first team/all star for other half - only Lebron has been that consistent year in and year out without injury. Kawhi has been good, but not good enough to offset missing several seasons in that span.

 

Over the DECADE though? Kawhi only should be top 5 if the list is "players who had at least a couple of good seasons during the decade with some recency bias and over emphasis on team success."

Which is a classic ranking strategy, so you're right I shouldn't be arguing with it.

Chris Paul was a helluva player throughout the decade, but recency bias knocks him down in our minds (esp as Rockets fans).

I'd prefer a formulaic approach to this with weighted stats. That way if team success is included at least it's measurable. Narratives shouldn't have a weight.

At least they're not including Westbrook's empty triple doubles above Harden anymore.

Harden should be tied with Durant or Curry to me. Take your pick, there's not that much separation and they both benefitted by being together.

 

I won't deny LeBron or Curry, but 3-5 is subjective.

 

Random, but awesome