Historical context of James Harden's season so far

Hakeem might have some words about that

 

Oscar Robertson probably would have about 7 of these, too, if they had counted steals back then.

 

The implication may not be what you want:

The other six players are not only better than James Harden overall, but also better than James Harden in each of the four categories you listed.

 

I'm surprised Tracy never did it.

 

2002-3 season:

Rebs 6.5
Assists 5.5
Steals 1.7
Points 32

5 more steals that season would have gotten him there.

 

dexler? I don't like it, bill!

 

when mcgrady was harden's current age he averaged 32.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 5.5 apg but only 1.7 spg. still, he shot a little better from the field, had much fewer turnovers per game and was also going to the line just as much as harden (9.7 vs. 10).

yeah, t-mac once was that good.

 

Let's hope Harden doesn't peak at 23 like McLazy.

 

So you're allowed to look back on their careers and marvel, but because Harden hasn't yet achieved what they have in his fledgling career, you'll penalize him for it??



Having said that, Harden isn't even close to averaging these numbers over the course of the season yet.
I'd like to see the number of people who had those numbers 20-30 games into the year, but failed to finish the year with those averages. I imagine there'd be at least a few more added to the list...

 

I wonder what will happen if and when Harden shaves his beard.

 

This doesn't bother me considering Harden is only 23 and we're talking about all-time greats

 

Ron Artest
PPG: 24.6
RPG: 6.4
APG: 3.1
SPG: 1.7
GP: 7

 

Well, he's only 22. It's a longshot, but you never know how he will pan out. His numbers for 22 are good just like those players were when they were 22 and people were saying they weren't legends yet.

 

I never really buy into "this statline only so many people have been able to do". They did it with Kyle Lowry last year where only so many players in the NBA were able to put up at least his numbers. You are going to eliminate a lot of good players who had far better shooting percentages/rebounds/assists/steals but a little less of one of the other categories.

That being said. Harden is having a special year this year. I certainly wouldn't have called this at the beginning of the year and doubted he would even make the all-star game. Now it seems like he's a shoe-in to make it.

 

that last one is supposed to be 1.8 SPG obviously

 

Last I checked he just turned 24?

 

My bad.. he's 23...either way it's impressive for someone so young

 

It has nothing to do with looking back or looking forward. It is a direct deduction from OP's data and method.

OP chose 4 categories, and used James Harden's data as the thresholds one after another to filter out the players and only a few players survived. The direct deduction is that these few who survived this test are better than James Harden in every and each category the OP chose.

Not quite coincidently, these survived few consist mostly of the elites. Therefore in effect this kind of magical methods have done a trick to give an impression to the readers that James Harden belongs to this elite group of a few.

This magic or trick can be done easily with most NBA players if the categories are chosen carefully. And then claim that this NBA player has achieved what only a few elite players have achieved. People have used Lowry's data before, and now you can use Greg Smith as an example to play this trick too (one of the category to be chosen is efficiency, PER or EFF48M, no matter what) .

It is a magic or trick, after all.