Did you seriously ask that? WHO WOULDN'T WANT THE MAX?! And yes, he'll get a max deal when his contract is up.
Let's say the Pacers had decided to trade Paul George (#10 pick in 2010) to the Spurs for PG George Hill and kept Kawhi Leonard (#15 in 2011) ... Wouldn't you say the exact same thing about Kawhi if the Pacers were built around him? Would your opinion of him be different if it was George who grew into the future of the Spurs alongside LMA in SA? I think of PG13 as right alongside Kawhi and Jimmy Butler ... They are clearly (to me) the #3-5 Small Forwards in the NBA, behind only LeBron and Durant Not sure about the order, but still think I'd take George over other 2 All 3 are Top Dog on an average team fighting on the fringe of the lotto year after year Unless they happen to find themselves in a 2005 Pistons or 2008 Celtics or 2015 Hawks situation To be 'The Man' on a true contender, each needs at least 3 other guys who are all borderline AllStars starting alongside them And that TEAM has to have unbelievable on-court chemistry and get hot together in the playoffs to make a real run Billups couldn't have ever won a ring as his team MVP unless he had Sheed, Ben and Rip all playing at near-AS levels Paul Pierce carried Boston nowhere for a decade until Ainge surrounded him with KG, Ray and Rondo Horford is a highly skilled, defensively sound big man, but the Hawks never even approach 60 wins or ECF unless Millsap, Teague and Korver all make the AS team next to him
Damnit. Harden is from LA too. Give us that #1 pick and young players. Oh well..they probably already know he will just sign with them in 2 seasons anyway, so why bother giving up pieces? Rockets future is F'ed. Were going to be set back another 2 decades for not trading Harden while we had the chance.
Your theory sounds like a load of garbage. You say PG is better than Kawhi, yet Kawhi just led a almost 70 win team with only one other All-Star on the roster.
You mean basically like the year Harden just turned in? The answer is yes, PG is a franchise player worthy of the max PG currently is a bit lower than Harden, but Harden has probably reached his ceiling already, whereas you can easily see PG getting more consistent with his jumper over time (to add on to his ALL-NBA level defense.)
I think Harden has still room to get better, PG not too much, if any...anyway i think PG is really really good, probably top 3 two way player in the league, but yeah, i don't think he can be the best player in a championship team.
depends on what you mean by effort on defence. Getting a consistent jumper is more easy than for someone to learn team defence, proper techiques, how to communicate, how to defend the pnr etc especially a veteran who is already in the league for years. Harden because he gives one of the least effort on defence in all the league he sure can improve much easier. From the most horrible defender, to a bellow average one. But to make someone an actual good defender? Nope.
You can't really teach someone to be a hard worker (not saying he isn't a hard worker because he needed to be to some extent to get to this level, it's definitely not elite work ethic), they need to have the inner drive to just do it. You CAN teach someone to improve their jumper and 37% 3 point shooting, which is actually a better rate as a #1 option than Harden. I actually think PG's problems have more to do with shot selection than anything. I'm pretty sure you more often see people drastically improve jumpers than drastically improve defense. Guys who are great defenders have some extra special gear to give it 100% every possession.
