re: Harden the 1st guard since Jordan in 87-88..

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Funny, Harden was the guy who was D'ing Kobe up the year they went to the finals

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And he did great on him and showed OKC fans he was capable of noshing guys up. Only to quietly disappear. He just doesn't exert consistent effort on that end.

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Also I think your friend is probably talking out if his arse. I seriously doubt the reason they didn't max out Harden was because of his D

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Ha, well he's not so you can believe what you want. They knew Harden was special. But they valued Ibaka for what the Thunder needed as a team more. And wanted a catch and shoot 3pt guy who comes off the bench and defend. Bruce Bowen-type guy would be their dream.

If Westbrook didn't exist, they would have stuck with Harden, Durant, and Ibaka.

But Russ is a better defender and creates havoc when he's able to force steals.

Hence the deal that occurred.

Has anyone brought up that TS percentage takes into account FT percentage? Right?

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Has anyone brought up that TS percentage takes into account FT percentage? Right?

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yea it does, go back a couple pages there are a couple posts about it.

Never said it wasn't. Just implying that his TS% inflated due to his uncanny ability to get calls other players do not. More power to him though. Points are points.

I've said it before and will say it again:

If the refs swallow their whistles on any given night, Harden has can be negated quicker that way than any other player in the league. And that's why he would scare me in the playoffs if I'm a Rockets fan.

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There are some pretty big names on this list, so I don't think you can chalk it all up to "getting calls", but like I said, he is very far ahead of the competition. I also find it interesting that Jeremy Lin is pretty high up the list with a FTr of .426. Does Houston do anything in particular to game plan the officiating?

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It's because Houston's gameplan is 3 pointers and driving to the basket.

When you drive the lane, you get fouled a lot.

That's why James Harden gets so many foul calls, and that's also why Jeremy Lin gets fouled a good bit.

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Ha, well he's not so you can believe what you want. They knew Harden was special. But they valued Ibaka for what the Thunder needed as a team more. And wanted a catch and shoot 3pt guy who comes off the bench and defend. Bruce Bowen-type guy would be their dream.

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You just want to believe that BS because OKC got smoked in that trade.

"Well we would have kept him if he played any D" just makes you feel better about it.

If OKC had any idea how good Harden was, there is no way in hell they would have let him go.

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If the refs swallow their whistles on any given night, Harden has can be negated quicker that way than any other player in the league. And that's why he would scare me in the playoffs if I'm a Rockets fan.

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Doesn't Durant lead the league in free throw attempts?

He wouldn't be nearly as effective either if the refs swallowed their whistles.

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It's because Houston's gameplan is 3 pointers and driving to the basket.

When you drive the lane, you get fouled a lot.

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I picked a sample of comparables specifically to negate that. Everyone on my list has roughly the same or more "close" and "unassisted" attempts per game than Harden. Take a guy like Tyreke Evans, the bulk of his offense is driving to the basket, way more than anyone else on the list, and he's a decently big name who definitely takes a lot of contact, yet his FTr isn't anywhere close to Harden's.