Charles Barkley: James Harden is the best 1-on-1 player I’ve ever seen in my life!

Other than Harden, who are the next three guys for top one on one players in the NBA? What are some good metrics for this?

Kawhi has to be up there, and a healthy Durant. Luka? Who are the other contenders?

 

James Harden is an all time great already. Still in his prime and has impacted/transcended the game like very few others have.

I honestly can say in my humble opinion that he’s a better player than Kobe/Lebron ever were in their greatest. He needs a ring for his sake to cap off a spectacular Ironman career. He surely deserves some rings.

I’ve never seen an alpha talent carry a team with so much insignificant and high turnover supporting cast year over year aside from Dream. I’m talking about carrying a team to relevance in a very stacked West during the era of the Warriors with and without Durant. What Harden does consistently on the basketball court is truly nothin short of amazing. I for one don’t take him for granted playing for the Houston Rockets.

 

I agree with your sentiment but I would just like to point out one inaccuracy in your post that still to this day just completely disgusts me.

2015-2016 the year Dwight tanked us and the “unbiased media” decided this resume wasn’t fitting for ANY all nba team. Believe he only was a top 10 MVP vote getter because of Worrell’s lone vote.

Harden’s Ranks
Win shares : 6th
Win shares per 48 : 12th
Box +/- : 7th
VORP : 5th
PER : 8th
ESPN rpm : 10th
ESPN wins added : 4th
Scoring : 2nd
Assists : 6th

Of all the reward snubs in NBA history this has to be one of the most egregious.

 

Harden is the greatest offensive player probably ever (even over MJ) if you really observe impartially. Smartest offensive player for sure.....

 

https://stats.nba.com/players/isolation/?sort=POSS_PCT&dir=1&SeasonType=Regular Season
Lillard is better than all of them with a higher number of isolation possessions. Kawhi has a good PPP, but his frequency is very low and at higher volumes I doubt he could maintain the efficiency. Lol I could pretty much say that for any of them though lol. Harden is a beast. But uhh yea I'm pretty comfortable saying that without Steph in the league(though he still may not be that amazing at Iso either I donno), Lillard is the second best iso player.

Just to make it more fair Lillard also had a higher PPP than Durant did on his last year of OKC as well. Lillard still had the same PPP as him in the 2017-2018 even with the improved spacing Durant got from being on Golden State.

 

Kids in 20yrs who weren't around to watch either Kobe, MJ, or Harden play are going to have MUCH different views than we have. So much of it is based on the small sample size of playoff performances, but kids armed only with Basketball Reference and youtube are going to think much differently about this. Rank the supporting casts, and it'll go something like 1. Kobe with Shaq; 2. MJ with Pippen and Rodman; 3. Kobe with Pau; 4. MJ with Pippen and Grant; and 5. Harden with CP3. They'll be better able to parse out who contributed how much to winning. Under that analysis, Harden will be waaaaay above Kobe. It won't even be close. MJ is MJ. He might fall to Lebron in terms of regular season greatness, but that's about it. But Harden will be viewed in the future as better than Kobe, and our era will be seen as ignorant for thinking it a no-brainer in the other direction.

 

Kenny admitted that like it was like pulling teeth.

LOL

 

There was a thread Harden's first season about how unstoppable he is getting to the a rim and someone wrote its like Jordan. Well it is like Jordan more so than Kobe.

They both get to the rim like the best point guards, like Iverson (not an Iverson fan but he could get to the rim). Jordan had the first step like a great point guard. Obviously Jordan was a much better athlete with much more quickness. However both are very strong and can finish when they get you on their hip, you're done.

 

Barkley's opinion is probably 50% trolling, 50% real. Like he can be a serious dumbass, but he will give credit. Shaq just likes being an ass and Kenny just wants to sound smart. I like Barkley, him picking Thunder was trolling, Kenny was serious.

 

Daryl Morey on Harden vs Jordan:

https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...a-better-scorer-than-jordan-its-just-factual/
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“It’s just factual that James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan,” Morey told Matthew Haag on Selfmade with Nadeshot. “You give James Harden the ball, and before you’re giving up the ball, how many points do you generate, which is how you should measure offense… James Harden is by far number one in NBA history.”

Morey did acknowledge that a valid counter-argument exists, but he stands by the the scoring data.

“The counter argument is reasonable,” Morey said. “They say if you put Michael Jordan on a team now, he would do more than James Harden. That’s possible. But if you’re just saying… NBA history, if you give this guy the ball, ‘How much does his team score after you give him the ball before the other team gets the ball?’, it’s James Harden. And I know that makes people mad, but it’s literally a fact.”


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That's an interesting way to look at it. Does anyone know of any good public data to estimate what Morey is describing here? Could be interesting to rank players today by this measure.

 

If Harden did this in the 80’s he would be burned at the stake for being a witch

 

Next time you guys get a chance to catch an AAU game, high school, or college - pay attention to how many "Harden Stepbacks" you see.

Just like MJ's turnaround. the Dreamshake or Kareems Skyhook - James has changed the way the world plays basketball ... thats a pretty big deal.

 

Over time you realize it's just unfair to compare players across eras. Jordan played in a time where you could guide people around the court with a hand check, a time you could club someone to the ground on a drive and just get a regular foul. Jordan would definitely improve as a three point shooter if he played in this era and he'd probably average 35+ just like normal, probably 40+ early in his career. What they don't talk about though is that the rules would help Jordan on offense just as much as they would hurt him on defense.

 

It actually doesn't matter how you look at it, the numbers show the same thing. Last season, Harden averaged 48 points and 10 assists per 100 possessions which is by the most ever by any player for a season. Jordan's best season was 46 points per 100 possession with only about 5 assists. The fact that he did it with a really high true shooting percentage makes it even more incredible. If you look at from a team standpoint, the rockets were a historically good offensive team with the second best scorer being an injured Chris Paul and Eric Gordon. It's pretty crazy how good Harden is offensively.

 

What does the bolded part mean? Maybe I'm not understanding, but a lot of stuff can happen after you give him the ball and before the other team gets the ball. He can pass the ball to Gordon, who can drive and pass the ball back out to PJ who takes a 3, for example. That's reflective of Harden how? And if it is, to what extent? Like I said, maybe I'm just being dense. lol.

 

No, those are good questions. Perhaps he's elaborated more on this elsewhere.

 

Chuck is right , or at least very close . If James isn’t the best he’s top 2 or 3 ... which historically, I mean there will always be arguments .

but , he’s also not seeing James’ development as a team player . Communicating on D , playing with effort and guarding whoever comes his way , sniping steals , oh and MDA’s even managed to get him some looks with off-ball movement .

just how versatile and good at everything James has become is mind blowing .