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this is JUST a scoring comparison. obviously jordan was the way better player

fyi, league-wide TS%s are almost identical across their careers. to be as fair as possible, and given that the pace of play is faster now, i'll use per 100 possession stats and restrict Jordan's numbers to age 23-28:

jordan regular (489 games) 42p 59%ts
harden regular (424 games) 36p 61%ts

jordan better regular season volume, harden better efficiency

jordan playoffs (85 games) 44p 59%ts
harden playoffs (45 games) 35p 58%ts

harden's efficiency drops below jordan's in 45 playoff games with houston. jordan's volume advantage widens a bit. factor in to whatever degree you wish, along with jordan's clutch ability

no. you also have to adjust by TS% league avg. I believe back in Jordan's days the TS% avg is slightly lower than today's

I wouldnt say so.

The game was refereed differently in Jordans day; now the rules favor offense and its easier to ger foul calls.
James Harden has had more foul shots than field goals over the last like 3 or 4 years. Hes a master foul-drawer, but wouldnt get those fouls called 15-20 years ago

papidulo wrote:I wouldnt say so.

The game was refereed differently in Jordans day; now the rules favor offense and its easier to ger foul calls.
James Harden has had more foul shots than field goals over the last like 3 or 4 years. Hes a master foul-drawer, but wouldnt get those fouls called 15-20 years ago

I give the big edge to Jordan, but did Jordan not take advantage of any rules the way Harden did? I didn’t watch Jordan growing up but I know the rules have changed to favor shooters, but were there other rules that favored Jordan?


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getrichordie wrote:

papidulo wrote:I wouldnt say so.

The game was refereed differently in Jordans day; now the rules favor offense and its easier to ger foul calls.
James Harden has had more foul shots than field goals over the last like 3 or 4 years. Hes a master foul-drawer, but wouldnt get those fouls called 15-20 years ago

I give the big edge to Jordan, but did Jordan not take advantage of any rules the way Harden did? I didn’t watch Jordan growing up but I know the rules have changed to favor shooters, but were there other rules that favored Jordan?


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Its possible.

I mean Harden is definitely a better deep shooter than Jordan, but Jordan was more athletic and a stronger finisher in my opinion.
If guys like Jordan, Iverson, and Kobe played in their primes now, theyd be putting up Westbrook type numbers

dice wrote:this is JUST a scoring comparison. obviously jordan was the way better player

fyi, league-wide TS%s are almost identical across their careers. to be as fair as possible, and given that the pace of play is faster now, i'll use per 100 possession stats and restrict Jordan's numbers to age 23-28:

jordan regular (489 games) 42p 59%ts
harden regular (424 games) 36p 61%ts

jordan better regular season volume, harden better efficiency

jordan playoffs (85 games) 44p 59%ts
harden playoffs (45 games) 35p 58%ts

harden's efficiency drops below jordan's in 45 playoff games with houston. jordan's volume advantage widens a bit. factor in to whatever degree you wish, along with jordan's clutch ability

In my mind, what makes this argument moot is the lack of duration we have for Harden. M.J sustained that level of play throughout his career. This is the first time we have seen this level of play from Harden in 8 seasons. I think we need to see another 8 seasons of this production to fairly compare him with M.J.

Bucketz_McGee wrote:

dice wrote:this is JUST a scoring comparison. obviously jordan was the way better player

fyi, league-wide TS%s are almost identical across their careers. to be as fair as possible, and given that the pace of play is faster now, i'll use per 100 possession stats and restrict Jordan's numbers to age 23-28:

jordan regular (489 games) 42p 59%ts
harden regular (424 games) 36p 61%ts

jordan better regular season volume, harden better efficiency

jordan playoffs (85 games) 44p 59%ts
harden playoffs (45 games) 35p 58%ts

harden's efficiency drops below jordan's in 45 playoff games with houston. jordan's volume advantage widens a bit. factor in to whatever degree you wish, along with jordan's clutch ability

In my mind, what makes this argument moot is the lack of duration we have for Harden. M.J sustained that level of play throughout his career. This is the first time we have seen this level of play from Harden in 8 seasons. I think we need to see another 8 seasons of this production to fairly compare him with M.J.

you're missing the fundamental part of the argument: the word 'currently.' it's right in the thread title. and jordan's numbers in that very post were restricted to his prime (age 23-28), which harden has already provided a fair counterpoint to

cpower wrote:no. you also have to adjust by TS% league avg. I believe back in Jordan's days the TS% avg is slightly lower than today's

that's correct, but i believe that only this season are we seeing a spike above the league average of jordan's years

Jordan’s career was almost all before the 2001 rules changes on defense. Harden’s career is all after. In Jordan’s day, it was all about creating your own shot, beating your man off the dribble. Now, it’s all about passing, breaking down help defenses. They are both great for their eras, but Jordan would do better in today’s game than Harden would in the 90s.

MJ didn’t have the help Harden has. If MJ has elite 3 point shooters spreading the floor, he couldn’t be double teamed and would do better

Defenses haven’t evolved at the speed of offenses