UGA Hayes wrote:^ Do you actually have statistical proof of that, or is that a general observation? Your stantement on the comparison b/t Wade/James/and Harden seem highly subjective at this point and I'm not ever really sure is true.
Is this to me?
There is no questioning the truth of what I said, look it up yourself. The numbers are readily available.
I mean since win is Wade a great midrange shooter, or even needed to be a great midrange shooter.
...
Do you watch Wade play? He doesn't have a ton of range past the elbow, that's for sure, but he uses mid-range shots all the time if he can't get to the rim around the screen, always has. In his scoring title season, in 2009 (aka the peak of his offensive output), he was taking 3.1 FGA/g from 3-15 feet. He was also taking 7.8 FGA/g at 16-23 feet and shooting 42% on those shots. He had much more middle game than Harden has displayed to date. In the 2012 title season, he took 5 FGA/g from 3-15 feet, which I've already gone over.
Back in the 2006 title season, he took 3.28 FGA/g from 3-9 feet at 47.2% and 3.36 FGA/g from 10-15 feet at 38.1%.
Clearly, when you're taking almost 6.7 FGA/g from that range, you're using the shot quite a lot. You could see floaters, you could see pull-ups, you could see some hooks... basically, he was a much more capable finisher between the rim and the 3pt line, and it made a difference when he was attacking because he was a credible threat in between. He tried to get to the rim as often as possible (and at 9.2 FGA/g on 65.6%, he succeed brilliantly), but obviously he needed more to his game. Hell, he was taking 7.39 FGA/g from 16-23 feet, a lot like his scoring title season, shooting 41.0%. Healthy Wade has flashed a much better jumper than most people credit him as having. Under the arc, anyway.
Being mystified that Wade was ever a good mid-range shooter kind of highlights a lack of exposure to him in his prime, because it was a staple component of his game, even if he was more known for splitting doubles and ramming it in peoples' teeth, which he certainly did regularly. Wade was MUCH more explosive than Harden, though, and got to the rim even MORE (which is kind of a terrifying notion, when you pause and think about it, given Harden's efficacy at getting to the rim).
LAst time I checked REfs still screw over him opponents in the playoffs and give him FT like candy. Your reasons for why this won't happen for Harden are pretty unconvinving IMO.
Right... but Wade's playoff FTA/FGA since Lebron joined?
2011: .4799
2012: .3897
Playoff Career FTA/FGA: .456
He wasn't getting nearly the same kind of treatment in the 2012 playoffs, so you're wrong.
More particularly, the 2011 Finals: .454
That's not really terrifyingly epic when you think about it. He got to the line effectively, for sure, but part of that is consistently driving. Also, it helped that Dallas' defense was primarily keying on Lebron James more so than on Dwyane Wade, and then of course he was no where to be found over the last two games of the Finals, in part due to the injury he suffered (which is another concern of only relentlessly attacking the basket; see Maggette, Corey).
You'll notice too that Malone and David Robinson still both got to the line very effectively in the playoffs as well, but the root problem they had was that their FG% tended to pit out, rather than watching their DrawF evaporate. That's more of a situational problem at the end of games or in a given game where things get chippy. You can't live on FTAs, though, so for consistent performance, you need to be able to get clean looks at the basket in more than one or two ways.
I think you're perhaps assuming that I'm saying Harden is going to get to the playoffs and not draw any fouls?
But that's stupid, and not at all what I'm saying. If you drive, you'll get rewarded, at least eventually and on the balance of your efforts. The problem is more that if all you can do is finish at the rim and bomb threes, well, you're going to see major issues in terms of consistency and, regular season aside, you'll eventually run into a defense like the proper versions of Boston and Chicago (not playing quite to par right now) who, over the balance of a series where they are scouting and adjusting to you more deeply than they do in the regular season, will make life a living hell for you with a roster like Houston's.
This is why it's important to balance things out with a broader array of abilities. I doubt anyone here is saying that Harden needs to start spamming 20-footers and tons and tons of elbow jumpers, but while his shot distribution is really pleasing to look at taken as a regular-season whole, you can see well enough that the games where he's struggling, his three point shot is off and he's having some trouble getting to the line. There's a reason guys like Jordan and Kobe milked their mid-range shot. There's a reason that MJ had as much in common with a young Wade as he did with Kevin Durant's off-ball game setting himself up for isos. You can't just spam pick-and-rolls all day and assume you're going to get the same looks in each different situation, teams can plan for that over a more extended series, so you need to shake it up at least a little.
EDIT: I should add, I just played the "Do you watch..." card, which made me feel bad, but the question asked made me really unsure, because the mid-range is such a big part of Wade's game and always has been. He's always been a guy who did his work under the arc and even in the seasons where he was getting to the rim an absurd number of times per game, he had a host of fallaways, spinning jumpers, pull-ups, floaters and other elements of a complete middle game that helped him get his shot off even when he was walled off from the rim despite his epic explosiveness. Later, of course, he'd develop and flash a post game, which has served him well over the last few years, but the point is, Wade has always been a guy with a great deal of game between the rim and the 3pt line, so to question when he was ever really good at it is to kind of not understand a key piece of why Wade has been so successful.
