anothermagicfan wrote:pepe1991 wrote:anothermagicfan wrote:
Ok. You brought up curry and harden. Let's take a look at the 3 of them at year 3.
Curry's 3rd year in nba- 26 gp, 28 min, 14.7 ppg, fg49%, 3p% 45.5, ft%81, reb 3.4, ast 5.3, tov 2.5, St 1.5, blk .3, and 3 dd.
Hardens 3rd year in nba- 61 gp, 31.4 min, 16.8 ppg, fg%49, 3pt% 39, ft%85, reb 4.1, ast 3.7, tov 2.2, St 1.0, blk .2 and no dd.
Elfs 3rd year in nba (so far)- 68 gp, 29.2 min, 12.4 ppg, fg% 46.5, 3pt% 26, ft% 68, reb 4.4, ast 6, tov 2.1, St 1.1, blk .5, and 10 dd. And 3 td. That's 6 career triple doubles. At 23 years old. Curry's got 7. He's 29. Hardens first 3 seasons. Guess what not a single double double. His 4th year (first in houston, also at 23) he had 9 double doubles and 1 triple doubles.
I'm not saying elf will ever be compared to Lebron james (although they are both shooting 68 % free throws this season) I'd at least like to give the kid another few years. I'd hate to regret the magic giving up on him. I know I'm not going to.
Context my friend. Context.
Curry's third year is year where he had ankle surgery. Prior that year , in first two he averaged 18 ppg ,6apg on 44% for 3. His surgery was best thing that happend to Warriors because they brutally underpayed him.
Harden's third year i year where he played nba finals and beat Spurs by himself in conference finals. Once when OKC traded him,they never went to nba finals again.
Triple doubles are counting stats. Do you know who Fat Lever is ? That guy had more triple doubles than Jordan, playin in same era as MJ. That's how "important " triple doubles are on greater scale.
Dirk Nowitzki is one of greatest players of our era, and he had grand total of 1 triple double in his career as far as i know . So it means that Julius Randle had more triple doubles this year than Dirk and Duncan whole their careers, would you trade 24 years old Randle for 24 years old Duncan ?
Dude im not saying your wrong. Im not saying im right. Im not saying elf will be a future hall of famer. All im saying is give him another year or 2. Some of the best players today didn't put up star numbers until there 4th or 5th year and then continued to get better. I'd hate for us to pull the plug on elf and have him turn out to be ariza and go be a solid part of a championship team without a magic uniform. Remember the knock on ariza-he couldn't shoot the 3. He turned that around didn't he. I just don't get all the fans that hate on players so much. I could see if we were talking about ball hogging shooters like an Antoine walker or a big baby Davis.
Oh and triple doubles aren't the be all end all stat of the basketball world. They are however a great example of players contributing to the game in multiple ways
I don't even hate him, i think he will be really good backup PG because he can bring change in pace, run transition and attack defense and their backup Cs who most of the time are not good rim protectors. I just laugh when i see thread like other one where dude writes how he is championship PG in times when Magic are fighting to be second worst team in the league by record to get themselfs a pick, despite zero injuries whole season long.
Ariza is outliner. Most players never make such an huge improvment in their shooting, but what kept him in the league is actually his defense that was elite from day one. He is one of few players that can defend 3 positions well. It's kind a shame that he was never awarded with defensive all nba team award. Oh well, when you play same position as Kwhi Leonard, George, Lebron and Igoudala i guess it's hard to get in.