NBA4Lyfe wrote:nedleeds wrote:NBA4Lyfe wrote:
harden is the best guard of the past 10-12 years
Hahahahahaah stop.
Harden has a higher career bpm, win shares, win shares per 48 and vorp than curry. Both were drafted in 2009, so how do you explain harden being more productive
Easy. All of those stats favorite ball dominant players more. Harden tends to hold the ball and break down defenders, while Curry makes quick decisions and keeps moving. Neither method of play is inherently better, but holding onto to the ball for much of the clock like Harden often does means he's more likely to either take a shot or throw the last pass before somebody else shoots the ball. Harden also played for D'Antoni for years, where he was the primary option in a turbo-charged offensive system that maximized his counting stats.
As far as more direct impact stats, Curry led the league in 5-year RAPM (real adjusted plus-minus spread over 5 season samples to minimize variance) for 2013-2018, 2014-2019, 2015-2020, 2016-2021 & 2017-2022. Harden was 6th, 7th, 13th, 12th & 18th during the same 5-season samples. That's not cherry picking either—if I go back to 2012-2017 and 2011-2016, Curry drops to 3rd for both those samples, but Harden drops back to 18th and 26th. On the simpler measure of raw +/- per 100 possessions, Curry has just as big an edge. Harden is at +4.8 for his career and his best season was +9.1. Curry is at +11.6 for his career, with five different seasons over +15.
Of course, RAPM and +/- per 100 aren't definitive by themselves, but over a large sample size, and especially with that big a difference between players, they provide useful info imo. Also, if you want a more intuitive, less mathy explanation, Curry changes games via historic "gravity" i.e. spreading the court like no other player in history. The need for other teams to guard him all over the court up to 30 feet out and his ability to capitalize on openings almost instantly (that skill at making super-quick decisions & getting off accurate shots even when he just barely has enough room & time) opens up the Warriors offense in a way that just makes a huge positive difference for everyone else on the court with him. Harden can also hit deep threes, but he doesn't make decisions at the same speed or move without the ball at nearly the same level.
I think Harden is an excellent player and often underrated due to some bad luck in the playoffs & only clearly being on a contending roster for one season (with a couple of others that were borderline). He's not as good as Curry, but very few players in NBA history are, so that's no slight on him.
