Bob8 wrote:CobraCommander wrote:Bob8 wrote:
Young Harden was averaging 20 points less than Luka.
Harden in his career is avg. 10 points less than Luka.
Harden is averaging 4 rebounds and 2 assist less than Luka.
Harden's best playoffs is 31.6/6.9/6.6, Luka's best playoffs 35.7/7.9/10.3.
And somehow Luka's ceiling is Harden.
At the moment the only player comparable to Luka in playoffs is MJ, who was even better scorer, but less efficient and with less rebounds and assists. MJ has won only 1 game in his first 3 playoffs, being swept 2 times. I wonder, what prediction would you made for him back then?
Tatum has much better team that Luka. Team with multiple great defenders and DPOY.
If we compare Luka and Tatum this playoffs,
31.7/9.8/6.4 vs. 27/6.7/5.9. Not exactly close.
Luka's D would have looked much better too, if he was playing with DPOY and great rim protector.
About your precious Trae, Luka was 3x first All Nba team, Trae 1x 3rd All Nba team. It looks to me that not many see Trae as better player like you. Unfortunately for Trae, size matters.
Lol- Ok but let’s pick points of focus per argument-
1st Young harden was a role player on OKC at the same age. Prime harden had better years than current luka and luka has had essentially the same numbers for 4 years with his peak numbers coming in year 2? Fair?
Either way, my point stands about the harden to luka comparisons- prime harden was better offensively than current luka, and based on luka giving us the same numbers for several years. There is no reason to believe offensively Luka is going to get any better offensively unless his field goal % improve from everywhere and especially the 3 and FT line. The reason I say this is because Luka takes the most shots in the NBA by about 3-5% to next closes person but isn’t in the top 6 in scoring. Luka shooting MORE at the current FG% isnt going to make him better offensively.
On the other hand, When hardens numbers improved significantly the team gave him the keys to the team, his usage went up and the team gave him a green light. His % were around the same but his counting stats went up by virtue of just doing more of the same more often. Luka has had a green since day one and his usage could not get any higher. The only way for Luka to get better offensively in my opinion is to shoot less and at a higher % - that will make the team better but there is no guarantee that Luka will be an elite scorer on prime hardens level even then..No need for you to argue one way or another because neither you nor I know the answer on this. But we will find out and it will be fun.
I’m not going to even talk Luka and MJ....
So we judging Luka vs Trae based on all nba votes?
And the AllNBA is supposed to be about regular season?
And Luka and Trae both suck on defense but Trae offensively got better this year than the last- Luka scored more on less shots with less turn overs with higher FG%s with lower TOs. All things being equal, Traes regular season was better than Lukas but voters vote...Jalen rose voted for Kyrie and other people decided than Luka playing less games, coming in out of shape and starting cold was better than Traes... kinda messed up that voters robbed Trae of a regular season win over Luka but if Trae keeps leveling up Like he did last time...i]next year there will be no way Luka beats Trae for 1st team
You're missing the most important fact, deliberately for sure, that Luka is playing the best in playoffs, unlikely Harden, who was worse in playoffs.
Luka was the best scorer in playoffs this year, last year and second best 2 years ago. Total domination for 23 years old player. And 58% TS is pretty respectful too. But for your narrative RS is better, isn't it?
Harden never had that kind of numbers in playoffs. Luka is averaging more than Harden had in his single best season.
You're saying that he's not improving anymore. It's kinda difficult to improve from 32.5/9/8, don't you think? Probably you agree that, he can improve at least with his conditioning? Kinda scary if fat boy can have efficient 32.5/9/8, with better conditioning 35/10/10 might be reachable. But I'm sure that still won't be enough to reach prime Harden.
Luka and Trae cannot defend guards, the difference is, that Luka is big and strong enough to defend bigger and slower players. Size matters, especially in playoffs.
Look man I ain’t even sure I disagree with you for real. I do think Luka puts up a lot of shots so inefficiently sometimes and when those shots not falling and his defense isn’t there, there is NO way for his team to win. Luka has to be white HOT offensively to win a playoff game and that’s not winning basketball. When Luka shot horribly in game 5- 3-13 from 3...Luka wasn’t helping the team in other ways. When Tatum off he can help elsewhere.
I’m not saying anything bad about Luka by saying a 24 year old (just as young) that scores as efficiently that plays better defense and that is bigger than Luka that has again taken his team further, could be better than Luka. Why is this crazy?
Luka scores a lot...but not the most ever...Luka shoots a lot...ok maybe the most ever there...but to dismiss Tatum being as good or better than Luka as a bad take...is unfair to Tatum.
If Tatum wins a ring at 24 y’all can stop talking about Luka -
Luka can be Melo or AI...amazing individual offensive talent... Great individual talent....
but if Tatum wins more, plays better on defense and as good on offense and brings banners to boston...who would you rather have?
It’s not a foregone conclusion that you swap Tatum for Luka Boston better... Tatum is part of a core that has been building for years.
oH bob...if you don’t think anyone ever could be better that Luka then there is nothing to talk about....we might as well stop watching ball.
