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Obviously, KD is easily among the greats in NBA history & even his biggest haters will admit it.

But whenever KD & Harden are compared to eachother, people says he's clearly better than Harden without elaborating it.

Just looking into playoff statistics when KD and Harden had same level of supporting casts on OKC & Houston Rockets respectively while being undisupted most valuable/impactful player, Harden actually has an edge on KD. Simply due to playmaking skills & having slightly better TS% despite KD's scoring were heavily assisted.

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Kevin Durant at Oklahoma City Thunder (2009-2016)

Playoffs

- 28.9 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.7 APG
- 45.5 FG%, 32.9 3P%, 84.8 FT% on 57.5 TS% (46.2% of 2Ps & 73.9% of 3Ps assisted)
- 0.177 WS/48
- 6.3 BPM
- 0 Rings
- 0 Finals MVPs


James Harden at Houston Rockets (2012-2020)

Playoffs

- 28.4 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 7.1 APG
- 42.1 FG%, 32.4 3P%, 87.1 FT% on 57.8 TS% (15.0% of 2Ps & 30.8% of 3Ps assisted)
- 0.173 WS/48
- 7.6 BPM
- 0 Rings
- 0 Finals MVPs

Durant shows up on the biggest stage, when Harden crumbles under pressure. Your cherry picked stats obviously dont show that. Leaving our Durants two titles and FMVPS, how pathetic is that?

traax wrote:Durant shows up on the biggest stage, when Harden crumbles under pressure. Your cherry picked stats obviously dont show that. Leaving our Durants two titles and FMVPS, how pathetic is that?

I agree Durant is clearly better. But playing on that GS team makes his titles and fmvps kinda a joke.

I will never trust Harden in a must win game in the playoffs (like game 7 vs OKC this year or game 4 vs LAL) or in a close game in the fourth quarter especially in a big playoff game

My problem with Harden is not because he is ringless .... it's how he performs in big moment.Durant was not perfect in the playoffs with OKC, but with Harden, it is now an expectation that he performs poorly in big moments.

SerialChiller wrote:

traax wrote:Durant shows up on the biggest stage, when Harden crumbles under pressure. Your cherry picked stats obviously dont show that. Leaving our Durants two titles and FMVPS, how pathetic is that?

I agree Durant is clearly better. But playing on that GS team makes his titles and fmvps kinda a joke.

Based upon what? Don't use hypothericals, but rather arguing with stats to back your claim about KD > Harden.

Harden is better than KD when neither of them had a stacked deck.

I'd say better but maybe not clearly better and its due to his defense and length which makes him a more resilient scorer and tougher match up in the playoffs.

Hardens stats are inflated playing under a system catered to his needs and getting stats. His team is made to spam 3 pointers all the time where his assists mean nothing.

Durant played with horrible spacing, mainly guys who were athletes, defending and beating other teams on the glass from 2012 onwards. He was more of the sole scorer come playoff time where no one else could buy a bucket and Russ couldn't score more than 12 feet from the basket.

I don't think the gap is that big, but context matters.

Cavsfansince84 wrote:I'd say better but maybe not clearly better and its due to his defense and length which makes him a more resilient scorer and tougher match up in the playoffs.

Harden is better than KD defensively going by DBPM, although none of them were great at it lol.

Difference is KD is an offensive wizard with a bag of offensive tricks that make him nearly impossible to defend. James Harden on the other hand is a 3-trick pony: 3's, layups, flops. That's it.

Drygon wrote:Obviously, KD is easily among the greats in NBA history & even his biggest haters will admit it.

But whenever KD & Harden are compared to eachother, people says he's clearly better than Harden without elaborating it.

Just looking into playoff statistics when KD and Harden had same level of supporting casts on OKC & Houston Rockets respectively while being undisupted most valuable/impactful player, Harden actually has an edge on KD. Simply due to playmaking skills & having slightly better TS% despite KD's scoring were heavily assisted.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kevin Durant at Oklahoma City Thunder (2009-2016)

Playoffs

- 28.9 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.7 APG
- 45.5 FG%, 32.9 3P%, 84.8 FT% on 57.5 TS% (46.2% of 2Ps & 73.9% of 3Ps assisted)
- 0.177 WS/48
- 6.3 BPM
- 0 Rings
- 0 Finals MVPs


James Harden at Houston Rockets (2012-2020)

Playoffs

- 28.4 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 7.1 APG
- 42.1 FG%, 32.4 3P%, 87.1 FT% on 57.8 TS% (15.0% of 2Ps & 30.8% of 3Ps assisted)
- 0.173 WS/48
- 7.6 BPM
- 0 Rings
- 0 Finals MVPs

Durant is obviously a better playoff perfoemer because of the variety in how he scores harden's numbers are inflated by houstons system..... thats what I thought at first.

But watch Harden before he started completely buying into the moneyball system. its staggering how much the warriors are guessing and struggling to defend him.
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I wonder now if harden just wasted 3-4 years of his prime playing in a grade school offense with a coach who plays too much 2k. the man looked like he was on his way to being better than wade, before the Morey and D'antoni convinced him to change his game.

KD plays better off ball and Harden does on ball.

They would work really well

Optms wrote:Difference is KD is an offensive wizard with a bag of offensive tricks that make him nearly impossible to defend. James Harden on the other hand is a 3-trick pony: 3's, layups, flops. That's it.

KD was only impossible to defend at GSW because he played next to Steph Curry. His efficiency got inflated thanks to it.

Compared to what KD did in OKC, Harden has better TS% despite KD's points were massively assisted.

Drygon wrote:

SerialChiller wrote:

traax wrote:Durant shows up on the biggest stage, when Harden crumbles under pressure. Your cherry picked stats obviously dont show that. Leaving our Durants two titles and FMVPS, how pathetic is that?

I agree Durant is clearly better. But playing on that GS team makes his titles and fmvps kinda a joke.

Based upon what? Don't use hypothericals, but rather arguing with stats to back your claim about KD > Harden.

Harden is better than KD when neither of them had a stacked deck.

Based upon watching them play and seeing how Durants a better defender, and just as deadly on offense without monopolizing all his teams possessions. Hardens teammates dont even seem involved in the game watching him dribble for so long.

Harden monopolises the efficient shots (layups/dunks and 3pt) and lets everybody else pick up the scraps.

Durant stays efficient in the (least efficient) midrange and allows others to benefit from his defense collapsing gravity and doesn't disappear from the floor without the ball in his hands.

This is the main reason why Durant remains effective during the playoffs, and why he is rated better than Harden.

Side note: This is the same reason why Jordan and Kobe are way more effective than Harden.

Maybe it's D'Antoni's fault. The few rare times Harden posted up these playoffs, he was highly successful. A couple of plays later, D'Antoni would call a timeout and then no more Harden post-ups.

Perhaps strangely, Durant and Harden would probably be an all time duo together

Peak KD was a tier above Harden.

James Harden played a former DPOY off the court and is called a choker

Kevin Durant has never reached that level of skill and has benefited from winning bias.

DaPessimist wrote:Peak KD was a tier above Harden.

I assume you're talking about KD's peak at OKC, right?

No

KD is a generational elite shot maker, whereas James Harden is elite at playing the refs. Let's just compare them on Team USA. Kevin Durant is the #1 option and entire opposing teams scheme to stop him, whereas James Harden is basically a scrub in FIBA because he can't march his way to the FT line.

Drygon wrote:

DaPessimist wrote:Peak KD was a tier above Harden.

I assume you're talking about KD's peak at OKC, right?

His 2nd year with the Warriors he was the best scorer in the league and a DPOY candidate. One of the most complete players I've ever seen play the game.