OptimusOne6 wrote:This is based on what? You expect me to believe you just because you say it? The fact of the matter is that the numbers show that Westbrook is the better passer/playmaker than Harden. I don't know if it gets any simpler than this.
No, actually. The numbers show that Westbrook makes a pass that leads to an assist more regularly. That doesn't actually tell you whether or not the player is a better playmaker. It tells you that the guy has the opportunity to do so more frequently and with Kevin Durant, a highly-efficient and primarily off-ball scorer, as the primary offensive weapon on the team, the Thunder run a lot of sets where Westbrook makes a simple pass and KD finishes. Or penetrate and pitch to him, or Thabo. Or Kevin Martin, if we're looking at this year.
You're trying to equate APG with playmaking ability, and it's a bad move.
Yes, I know Lin is a good passer but he is used as a spot-up shooter in Houston and Harden is the one that has the rock in his hands most of the time.
And yet he's still finding the time to produce at that level, which is significant. Also, you're forgetting that Lin actually plays on the ball more than he spots up. This year, Lin has used about 12% of his possessions for isolations, about 30% of them as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll and then about 29% of them for spot-ups. So your characterization is actually wrong, he plays with the ball MORE than he spots up. Then he spends a sizeable portion of his time in transition.
There's a REASON he's outputting the numbers he is posting.
No, but he is certainly a better passer than Westbrook. Westbrook is a better playmaker than both but I would say he is better than Harden at everything involving passing.
Westbrook is a more dynamic penetrator than Calderon and a less fundamentally sound one. He isn't as good at using the PnR to create for the roll man or the spot-up shooters. I would say that Calderon is a very good PnR passer, but I wouldn't say he's a better playmaker. He's not awesome in transition, he doesn't have good penetration ability, so if he doesn't get around the screen or have a simple pass open up right away, he's not going to be all that effective. There's a reason he often disappears late in games or against better teams. Plus, the Raptors run a lot of simple offense where he makes a 15-foot pass along the 3pt line and then Bargs or someone sticks a 3 or a 20-footer.
Pretty slight difference between passing and playmaking.
Not at all. One is just technical ability to deliver a pass. The other is knowledge of where players are on the floor, where they're going to be, running sets, patience, post/re-post, PnR, penetrate-and-pitch, resetting, controlling tempo, a host of other things that add up to how well a player maintains control over the team's offense.
