Which versions of Harden were better than 01 Vince Carter?

Amare_1_Knicks · Post #2 » by **Amare_1_Knicks** » Mon Jul 6, 2020 4:15 pm

2015 to 2020, definitely. 13 and 14 are comparable (offensively) but I’d give VC a moderate edge overall. Harden was very good in the RS (offensively) but wet the bed in the postseason. Not to mention Carter had an advantage on defense as well. He also was much more of himself in the postseason than Harden was.

Stan · Post #3 » by **Stan** » Tue Jul 7, 2020 8:15 pm

Harden's been better since 2015

No-more-rings · Post #4 » by **No-more-rings** » Tue Jul 7, 2020 10:59 pm

What’s the case for 2016?

Amare_1_Knicks · Post #5 » by **Amare_1_Knicks** » Tue Jul 14, 2020 8:39 pm

No-more-rings wrote:What’s the case for 2016?

Harden in 2016 was still a more well-rounded, productive player the VC was in 01.

The Rockets fell off considerably from the previous season, but I’d wager that it had more to do with chemistry and coaching issues, more than any Harden shortcoming specifically. Harden was still producing to the tune of 29/6/7.5 on 60%TS (+6% rTS). Defensively, he was nothing special as per his MO, but I would still maintain that he was still clearly a superstar offensively.

Dwight and Harden were starting to butt heads on offense/in general, and outside of Harden, Ariza and Brewer, the rest of the supporting cast missed between 11-30+ games that season. The Rockets also spent the majority of the season being coached by JB Bickerstaff, whose coaching record and reputation is underwhelming and unimpressive to say the very least.

Basically, the point that I’m making here is that there were a number of things working in concert with one another to contribute to Houston’s underwhelming season, quite possibly the least of which was Harden himself. Individually, he was quite good — spearheading a top 7 offense — again, under a questionable head coach.