Post#9 » by kerry kittles » Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:10 pm
Expanding upon my Harden vote since the conversation here is pretty light.
Found this tidbit interesting from Lowe's article yesterday on Harden's impact:
"Houston’s offense died all season with Harden on the bench. Things got especially embarrassing in the conference finals, when Golden State outscored the Rockets by 36 points in the 41 minutes Harden rested, per NBA.com. The series was almost dead even with Harden on the court, and if Lawson commits, Houston should be able to at least survive when Harden sits."
During the season the Rockets were +5.8 with him on the court and -3.0 when he sat.
Harden led the league in win shares
Harden was 2nd behind Curry in VORP
He was 3rd in RAPM behind just Lebron and Curry
There isn't much of a difference scoring wise between Westbrook and Harden, but Harden was much more efficient - 60.5 TS% vs 53.6%. Now most people usually point to FT's with Harden when discussing his efficiency, yes it's annoying to watch, but it's still a skill - drawing FT's and per 36 he and Westbrook average the same number of FT's. Harden is the much more efficient scorer.
He propped the Rockets up - they were the 2nd seed despite Howard missing half the season, Terrence Jones missing 49 games, Beverly missing 26 games. They got to the conference finals and gave the Warriors fight despite have a revolving door rotation of Terry/Prigs replacing Beverly and not having DMO. His defense was improved this past year. I know aesthetically his game isn't pleasing, but he's a great player.
