2019-20 Around the NBA: Archived

[ThunderMav]

I think you have to look at recency.  Harden has been playing bad the past 2 months and Russ good.  Plus Russ stopped taking so many 3’s. 

If you take FTs away from both players Russ would be so far ahead in points scored.  Harden has 2 elements to his game.  3’s and FTs.  Half his FTs are bogus too.  Russ is horrible at 3’s but can do all else.  

Here is recency:

https://twitter.com/statmuse/status/1226699852110876672

Thing is that if I remove Harden. Westbrook has less space and is forced to take more jumpshots. That´s what happened every single time he was the number 1 option on offense. In Houston that´s not the case. Harden has a Curry/Dirk like gravity. Teams are going all out to stop him and RW takes advantage. We have seen the craziest schemes against Harden. Box and 1. Double teams on the catch. Or the crazy...guard him from behind to prevent a stepback.
Harden goes through hot and cold stretches. He shot terrible early in the season and in january. I don´t like his style of play but the success is undeniable.
Big question mark for both will be the playoffs. They don´t have a good track record and it will be interesting to see if D´Anthony/Morey ball finally works out. Personally I don´t see it.

I concede that Harden does help open things up for Russ.

By the way great discussion!  Its nice to be able to discuss a topic with different viewpoints yet done maturely.  Thats just one more reason I love this fanbase!