Take away the 15 games Harden has 40+ pts this season, he still leads league

[Fafnir]

And Giannis is still having a better scoring season than him, which is absolutely insane.

[Moranis]

Well, the league survived the Pat Reilly Knicks and Heat and the disgusting to watch, grabbing, holding offense stifling, defense that turned so many games into 79-76 slugfests. That was some seriously ugly basketball

The league also implemented a bunch of rule changes to try and phase out that style of play that many fans didn't like, right?

I wonder if the league will do something about the "frees and threes" style of play before it becomes too widespread.



The tricky thing is that ball movement leading to outside shots is fun to watch.  See: 13/14 Spurs, 15/16 Warriors.

But heavy isolation basketball aimed at generating a lot of fouls and step back threes ... that stinks.

Yes. Yes the league did change the rules to stop that. Not sure they will make rule changes to stop Harden's ugly game though. Just can't see how to do it other than to tell the refs to stop giving superstars "superstar" foul calls.

bring back hand checking and some of the defensive things they took away

[fairweatherfan]

And Giannis is still having a better scoring season than him, which is absolutely insane.

Wait what? Harden averages over 7 pts a game more. Are you talking efficiency?

Has there ever been a player before Harden who so directly created a conflict between impressive raw numbers production and the aesthetic aspect of the game?

Read an intriguing argument that Harden's reputation is mostly damaged by the greater availability of games. 50 years ago when Wilt was dropping 50 a game almost nothing was televised so the box score carried all the impact. Now that fans can see exactly how he gets to those gaudy numbers it's seen as less legitimate.

[Fafnir]

And Giannis is still having a better scoring season than him, which is absolutely insane.

Wait what? Harden averages over 7 pts a game more. Are you talking efficiency?

Combination of their efficiency and per minute/possession scoring. Which are slightly in Harden's favor, so why do I think Giannis is scoring even better?

Because Giannis is sitting down in and not playing much in all the blowouts, meanwhile Harden plays his minutes and gets his shots up almost every night blow out or not. He's not missing his numbers no matter the opponent or night.