We could make a separate thread on this but am kind of surprised more people are not aware of the history of guys that got out of shape and partied getting out of the league rather abruptly. Jordan may have been the exception this and was a one of the most unique and exceptional athletes in the history of the world. However guys like Walker, kemp, iverson, vin baker. When these guys are 28-30 they can kind of get away with it and play themselves back into shape. As they get older that becomes harder and harder to do and also things like lack of sleep have a bigger impact. If you get chance to talk to local nba beatwriters or sometimes even guys that work high end casinos they tell you these stories. Even someone Jackie mac has shared a lot of stories like this over the year.
Except none of those guys were playing at a MVP level at age 32 and they didn't just wake up one day and fall off a cliff (well Baker did from the injury in 99 to extreme drinking and alcoholism)
Come on man. Iverson clearly fell off a cliff. He went fro. 26 points to 16 overnight and was a role player that quickly washed out of the league. Marbury went from solid starting point guard to playing China in a year and a half. Dwight Howard and Carmelo went from stars to bouncing around the league. Aldridge went from 19-7 to 14-4.5 over night. We may be seeing it this year with lillard. Sometimes it is injuries. Sometimes age. But players don’t gracefully age in any sport outside of the few athletic freaks that have been mentioned already. Are you basically trying to argue it is near impossible harden a 33 year old perennially out of shape guy that couldn’t make it through the playoffs last year may be in significant decline next year. This is just such a strange argument you are making that good players DO defeat Father Time. Lol.
Iverson also went from 42 mpg to under 37.
Iverson's ppg per 36 minutes the last 5 years of his career: 27.6, 22.3, 22.8, 17.1, 16.0. The 27.6 was his last full season in Philly, the next year he played 15 games in Philly at 26.3 before joining Denver (and playing with Melo) for 50 games where he went down to 21.1 (but on a significantly improved efficiency), so his role changed and he took less shots. The 22.8 to 17.1 was another team switch mid-season and then 16 he switched again. You see when you actually account for lesser minutes and differing roles, he had a nice gradual decline over 5 years. That is typical.
Howard was undergoing a gradual decline, and then hurt himself badly and only played 9 games in Washington. When he came back from that, he was a role player coming off the bench with way less minutes. But again if you look at per 36 numbers, he had a gradual decline the last five season at basically 20/15, 18/13 (9 game season), 14/14, 15/18, 13/13. Way less minutes, but only slightly worse production per minute. So yeah an injury to Howard diminished his minutes and his role, but not his actual production.
If your position is Harden is going to get hurt, that is fine, but there isn't much evidence that Harden will in fact get hurt. It happens eventually to everyone, but Harden has been one of the healthier players of the last 15 years, especially accounting for the huge amount of minutes he has played. He is 2nd in the league in mpg this year and is averaging basically 23/10/8 on a TS% of 59. He isn't just going to disappear unless he gets hurt and I never count on injuries especially from players that have generally been very healthy in their careers. It isn't like he is Anthony Davis or Joel Embiid in that department. For example, Harden has played 45 more regular season games than Lebron since Harden entered the league.
Topic: Rumour: Harden to the 76ers? (Read 11537 times)