Hats off to Marcis Smart

DenverSooner said:
Where do you guys come up with things like this. Much better than Harden?

Harden as a Freshman:

PPG 17.8, RPG 5.3, SPG 2.1, APG 3.2, FG% 52.7, 3pt% 40.7% FT 75.4% TO 2.6

Smart as a Freshman is averaging 15 points, 5.8 boards, 5.8 assists per game.

That is not much better. In fact, I don't think it is better because Smart shoots .418 form the floor and .316 from 3.
Click to expand...

Okay so much better than Westbrook as a Fr or Soph in college and just as good if not better than Harden as a Fr. If I was a college coach and had the choice of Smart or Harden as a freshman in college I'd take Smart. While not as polished offensively, he is a point not a SG. Better defender (steals and blocks etc...), distributor and rebounder. Can't believe I'm defending an aggie on here.
 
BoomerDAB said:
Okay so much better than Westbrook as a Fr or Soph in college and just as good if not better than Harden as a Fr. If I was a college coach and had the choice of Smart or Harden as a freshman in college I'd take Smart. While not as polished offensively, he is a point not a SG. Better defender (steals and blocks etc...), distributor and rebounder. Can't believe I'm defending an aggie on here.
Click to expand...

no he isn't .. he shoots in the low 40's and in the low 30's from 3 ..

he is a very very good player ... and college basketball is down
 
There is much more to being a basketball player than shooting percentage. If you don't get that... I can't help you. Smart has led his team to a better record and NCAA birth compared to Harden's freshman team (NIT). We all agree Harden is a better shooter, but that's the only area he's better then Smart at this point.
 
BoomerDAB said:
Okay so much better than Westbrook as a Fr or Soph in college and just as good if not better than Harden as a Fr. If I was a college coach and had the choice of Smart or Harden as a freshman in college I'd take Smart. While not as polished offensively, he is a point not a SG. Better defender (steals and blocks etc...), distributor and rebounder. Can't believe I'm defending an aggie on here.
Click to expand...

Well you would be stupid. Look at the shooting percentages. Harden is the better player. He scores more on less shot attempts. He shoots the 3 point shot about 33% better than Smart. You are just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Smart does have better numbers than Westbrook.
 
DenverSooner said:
Well you would be stupid. Look at the shooting percentages. Harden is the better player. He scores more on less shot attempts. He shoots the 3 point shot about 33% better than Smart. You are just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Smart does have better numbers than Westbrook.
Click to expand...

true although smart is also about at his physical peak and westbrook was no where close to it as a freshman


and just an fyi for everyone ... smart is only 6th in PER in the big 12 ..

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/hollinger/statistics/_/group/8 osby is second
 
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DenverSooner said:
You think Harden didn't do the exact same thing? I have not ever said a single bad word about Smart and only called out people that say things like he was MUCH better than Blake Griffin as a freshman and much better than James Harden as a freshman. Those are ridiculous statements in my opinion
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about Harden at all.

I was simply talking about Smart relative to his stats.
 
BoomerDAB said:
There is much more to being a basketball player than shooting percentage. If you don't get that... I can't help you. Smart has led his team to a better record and NCAA birth compared to Harden's freshman team (NIT). We all agree Harden is a better shooter, but that's the only area he's better then Smart at this point.
Click to expand...
The team success comparison is unfair because Harden inherited an atrocious team. Sendek's first ASU team was 8-22 (2-16 in the PAC 10); the next season was Harden's freshman year. He spearheaded a dramatic turnaround.

Merely referring to Harden as a "better shooter" is disingenuous. There's a world of difference between simply being a better shooter versus being a more efficient high-volume scorer.

You also have to consider Harden's production within the context of his team's system. Sendek's brutally methodical offense (315th out of 341 teams in tempo in 2007-08) was far from the ideal showcase of Harden's skill set.

I also don't understand the Westbrook references in this thread. There are a lot of guys that had better freshman and sophomore years than Westbrook, but he had a highly unusual trajectory. Westbrook was a lightly recruited prospect who was a year younger than the rest of his class (he turned 18 three days before his first game at UCLA). He was extremely raw. His progression from high school to college to the NBA was an extreme anomaly.
 
Pretty sure Westbrook didn't start much in college.
 
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