Tim Hardaway >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Penny Hardaway
- Thread starter Dettol
- Start date
mbewane
Knicks: 93 til infinity
Breh I'm a Knicks fan, saw both play at the time but can't agree with this
prophecypro
Hollywood North
I know it seems like hype and excuses, but it cant be said enough how much those knee injuries and surgeries got him right when he was at the cusp of reaching his actual prime at 25/26. In 97 when he switched to shooting guard in the playoffs and the following season at the start, you could see he could easily be a 25-30ppg scorer like he was when Shaq was out.
Even in Phoenix his first year and his 3rd year coming back for the first 20 games or so he was an effective 17-20ppg scorer while playing SG/PG with Kidd and Starbury.
Definetly SG was his natural position but he was effective at PG and SF too. The early explination for his assists only being 7 per game in Orlando was that often when he dished it to Shaq dude would get fouled at the line and The Magic's movement on the perimeter was pretty heavy for the 3s. But he definetly had court vision and to set up plays with those weapons. Same deal in Phoenix when Kidd was out during the end of the 99-00 season.
You could say there was a knock on him being too unselfish which was a problem particularly in 96-97, 98-99 and his first year in Phoenix when he was deferring to others. If anything would have held him back other than injury it would have been that when people wanted him to take on the team's volume scoring, he would set others up. But in the Playoffs he really did (Particularly the 97 and 2000 Playoffs)
Keep in mind during this stretch he has 4 microfacture knee surgeries in 2 years (then still an underdeveloped procedure compared to now) and is trying to rush back in certain instances (96 and 97)
No question Tim Hardaway is the better player having been more healthy and achieveing a lot but I dont think anyone should doubt Penny would have been right there with Hill, Timmy, Kidd, GP, Houston and Stack well into the late 90s/early 2000s.
Even in Phoenix his first year and his 3rd year coming back for the first 20 games or so he was an effective 17-20ppg scorer while playing SG/PG with Kidd and Starbury.
Definetly SG was his natural position but he was effective at PG and SF too. The early explination for his assists only being 7 per game in Orlando was that often when he dished it to Shaq dude would get fouled at the line and The Magic's movement on the perimeter was pretty heavy for the 3s. But he definetly had court vision and to set up plays with those weapons. Same deal in Phoenix when Kidd was out during the end of the 99-00 season.
You could say there was a knock on him being too unselfish which was a problem particularly in 96-97, 98-99 and his first year in Phoenix when he was deferring to others. If anything would have held him back other than injury it would have been that when people wanted him to take on the team's volume scoring, he would set others up. But in the Playoffs he really did (Particularly the 97 and 2000 Playoffs)
Keep in mind during this stretch he has 4 microfacture knee surgeries in 2 years (then still an underdeveloped procedure compared to now) and is trying to rush back in certain instances (96 and 97)
No question Tim Hardaway is the better player having been more healthy and achieveing a lot but I dont think anyone should doubt Penny would have been right there with Hill, Timmy, Kidd, GP, Houston and Stack well into the late 90s/early 2000s.
For all the cats disrespecting Penny, either they don't know the game or they were just to young to remember how nice he was before the knee injuries. Penny was on his way to first ballot HOF and was the second best guard in the league after Jordan.
at Allan Houston being better than Penny....my goodness
Lakers Offseason
Superstar
This.
It's ashamed what that injury did to rob us of what could have been. People back then were talking about him being a combination of Jordan and Magic.
Tim's double crossover though was
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
do you not realize you are doing the exact same thing to Tim Hardaway?
So Penny was better than Mitch???
Yeah i don't think it's a stretch to say he was better than Mitch. Mitch had a longer career thus more accolades but no GM would pick Mitch before Penny in a draft.
: It aint that outlandish to say we didnt see his true prime
