Who is the best shooting guard in the NBA?
The debate right now comes down to Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Houston’s James Harden. (It’s a step down to the next tier of DeMar DeRozan, and maybe C.J. McCollum, and the underrated J.J. Redick.)
Jason Terry, on his weekly show on SiriusXM NBA Radio, made it clear where he stood — on Team Harden. (Hat tip JD Shaw of Def Pen)“He’s not leading s***,” Terry said of Klay Thompson. “If he doesn’t make shots, how effective is he? Go watch Klay Thompson vs. James Harden from last year and see what James did to him. Every time James got by him, you know who was there? Draymond Green or Andrew Bogut.
“Let’s see what happens this time around”.
To me, you can make a case for either guy.
To answer Terry’s question, what Thompson does if his shot is not falling is defend. Far better than Harden. Did Harden blow past Thompson and get to the second level against the Warriors? Yes. Just like Harden did against 29 other teams. Nobody is stopping him one-on-one in the NBA, every team needs to have help defenders and bigs clogging the paint against Harden. Thompson forces help defenses to stretch as well.
Harden is the better shot creator. Thompson is the better pure shooter. If I have Stephen Curry at the point I’d rather have Thompson next to him; if I have Patrick Beverley at the point, I’d rather have Harden.
Let the debate begin in the comments.