We all know Harden as the original blogboi player, a player that analytic enthusiasts claimed would be a superstar because of his efficiency and advanced stats, even in his rookie season. I have to admit I doubted them at the time, but they were right.
There’s also the infamous EG and Jokic situation, a guy fascinated by advanced metrics predicting this role player would be a superstar
My question is: was Harden the OG blogboi player? Or just the most famous case of advanced metrics being right? Any other examples of this before that?
Kevin Love was getting a lot of hype among bball nerds based on his impact as a rookie. Getting like 13/10 in 15 mins consistently.
millsap
per 36 people loved him
We all know Harden as the original blogboi player, a player that analytic enthusiasts claimed would be a superstar
Do we? I don’t remember that level of hype around Harden as a rookie.
And I don’t remember a big community of people doing serious analytics at that time. It was Hollinger and maybe a handful of others.
He was drafted 3rd overall, what are you talking about
Kevin Martin, stats dudes loved him. You could say he was the OG Moreyball player until Harden went super nova.
Kevin Martin was the first name that came to mind and also a perfect example of why stats with no context/eye test is useless.
He was a bad defender, playmaker, low bball iq. Had a good jump shot and got a lot of free throws so his TS% was high. But definitely a worse player than his stats indicated.
The opening chapter of Michael Lewis’s book The Undoing Project goes into Darryl Morey’s early analytics in the 2000s. It is not a basketball book at all but that first chapter is relevant.
3rd overall pick and it was clear as day that he was too good to be a 6th man on the thunder lol. Harden is amazing and everyone knew he was gonna be a star in the league stop this analytics nonsense (both hate and love)