My guess for Portland's center next year: Al Horford

Saying Harkless could be our Green is so delusional; he has none of the court vision or interior defense that makes Draymond uniquely special. Might as well say we hope Harkless becomes our version of LeBron, or Jordan. There's just no reason to compare him with those levels of players.

If Harkless could become a version of Darius Miles with a good work ethic, or a Dallas Mavericks Shawn Marion, or Luol Deng level player we'd have a heck of a guy on the roster. Jerome Kersey, Tony Allen, Gerald Wallace role players are better hopes. No reason to compare him to arguably the best big man in the game.

 

Haven't heard the Gerald Wallace comparison before, and I think it fits better than anyone else thrown around. Probably more Portland Gerald than prime Gerald though.

 

For me its the eye test. Of course Hark isn't a star. Was Green a star in his first couple of seasons? No. These things take time. Growth takes time. It's why we are born 18" long but grow to 5-6' on average. Growth takes time. In MY opinion, I think Hark can become similar to him form what I see of his ball handling, his outside shooting, his ability to drive to the hoop, his great positioning in rebounding. The thing I think he needs the most improvement on is assists, but as he gets better and defense key in on him, I think his court awareness will improve enough to allow him to raise his assists to find the open man, a Davis or Aminu...

You all think I'm delusional, but you thought I was delusional when I said this team was a .500 club or better at the beginning of the season.
Hark has potential to be that all around glue guy in the middle to me. And that is what Green is for GS, so I believe the comparison holds value.

 

Harkless as our version of Green?! Whoa......

 

Outside shooting? Harkness is an awful shooter. Ability to drive to the hoop? He hardly ever creates anything himself.

Green sets up an offense, Harkless is set up by the offense.

 

Umm Hark has been hitting the three lately and its the eye test that tells me he can improve. same goes for driving to the hoop. Didnt Hark hit 2 threes in the second half of the OKC game?

Again. He isn't this now. I believe he can become this....I still think too many people are assuming I mean now. I mean with the potential growth I see he can have, I believe he can become our Green.

That's okay though, I don't mind being looked at as delusional and in the major minority. Wouldn't be the first I've proved the masses wrong.

 

Hark is shooting 39% from 3 lately. Pretty good compared to his earlier season struggles.

 

Yep and his FT% ha sbeen improving too. I see alot of potential growth in this guy in every facet of the game. Making him our potential future DGreen. I know its an unpopular comparison, but so was my 43 win prediction unpopular.

 

I am not worried about comparisons but I will say that he is my #1 guy that I think has to return. Over all of our other restricted or free agents.

 

Green: .385 for the year

Career:
Hark: .299
Green: .340

 

How about Aminu? He defend big men and can play the 4 like Draymond. He rebounds great. He can shoot the three. He's basically our version of Draymond!

What about Plumlee? He can pass the ball like Draymond. He dribbles like Draymond. He takes the ball to the rim like Draymond. He's basically our version of Draymond!

What about Henderson? He can play tough physical defense. He's deceptively strong. He overpowers opponents much taller than him. He's improved his 3 point shooting. He's basically our version of Draymond!

Then of course as has been stated Harkless is our version of Draymond!

We basically have four Draymond Green's on this team. We'll be a powerhouse for years to come!

 

Where did you get that stat?

Hark is 40% from 3 over the last 3 games, 35% over the last 7, and 25% over the last 19.

 

In the Harkless appreciation thread I think? Apparently whoever posted it fudged the numbers or I mis-remembered what they wrote though. My fault for not fact checking.

 

Perfect!!! Even better!!! Glad to see my comparison is coming around.

 

I think Harkless' ceiling is 13/8/2 on 49/34/70 percentages. That's no where near Draymond.

 

Although he has the ability to have big rebounding games, averaging 8 seems optimistic. 13/6/2 with good defense is good enough for me. Maybe 15/6/2 if he can be consistent from three.

 

It's odd to me that the most obvious comparison/hope is that Harkless becomes a force on defense akin to Green and we're all sitting here comparing 3P%. We've already witnessed his instincts and swarming tendencies in a small sample size and I don't think it's a reach to say he could be our best team defender in quite a while and even if not that's Harkless' best chance at developing into a player who can tilt the court.