Better Player: Devin Harris or Brandon Roy?

Seems like a fair match up to me.

 

I'm a dirty homer and went with Harris. Roy has a more complete offensive game (better shooter), but Harris is better defensively (Roy is no slouch either). Both are good playmakers.

 

It's still Roy, but it will be very close in a few years.

 

Roy.

It's amazing how often Harris' defense has been praised, but I often seen him play bad D. That's to say with the Nets, of course. I remember a couple of games where Devin was all offense, and no defense. Seemed to really sag off his man.

 

Yeah defensively, it is Roy hands down which is the main reason why I pick him right now besides leadership.

 

It is odd how his D. has slipped, when he's been saying he wants to lead. Truthfully, I'd rather have him going 18/5 and play his Dallas defense, than be average year round.

 

Brandon Roy. Better shooter, leader, and every time I watch him he makes things happen without forcing the issue. He's also more versatile, able to play the 1-2 comfortably. The clutch factor also goes to Roy.

Opposing teams are likelier to be concerned with Roy over Harris.

 

Correct, Byron Scott just stated coaches around the league prepare for Roy the same way they do Wade, Kobe, Lebron etc.

While Roy is not on there level, it's good to know coaches are noticing how good he is

 

Like I said, complete homer pick.

 

Roy, hands down. He's got the more complete game and has all the intangibles you want in a player.

 

roy is the much better player and it's never going to be close.

 

Easily Roy. At some point Devin's going to have to address his poor outside shooting, because it makes it easy to gameplan around him. Not every team is as stupid as the Raptors.

 

Actually, it's already more than close.
Here's Roy:

2008-09 Statistics
PPG 21.1
RPG 4.2
APG 5.4
SPG 1.1
BPG 0.2
FG% 0.460
FT% 0.846
3P% 0.375
MPG 36.4

Here's Harris:
2008-09 Statistics
PPG 23.5
RPG 3.4
APG 6.3
SPG 1.3
BPG 0.1
FG% 0.477
FT% 0.796
3P% 0.269
MPG 35.8

Stat wise, Harris is outproducing Brandon Roy.

Team wise, Portland was expected to be ready to make the leap to the contender status. (link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-PortlandPreview0809) They are currently 11-6 in the weaker Western conference (after top 9, the rest of the teams are easy wins), on the pace for 53 wins, and 5th seed for the playoffs.
New Jersey was expected to be dead last in the Atlantic, about 14th in the East (current 14th team in the east is Charlotte, at 5-11). New Jersey is 8-7 right now, on the pace for 44 wins and is the 6th seed for the playoffs.

Team wise, Portland is pretty much where they are expected to be, while NJ is by far exceeding any expectations.

The stats say Harris is a better player, and their teams' success says that Harris is a better player.

So yeah, I'll go with Harris.

 

+1.

 

Harris is outplaying him so far in this season.

 

The Blazer homer in me wants to say Roy hands down, but the fact of the matter is that Harris is having a stellar year so far, producing slightly more than Brandon, although you have to factor in pace (portland dead last in the league and New Jersey at 18th) when evaluating raw numbers.

In fairness to Harris, I haven't watched him play more than one game this year so I probably shouldn't even be commenting.

 

My favorite line so far of the year


Portland in their weak ass conference has beaten these "mighty" eastern teams.

Orlando
Detroit
Miami twice
Chicago

Both Orlando and Detroit are home seeded playoff teams right now in the leastern conference and Portland beat them on their home floor, as well as Miami. While they certainly won't win all of thier games against the east, to say it's a better conference is laughable at best.


Portland has lost to these leastern conference teams.



Not a big list huh?



As for Roy vs Harris, I'll take Roy because he is the best player by far on a better team.

 

Going by stats alone is ridiculously stupid. Roy is a better player, this shouldn't be a discussion yet.

 

Portland has so many more players who they have to score the ball and put up big stats. Devin Harris has VC, then not too much else after that. I'm not saying that the Nets don't have other players stepping up this year, I'm saying that Portland is freaking stacked, which really hurt Roy's numbers.

All in all, it's Roy hands down.

-edit: And I wouldn't even say that Harris is outproducing Roy in the stats category. He is averaging 1 more basket and 1 more assist(Roy is not a point guard), while Roy is shooting a better 3 point % by quite a bit. The are pretty equal on the stats. And again, Blazers=stacked, Net=not so much.

 

Taking into account the past few years? Brandon Roy. This year? Devin Harris by a few miles.