Better offensive player: Michael Jordan or the Rockets’ James Harden?

Now is the perfect time to talk about who is truly the better offensive player between Michael Jordan and the NBA’s current best shooting guard, James Harden.

With ESPN beginning their 10-part documentary series, “The Last Dance”, on Sunday, there’s no better time to analyze questions about the Houston Rockets and Michael Jordan. Among those questions is this: Who is the better offensive player between Michael Jordan and the NBA’s current best shooting guard, James Harden?

Although Jordan retired after the 2003 NBA season and Harden is still in his prime, I’m going to base this argument on Jordan’s overall career and Harden’s career to this point.

There are a couple of things that need to be taken into consideration. One is the evolution of the overall game. The style of play on both ends of the ball has changed dramatically.

From the 1990s to the early 2000s, NBA teams played tough on both ends of the court and took a variety of different shots. Whereas the league today plays less defense and relies heavily on the 3-ball and layups. All of this will be taken into consideration to make this as fair as possible.

I’m going to compare both players in different aspects of offense, which will be: slashing, mid-range game, 3-point game, ball handling, shot creation and passing.

Next: Slashing